Charles Bukowski Films

Bukowski only wrote one original screenplay. Barfly was it.

Directed by Barbet Schroeder and starring Mickey Rourke and Faye Dunaway, the 1987 film was based entirely on Bukowski's own script — his fictionalized version of the years he spent drinking in East Hollywood bars. Schroeder committed to filming it exactly as written.

The screenplay exists in two versions. The Paget Press edition (1984) is the true first — published three years before the film, illustrated by Bukowski himself, the screenplay as he originally wrote it. The Black Sparrow Press edition (1987) is the finished film script, with a limited edition of 140 copies signed by Bukowski, Mickey Rourke, Faye Dunaway, and Schroeder.

Bukowski then wrote Hollywood — a novel about the making of Barfly itself. His sardonic, thinly disguised account of the whole experience. One copy here is inscribed to close friends of his: "To Cindy and Arrow — Now I know why movies are so bad. Hank Bukowski." Signed "Hank" — the salutation he reserved for people he actually cared about.

Both screenplay editions are represented here, along with Hollywood, promotional posters, press kits, production photographs, and ephemera from the film's release.

Also in this collection: the Post Office screenplay — signed by Bukowski and screenwriter Dan Carpenter — for a film that was never made. Taylor Hackford owned the rights. Bukowski hated what they did with it.

And beyond Barfly: materials from the 1973 Taylor Hackford documentary, Love is a Dog from Hell, Factotum, The Charles Bukowski Tapes, and You Never Had It.

Browse everything below — and read the descriptions. Each one has a story.