Official DVD Release of Bukowski Tapes
Barbet Schroeder's "The Charles Bukowski Tapes" documentary is coming to DVD on August 29th from Barrel Entertainment in a delux two-disc set. The DVD is available for pre-ordering already at Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0..._11_1/104-8994643-2064711?redirect=true&n=130
More info will be up at the Barrel Entertainment web site later this week:
http://www.barrel-entertainment.com
Here's the press release info:
BARREL ENTERTAINMENT PROUDLY PRESENTS
THE CHARLES BUKOWSKI TAPES
A FILM BY BARBET SCHROEDER
When Barbet Schroeder (More, General Idi Amin Dada, Single White Female) 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.
?I couldn?t stand the thought of not being able to share the extraordinary evenings we spent together,? said Schroeder. ?I finally brought in a small crew, friends of mine, with a high quality video set up. Whoever was the least drunk took control of the camera.?
Bukowski, legendary for his drunken excess and frank observations on life, love, and survival, took no exception with Schroeder.
Barbet Schroeder recalls, ?I had no idea of what I might do with the material, but I didn?t want those evenings to be lost. As I don?t like formal interviews, I tried to get him started on a topic and then keep from interrupting him. The result was often a monologue of three minutes or longer.?
Schroeder eventually completed The Charles Bukowski Tapes, a four-hour long study of the man and the music of his words. ?The ideal way to show this material was in short video-clips?a new style of film. Once I had screened it this way, it seemed twice as powerful.?
Available for the first time in the world on DVD, Barrel Entertainment is proud to present this exceptional portrait of one of America?s most vital voices.
?For those of you interested in madness, yours or mine, I can tell you a little about mine.??Charles Bukowski
Special Features Include:
? The original, complete four-hour edition, with all 52 segments presented in two volumes:
o Disc 1: Segments 1-26
o Disc 2: Segments 27-52
? Plus: A 36-page booklet featuring essays by Barbet Schroeder and Bukowski biographer Neeli Cherkovski, as well as a 1987 interview with Charles Bukowski
?An outrageously stimulating and unnerving all-night drinking session with a gutter eloquent barroom philosopher... One of the most intimate, revealing and unsparing glimpses any film or video has ever given us of a writer?s life and personality.? ? Michael Wilmington, Los Angeles Times
?Four full hours of one of America's most talented, no-bullshit writers--pulling acidic humor and streetwise honesty out of his lifetime of liquor? an incredible, one-of-a-kind document.? ? Steven Puchalski, Shock Cinema
Best,
Brian Krueger
Barrel Entertainment