ReaderKenka Let's be realistic.

Lucybespro It is a performances centric movie

Bumpy Chip It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Nicole I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

Scott LeBrun The writings of cult favorite Charles Bukowski are the basis for this deliberately paced journey into the underbelly of L.A. society, as an alcoholic, degenerate poet & lecturer, Charles Serking (Ben Gazzara), muses on the lives that he and his associates lead. He is particularly taken with a very troubled prostitute named Cass (Ornella Muti), and embarks on a sort of relationship with her, even as he continues to indulge in his more debased whims. Meanwhile, it seems as if his career might really be going somewhere, as publishers in NYC come calling.This film is going to be a hard slog for some people. It's an interminable outing that requires its audience to spend time with characters who are off putting to one degree or another. Still, some people should appreciate what could be seen as this films' honesty when it comes to portraying artistic but troubled types. Bukowski certainly was a talent, no doubt about that, and his material is sometimes played with a degree of humor.The actors may not be at their all time best, but they're still somewhat amusing to watch. Gazzara is a hoot as Serking. The very lovely young Muti is touching. Susan Tyrrell has a brief bit as a sexy (!) stranger on a bus whom Serking pursues for the purpose of sexual assault.Languidly paced and very sobering, this does feature a memorable sequence involving Muti and a safety pin, and a fairly devastating scene near the end as a character is overcome by grief.Devotees of Bukowski and the director, Marco Ferreri, will likely rate this much higher.Five out of 10.

The_Void Tales of Ordinary Madness is the first film to be based on a book by Charles Bukowski and focuses on the story of one man as he descends into a life of loose women and alcohol. I have not read the book that this is based on so I don't know how it compares to the source material; but as a movie, it's very good and I was surprised to find that the writer himself did not approve of the film. The plot is fairly straight forward in the way that it focuses on just a single character; but the film changes often and this odyssey is a long way from a commercial movie and thus is not for all tastes. Our central character is Charles Serking; a writer who also happens to be an alcoholic. He goes out looking for booze and women and finds both inside a seedy Hollywood. The story really starts when Charles meets a prostitute with a penchant for cutting herself named Cass. He brings her home to meet his ex-wife and have sex; but it's not long before he begins on a downward spiral of depression and turns to the drink for comfort.This film presents a completely downtrodden view of the world and director Marco Ferreri completely succeeds in creating a dirty and sleazy atmosphere for everything to take place in. There's plenty of full frontal nudity and sex in the film and it's all portrayed as being very dirty and thus is not erotic at all. The style of the film is excellently matched by a stunning performance from Ben Gazzara in the lead role. The actor fits into this role amazingly well and always convinces as the central character. The film doesn't hold back when it comes to showing things such as nudity either, although it's all done in such a 'matter of fact' way that sometimes the film is not even shocking. The female lead is taken by the stunning Ornella Muti, who is a real beauty and convinces alongside Gazzara. The film feels too smart to not have a point, and while the substance comes from the central character and his plight; there's not really a defining point to the film. Overall, Tales of Ordinary Madness is a film that is well worth seeking for the cult fanatic and I can recommend it.

gridoon While some of the sex scenes here have an undeniable raw force, calling this "a good movie" would be going too far indeed. It's stagnant in its pacing, and the female characters are conceived in a way that has no bearing on reality whatsoever. By the way, Ornella Muti is beautiful but her "performance" is very poor. (*1/2)

Mattydee74 Marco Ferreri is a challenging film artist. His films are powered by aninsistent, intense focus on the passions of flesh - the human responseto, need for, and meditation on our bodily bounds and desires. In hisother films he's explored the excesses which bind our mortality fromhunger to sex to suicide. Here he zeroes in on the texts of the poetCharles Bukowski, whose poetic life of booze and sexual conquest has himteetering on the brink of annihilation but remaining firmly in the realm of fierce, soulful expression. The main character in Tales of OrdinaryMadness is a poet whose relationships with women range from theinfantile to the sadomasochistic while he continues to binge on a dietof alcohol. What he doesn't expect is to fall in love. Being a poeticfilm (that is based around symbols and evocative imagery rather thanplot) this is a beautiful, estranged experience. Its a fascinatingglimpse of America from the outside. Vividly powered by Ben Gazzara'sperformance as the outsider poet in the shadows of society, this is afilm to be explored with a roving eye. Its a film where the sex scenesare not choreographed and sensual but brutal and unflinching in theirapproach to the passions of flesh. Its a rough film but one which takesus into the dark corners of love.