Marco Ferreri is a weird one. He is characteristically "Italien" in his style, but he uses american actors and film in America. Nothing wrong in trying to mix things around, I am all for that. But it must be done well and I think Ferreri´s messy style, does not necessarily lend itself to this combination. This movie is a largely selfbiographical portrait of the american poet Charles Bukowski and his collection of short stories "Erections, Ejaculations, Exhibitions, and General Tales of Ordinary Madness".
We follow middle aged poet Charles Serking (Ben Gazzara) who is an alcoholic and has a fetish for very young teenage girls. He lives in the Los Angeles area and spend most of his time chasing women or drinking booze. He writes a bit on his typewriter now and then, but he is usually too drunk to get anywhere. The pimp at his local bar has got a new whore Cass (Ornella Muti) and she is very cute, sexy and very young. But she has suicidal tendencies and obviously has a problem with relations to men, not least her customers.
Against all apparent logic, the two of them hit it off in their strange nihilistic compatible worlds. Charles is turned on by beautiful young teenage girls and Cass longs for male companionship that actually is capable on spending some time on her. We do not get to know anything about Cass´past and not much about Charles either. His thoughts and feelings are presented by the narrator, who extends his rather nihilistic, but still poetic and philosophical insights.
Charles is probably suffering from some form of depression, since despite he seems to make enough money to pay for whores and booze, he is far behind with his rent. He is a broken man and holds his true self off by drowning himself in alcohol and sex and the clientele he ends up with are not exactly the most emotionally developed or virtuous ones you can imagine. He is likely afraid of not being able to stay in his semi-patriarchal form if he meets someone who is in mental and psychological balance.
Despite Cass being lifted somewhat by the presence of Charles she suddenly falls back into her suicidal mindset when he is offered a job in New York. He has to leave her to take care of it, but while he is away Cass ends her life. Charles, realizing that he has make a huge mistake, ends up deeper into alcoholism afterwards and removes himself to a remote seaside location to write and drink.
One day, while wobbling around drunk on the beach, he bumps into another cute young teenage girl, who gets his spark going again. The same story is apparently going to play out all over again. She is impressed with the experienced and semi-famous poet, while he has not lost his lightly pedophilia tendencies.
My copy of this film is not the greatest of transfers on DVD. There may be some nice Blu-ray restauration i am sure. But the ever present grey-brown and soft tone of the seventies and early 80s is not my cup of tea. The cinematography feels sloppy and scenes that invites to grander views are not presented very well. There are shots that are very dark from interiors and it is obviously to some extend a part of the mood of the film. But it feels dreary in an uncool way that spells B-movie rather than "depression".
Then there is the narration, which probably is my biggest worry. It sounds like a amateur version of John Wayne or something out of a Sergio Leone movie. It may suit The Good, The Bad and The Ugly but it feels out of place for this character and sort of detached from the emotional journey of Charles. The same problem is with the dialogue that has been dubbed. It makes the characters sound stereotypical and two-dimensional.
There are some very strong BDSM scenes and a good deal of full or part nudity. It is not pornographic at all and it is not ment to feel arousing, on the contrary. The characters sad and lonely emotional states are enhanced by their twisted and short-minded desires. You feel like a peeping tom witnessing some dark secret fetishes being played out that you are not supposed to see.
Overall i found the movie rather uninteresting. The characters are not developed enough but they just repeat the same pattern again and again. A special praise has to go to Ben Gazzara for taking on such a "strong" roll and the girls generally do well and are not shy about it in the harder sex scenes. But the overall feel is indifference for me. It feels a little improvised at times and specifically with too little attention to the cinematography. It sits between two chairs, the completely controlled and the completely loose cinematography and then misses the target.
Rating: 4/10
