Australian label Via Vision Entertainment has provided us with a promotional video for its upcoming Blu-ray release of Barbet Schroeder's Barfly (1987), starring Faye Dunaway, Mickey Rourke, Alice Krige, Jack Nance, and J.C. Quinn. The release will be available for purchase on September 28.
Description: Henry Chinaski (Mickey Rourke) is a talented writer of prolific prose; unfortunately, he's also a skid-row alcoholic with a violent temper. He picks fights nightly with Eddie (Frank Stallone), the bartender at the local watering hole, the Golden Horn, and lives in a seedy tenement, stealing food and trying to scrape together enough money for booze. Fellow alcoholic Wanda Wilcox (Faye Dunaway) catches Henry's eye at the bar one afternoon, and although she has a reputation for being unstable, the two embark on a relationship with each other and the bottle.
Based on a semiautobiographical short story by poet and screenwriter Charles Bukowski and directed by Barbet Schroeder, Barfly offers insight into the world of the alcoholic, where all that matters is the next drink.
Special Features and Technical Specs:
DISC ONE - BARFLY
High-definition presentation
NEW Kim Cooper and Richard Schave of Esotouric Tours, Los Angeles historians and preservationists
NEW Interview with editor Eva Gardos
NEW Interview with actress Alice Krige
NEW Interview with actor Frank Stallone
NEW Interview with production designer Bob Ziembicki
Audio commentary with director Barbet Schroeder
Theatrical Trailer
Audio: English LPCM 2.0
Optional English HOH subtitles for the main feature
DISC TWO - THE BUKOWSKI TAPES
Description: When Barbet Schroeder (More, Maitresse) began work on the movie Barfly, he had no idea that it would be such a struggle. During the seven years it took him to complete the film, he turned his cameras on its screenwriter, poet and novelist Charles Bukowski.
Bukowski, legendary for his drunken excess and frank observations on life, love, and survival, took no exception with Schroeder. Schroeder eventually completed The Charles Bukowski Tapes, a four-hour long study of the man and the music of his words.