CRAZY LOVE is another Bukowski-inspired film, this time from Belgium, and was allegedly co-written by Bukowski. Mostly based on HAM ON RYE, it charts to life of Harry Voss (essentially Henry Chinaski) at three key moments in his life.

In the first part, Harry is 12 and discovering gals - and masturbation - for the first time. In a slightly creepy scene, he ends up getting shown how to tug off by an older boy. The second section is the most clearly taken from HAM OF RYE, and hooks up with an 18-year-old Harry at his school prom. In that section, Harry is covered in boils and is shunned by other kids. The movie finishes with Harry in his early 30s. He's now a shambling drunk, but he finally manages to find true love. Only the gal is a corpse... and we're treated to a necrophilia scene which is an interesting twist on WEEKEND AT BERNIE'S.

I watched this after seeing the disappointing (from TALES OF ORDINARY MADNESS, and I was pleasantly surprised by CRAZY LOVE. It was said to be Bukowski's favourite adaption of his work and, while I'd put it comfortably below both BARFLY and FACTOTUM, there are a lot of nice touches to the movie.

Harry comes across as both likeably naive and idealistic as a kid, and then he's a lot of loopy fun as a drunk. It's also a nice touch that the 35-year-old Josse De Pauw plays Harry at both aged 18 and 32. Seeing Harry at the prom, clearly way older than the kids around him, works beautifully as a recreation of that cover to the Black Sparrow Press edition of HAM ON RYE, with Bukowski's prematurely aged face sticking out from the crowd.