Tales of Ordinary Madness (1981) User Reviews

Dirty and sleazy tale of madness

[The_Void · 8/10 · 25 June 2008]

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.

Only a genius would cast Ben Gazarra as Bukowski

[wobelix · 8/10 · 23 July 2001]

Neither Bukowski nor Marco Ferreri's film will shock the audience any more. This is a grim tale, but told in an exciting way with the enigmatic Gazarra and the superb Ornella Muti in front of the camera, backed by legendary Italians, like production designer Dante Ferretti (who worked, among others, with Fellini and Pasolini, and recently bedazzled movie-goers with 'Titus') and D.O.P. Tonino Delli Colli ('The Good, the Bad and The Ugly'; 'Histoires Extraordinaires') A great film, some years ahead of its time, so now truly not to be missed.

Self-Destructive Souls

[claudio_carvalho · 7/10 · 17 March 2009]

After the lecture of a poem to a group of bored students, the alcoholic and sex addicted poet Charles Serking (Ben Gazzara) meets a young girl in the backstage and caresses her breasts. Then he travels to Los Angeles, and has kinky sex with bizarre women. When Charles meets the gorgeous self-destructive prostitute Cass (Ornella Muti) in a bar, he finds his soul mate and falls in love for her.

Marco Ferreri is one of the weirdest directors that I know, and this "Storie di Ordinaria Follia" gives a perfect theme for him to make a good movie about of two self-destructive souls. I do not know the work of the underground poet Charles Bukowski, and actually I just know a little about his biography based on the movie "Factotum" that I hated. But in "Storie di Ordinaria Follia", Ornella Muti is on the top of her awesome beauty and her performance in the role of a tormented character is impressive. Ben Gazzara has also a stunning performance in the role of Charles Serking, a man near to madness that survives drinking booze and having dirty sex. However, this movie is only recommended for very specific audiences. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Crônicas de um Amor Louco" ("Chronicles of a Crazy Love")

Brilliant Bukowski Adaptation

[Crap_Connoisseur · 9 May 2006]

Only very rarely are two artists as in sync as Charles Bukowski and Marco Ferreri. Both men devoted their careers to exploring the beauty and bleakness of society's underbelly and the disillusioned souls who call it home. It should come as no surprise then that Ferreri's adaptation of Bukowski's "Erections, Ejaculation, Exhibitions, and General Tales of Ordinary Madness" is every bit as unflinching and honest as its source material.

Tales Of Ordinary Madness begins with Charles (played by Ben Gazzara) reading a poem to a group of disinterested students. After stumbling off stage in a drunken stupor, Charles meets a 12 year old girl and promptly fondles her breasts. This is the first in a long line of disturbing sexual encounters that take place during the film. Other examples include Charles' brief obsession with Vera, a woman who asks to be beaten with a belt and claims to "love being raped". Charles also sleeps with Vera's obese next door neighbour and in one of the film's most confronting scenes, pushes his head between the woman's legs in a literal attempt to return to the womb. The film reaches a turning point when Charles meets Cass (Ornella Muti), a prostitute as self-destructive as she is beautiful, and slowly begins to fall in love with her.

Ferreri has crafted a beautifully poetic film about desperate and damaged people. Tales Of Ordinary Madness is never easy to watch but it is always enthralling. Much of the credit for this goes to the Bukowski's riveting source material and Ferreri's obvious affection for it. Marco Ferreri's distinctive use of unusual camera angles and surreal imagery are mostly missing from this film. In fact, Ferreri's direction is expertly restrained in an obvious attempt to recreate Bukowski's minimalist prose cinematically.

This sense of restraint is shared by Ferreri's impressive cast. Ben Gazzara is striking as Charles. His brave performance captures both the torment and underlying humanity that shapes Charles' journey. Ornella Muti had some of her most memorable roles in Ferreri films and she gives another impressive performance here as Cass. The scene where she puts a safety pin through her cheek is simply unforgettable. My only qualm with her casting is that she is perhaps too beautiful to be realistic as a low class prostitute. Susan Tyrrell also shines as trashy Vera. This was just one of a string of eccentric roles that made Susan a cult favourite in the early 80s.

Tales Of Ordinary Madness has been made with skill, care and deep empathy for its characters. This film does not quite match the brilliance of Ferreri's "La Derniere Femme" but it comes very close. This is highly recommended to both Bukowski and Ferreri fans.

Madness is your destiny...

[mario_c · 7/10 · 14 February 2015]

It's a sad and melancholic story about a promising writer, CHARLES SERKING (played by Ben Gazzara), who has a terrible addiction to alcoholism. His life is a constant adventure through the borders of sanity, but he never cares when he's in the end of the line, crossing the edge of madness. He lives in a permanent rush for alcohol and sex, to satisfy his instinct. When he meets a young and beautiful prostitute – beautiful as an angel in his words – called CASS (Ornella Muti) his life won't change, because she's also a lost soul, a girl which injuries herself! It's in this mood of extreme depression and madness that this story goes until a tragic end. But then, comes redemption and a new beginning, with a new angel...

TALES OF ORDINARY MADNESS (DIDIER BECU)

[Didier-Becu · 7/10 · 28 October 2003]

Everyone will have their opinion about Charles Bukowski but fact is that he's the kind of author who kicks us a conscience or as he say himself "I know a lot of dogs who have more style than humans but then again I don't know that many dogs with style". His books had two main subjects : drinking and sex. So no wonder that Marco Ferreri's adaption of one Bukowski's books are like that as well. We follow the life of an author Serking (who in fact is Bukowski and being excently performed by Ben Gazarra) in where he is looking to freed himself, he finds his escapes in Cazza (Ornella Mutti) a prostitute who is fed up with life and who only likes to humilate her (beautiful) body. Ferreri directed like most of his films are, pretty cold, shocking, alternative but above all watchable, so this is no art-nonsense. How it was possible is beyond me but Ferreri couldn't have found a better actor than Ben Gazarra doing this job, one of his best roles!

Masterful vision of a man enslaved by sexual and alcoholic gluttony

[fertilecelluloid · 9/10 · 8 December 2005]

Spectacularly sleazy, beautiful, boisterous and sexy, this is the real Bukowski deal, a booze-fueled erotic odyssey by the adventurous Ferreri with the perfectly cast Ben Gazzara as Charles Serking (Bukowski).

Ornella Muti, as Serking's sexual muse, is Venus incarnate and turns in a powerhouse performance as Cass, an emotionally damaged whore with a penchant for pain. The scenes of Gazzara swaggering in and out of LA's fleapit bars, apartments and hotel rooms convey a filthy, delirious ambiance that is vividly captured by Tonino Delli Colli's superb cinematography and Dante Ferretti's exquisitely oily production design. This is such an amazing looking film with a thick, steamy, anything-goes atmosphere of lust-ridden anarchy.

Much grittier than the accomplished "Barfly" and more watchable than "Love Is A Dog From Hell", the entire affair has an emotional, raw resonance that slavishly captures the Bukowski sensibility and remains consistently perverse in its singular vision of a man enslaved by alcoholic and sexual gluttony.

Phillipe Sarde's score is moody and rich, as is Gazzara's breathy voice-over.

A masterpiece.

Bukowski.

[ocosis · 7/10 · 11 December 2019]

Always thought Ben Gazarra was an odd choice to have played Charles Bukowski (Serking), but that's OK. Tales Of Ordinary Madness is a great take on Bukowski's world. It has a good amount of sleaze, and offbeat-ness, but also beauty, that it works well.

As far as Bukowski adaptations go, I slightly prefer Dominique Deruddere's Crazy Love.

6/10*

*1 extra for Ornella Muti's Cass.

America that was not shown by the americans

[bufo · 9/10 · 6 January 2000]

If you are a conservative or weak of stomach, just forget this film. But if you are a true fan of Charles Bukowski, forget "Barfly" and attend this film. A deeply trip to human nature, you will find a Los Angeles that Hollywood does not show. Ugly, fat, drunks, dirty , insane people and other characters that only a European director as Marco Ferreri would have courage to bring.

Ben Gazzara does a very good drunk poet (he would be better if he had a bigger belly) and Ornella Muti is divine as usual. Forget all the idiots who felt bothered with the reality shown by the film and enjoy.

"To do a dangerous thing with style, is what I call art."

[Hey_Sweden · 5/10 · 11 November 2016]

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.

tremendous

[christopher-underwood · 9/10 · 15 August 2006]

Not the easiest of films to watch but a really decent attempt at portraying Bukowski on film and containing some great scenes and very fine performances.

Ben Gazzara, who probably is too good looking but nevertheless most convincing in the lead role is excellent, Ornella Muti is simply wonderful (and probably too good looking as well!) and at her peak of beauty here. Just wish she wouldn't do those things with safety pins!

Susan Tyrrel also impresses in key sequences, but it's the whole thing that works so well.

With such a difficult subject matter,Ferreri has done a tremendous job.

Ben Gazzara Wasted, Both Literally and Figuratively

[jetcitychris-172-850997 · 1/10 · 2 February 2018]

This movie is an insult to film, acting and the legacy of Bukowski. This is the only movie I have ever seen where I stood up in the theater and actually shouted at the characters on screen. That I received a round of applause after my outburst should speak volumes. If you ever see a copy of this on VHS or DVD buy it and burn it as a public service. Go watch Barfly or Factotum.

An extraordinary movie with an utterly brilliant performance from Ben Gazzara. Disturbing, poetic and very beautiful.

[Infofreak · 20 January 2004]

Just about everybody seems to hate 'Tales Of Ordinary Madness' even Charles Bukowski himself. I can't see why. For me it's an extraordinary movie just as good, if not better than, 'Barfly'. Director Marco Ferreri also made the unforgettable 'Blow-Out' ('La Grande Bouffe') another overlooked gem. Both movies are disturbing, poetic and very beautiful. Cassavetes fave Ben Gazzara is the perfect choice to play Bukowski substitute Charles Serking. He gives an utterly brilliant performance, his best along with 'The Killing Of A Chinese Bookie', another love-it-or-hate-it movie. Ornella Muti plays Cass, a self-destructive prostitute he falls in love with. Now Muti is just about the most beautiful actress I've ever seen in my life so I can see why someone would have a problem with her being cast in such a role. It may be unrealistic but she's convincing in a difficult part, and she's just mesmerizing to look at! An added bonus is cult fave Susan Tyrrell ('Fat City', 'Bad', 'Flesh & Blood', 'Cry-Baby',etc.) in the supporting cast playing a typically bent character for her. 'Tales Of Madness' is slow and meandering and anecdotal so people who prefer straightforward, simplistic Hollywood movies will hate it. But if you enjoy Bukowski's work or Hubert Selby Jr's check this movie out as I'm sure you'll be impressed.

No ordinary movie

[tomsview · 8/10 · 5 April 2014]

I would defy anyone who has seen this movie to forget it, whether they liked it or not.

I saw it years ago and two scenes in particular stayed with me. The first is the lecture alcoholic poet and street philosopher, Charles Serking (Ben Gazara) gives at the beginning of the film on the meaning of style where he makes observations such as, "…I have seen dogs with more style than men", and "…I have met more men in jail with style than men out of jail", and so on.

The other is the wince-inducing scene where Ornella Muti passes the safety pin from hell through both cheeks – she does it for real, outdoing even David Blaine for shock effect.

"Tales of Ordinary Madness" is a dangerous movie. It weaves along the line between the acceptable and the unacceptable. A scene early in the film where Serking flirts backstage with either a very young girl or a very small woman is worrying – the film revels in its brinkmanship.

The film follows the encounters, mainly sexual, of Serking in the sleazier parts of Los Angeles. Self indulgent, rarely without a bottle in his hand, but also burnt out by life, Serking wears his pain on his sleeve. We find that although he is not without compassion, he has a tendency towards self-destruction. However, when he meets Cass (Ornella Muti), a beautiful prostitute, he learns what self-destruction is all about.

Although Serking's life starts to look up – he actually receives a lucrative offer from a publishing house – he commits possibly his most self-destructive act when he falls in love with Cass with inevitable tragic results. After he reaches rock-bottom, the film ends as he meets another young woman, rekindling his love of poetry.

I'm surprised that some reviewers feel that the leads were miscast. I think they are close to perfect. Ben Gazara is particularly effective as Serking, partly because he brings with him that edginess he brought to every role he played.

Ornella Muti has been accused of being too beautiful. She is a big contrast to the more life-beaten characters in this film, but surely that is also why she is so effective, and that safety pin scene really establishes her character.

Based on stories by Charles Bukowski, Italian director, Marco Ferreri has tied them together seamlessly. Like Altman's "Short Cuts", made from some of Raymond Carver's stories also set in L.A., the format works because stories from the same hand, although treated separately, have a natural link through common themes and the author's worldview.

"Tales of Ordinary Madness" is a challenging work, and a polarising one. I can't say I loved it, but then again I have never forgotten it – it is an experience, and a raw one at that.

The film does not flinch and shows us what some other lives are like.

[paul_mcmahon_au · 10/10 · 16 March 2001]

TOOM is a slice of life film which confronts the viewer with a stark view of the world many not-comfortably settled members of our community actually live. It shows this view without flinching, and without horror, even in the most confrontational moments.

The poetry sharply contrasts to the imagery. Bukowski's "Style" is a modern classic.

It is a hard film to watch because it steps outside of our comfort zones, yet, like "Man of Flowers" and "Montenegro", it is well worth the time and perceverance.

Tales of Ordinary Madness

[MartinTeller · 5/10 · 12 January 2012]

I don't care much for Charles Bukowski. All that romanticizing of depravity just seems like an attempt to excuse his misogyny, laziness, alcoholism, cruelty and vulgarity. Sometimes I do enjoy a film that delves into that world, but not so much in this case. Ferreri doesn't bring anything very interesting to the material, and basically leaves Ben Gazzara (as obvious Bukowski stand-in "Charles Berking") to stumble around and wax poetic about death, souls, and dying souls. There's some hilariously bad lines ("Take my soul with your cock") that I assume come from the author himself. But the funny thing is the movie actually gets worse as Berking tries to become a more decent person. Seeing him get into and create awful situations is at least mildly entertaining at times, but once he starts falling in love with and trying to rescue a prostitute (the lovely but not especially talented Ornella Muti, of FLASH GORDON among others) things get boring. Gazzara is very good, though, except his boyish face has a tendency to look too smug. I just don't think there would have been a way for me to really enjoy this film.

A "David Lynch film" in the sun light.

[rlcsljo · 8/10 · 25 August 2002]

Although not done by David, it would do him proud! Who would have thought the land of oranges and sunshine could produce such an interesting parade of weird and pathetic characters. The juxtaposition of these "lost angels" lives with the pristine, sunlight beaches just makes us all the more sympathetic. All is not well in the land of dreams and this film puts its glaring spotlight on it. This film could have easily have been five ordinary films. Ornella Muti perfectly does Ingrid Bergman and Isabella Rosilini as the object of desire on the outside and the bucket of worms on the inside. There is no real "supporting" cast: They are the movie!

Bukowski deserves better

[movieman_kev · 1/10 · 20 January 2005]

I love Bukowski's work, if I hadn't why would I search out this film? Ben Gazzara did a pretty good job, but, his renditions of poetry were lifeless compared to the real Bukowski, and this took me out of the movie. Also, the film barely scratches the surface of the book that it's based on. Marco Ferreri seems to be a competent enough director, but he doesn't infuse the film with any spark, any charisma. Frankly, I enjoyed "Barfly" much more. True fans of Charles Bukowski would see-thru this film, and would best look elsewhere, or better yet just re-read one of his books.

My Grade:D

Eye Candy: The beautiful Katya Berger bares all on the beach, Ornela Muti shows her incredible backside, also Tanya Lopert and Susan Tyrell show various amounts of skin

Sensual and dirt... Bukowskian

[michelerealini · 20 November 2004]

The movie is based on the novel of Charles Bukowski... and the film contains its spirit. "Storie di ordinaria follia" is deliberately sensual and "dirt", the main carachter (Ben Gazzara) takes directly inspiration from Bukowski himself -a drunk writer, who chooses to live among poors and neglected people, a man who lives sex like a philosophy, in order to taste the primal feeling of life...-.

The picture is worth watching -because Gazzara is very good and Ornella Muti as well, she's also so sweet and gorgeous...-. The film is interesting because it tries to capture Bukowski ideals and his pessimistic ways to see the world.

I think nevertheless that it is very difficult to film "materials" from a writer like him, because he's so excessive and outrageous... It's particularly difficult to translate his thoughts in pictures. The film is quite boring, the action is slow. Sometimes we have the feeling that there's no story. Marco Ferreri did doubtless better films (see "La grande bouffe" and "Don't touch the white woman").

Nothing ordinary about this madness at all...

[gridoon · 4/10 · 8 November 2002]

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)

Evolution at work.

[alexferdman-98602 · 1/10 · 14 February 2020]

As any movie is an illusion this particular illusion should be called Evolution at work. Main hero with IQ below 38 /yes, mine is 39/ uses civilization like people around him owe him. In addition he supposedly is in excellent sexual health which is highly unusual in real life but in an illusion anything goes. My wild guess is the producer don't care much about anything.

An exploration of the passions of flesh

[Mattydee74 · 4 July 2001]

Marco Ferreri is a challenging film artist. His films are powered by an

insistent, intense focus on the passions of flesh - the human response

to, need for, and meditation on our bodily bounds and desires. In his

other films he's explored the excesses which bind our mortality from

hunger to sex to suicide. Here he zeroes in on the texts of the poet

Charles Bukowski, whose poetic life of booze and sexual conquest has him

teetering on the brink of annihilation but remaining firmly in the realm

of fierce, soulful expression. The main character in Tales of Ordinary

Madness is a poet whose relationships with women range from the

infantile to the sadomasochistic while he continues to binge on a diet

of alcohol. What he doesn't expect is to fall in love. Being a poetic

film (that is based around symbols and evocative imagery rather than

plot) this is a beautiful, estranged experience. Its a fascinating

glimpse of America from the outside. Vividly powered by Ben Gazzara's

performance as the outsider poet in the shadows of society, this is a

film to be explored with a roving eye. Its a film where the sex scenes

are not choreographed and sensual but brutal and unflinching in their

approach to the passions of flesh. Its a rough film but one which takes

us into the dark corners of love.

better than air

[montag-1 · 19 November 2001]

Charles Bukowski is one of the most important men to have ever lived. His work is of the ages and I would put thousands of his passages up against the work of all those writers generally considered great. What all that has to do with this movie is not very much. As a film it falls short of the mark as it wanders like a drunk through the streets trying to give us a snapshot of sorts, a month in the life of the great Charles Bukowski. As for reality, I am sure that the Buk was pretty much drunk all the time and wasted lots of time with dirty women but that was his business. I am just glad that he put in some heavy time at the typewriter. I am also grateful for this film as it provides another document, a bit of proof that Charles Bukowski was real. Ben Gazarra does a nice job painting this particular picture of Chuck but it is not a performance that would alone make this a rental for the upcoming acting students. For a more realistic approach check our Mickey Rourke in Barfly. There is a very beautiful Italian actress (Ornella Muti) in this picture who plays the main love interest. She is worth the price of rental or even a bloated DVD purchase. I doubt that Bukowski ever had a girl this beautiful but that's the movies for ya.

Don't Judge A Video By Its Cover.

[nnad · 21 September 2000]

The first time I've heard about this film was by viewing its risqué poster. Nonetheless, the film wasn't so great as I thought it would be. Ferreri is well-known for his controversial films (a la, The Last Women, Bye Bye Monkey); however, this time he presents a more subdued approach to his filming. The film depicts Ben Gazzara in the role of a struggling poet (Charles Bukowski) who has his way with women and booze. Ornella Muti's character, a self-abusive prostitute, has her way with walking around bottomless and using safety pins. However, the acting is second-rate, the poetry is half-witted, and the story feels like a mock version of a Cassavette's film. It looks like Ferreri was trying too hard at rendering an artistic looking picture -- or else a cult film, which it has become. I'd stick with Barfly myself.

Unflinching portrayal

[analoguebubblebath · 6 May 2001]

A stark picture from Marco Ferreri; "Tales Of Ordinary Madness" is the perfect vehicle for the multi-talented Gazzara who plays the part of a tortured poet/writer immersed in talent and alcoholic dependence. He seduces a number of beautiful women and falls in love with one; the divine Cass.

The path to happiness is not straightforward however and the second half of the film sees a descent into bleakness.

Uncomfortable viewing but essential nonetheless.

7/10