CHARLES BUKOWSKI – HOLLYWOOD
Type of book: novel classified like a beat generation literature
Setting: It takes place in USA in different places in California
What happens?: Director John Pinchot calls to writer Henry Chinaski, because he wants to write a screenplay on him. Chinaski thinks when a good writer makes a screenplay it’s the end of his career. Finally, he decides to agree. He starts to write a story about drunkard, which is actually about himself. Chinaski buys a new house with his own staff workroom, because he gets some money from Germany. One evening, Jon Pinchot call to Chinaski and he ask him to accommodate him for a short time, because his house was torn down. Chinaski helps him, but he can’t work when someone knows about that. Soon Pinchot with his friend Francois Racine moves to dark town with awful conditions of living and Chinaski finishes screenplay easily.
They together choose main actors and about production firma Firepower productions looks after. There were a lot of problems with them, but finally the film started to realize. After a few weeks, film was complete. Media was interested in everyone who had participated in the movie. At the end, Chinaski decided to write a book about making this film called Hollywood.
Adaptations: Hollywood has no exact adaptation. It is an autobiographical novel, which describe experiences form making a film Barfly. Charles Bukowski wrote a screenplay to this film. He draws on the experiences of his real life. In the film, you can see real people like Bukowski’s girlfriend also drunkard Jane. First, Sean Penn was chosen to the main role. Finally, Mickey Rourke stars in the film. In the role of Jane, you can see Faye Dunawaye. Film was produced by Francis Ford Coppola. It was made in 1987 and I don’t know if it is known in our country or if it was shown in cinema.
My opinion: Maybe someone can say, that book is full of vulgarism and the whole action is only drinking alcohol and describing crazy situations. In my opinion, that’s the magic of a book. There are no complicated plots, no sophisticated parts. It is written by natural direct language. That’s why I like it.