31 Performances Ripe for Rediscovery (9) Ben Gazzara in TALES OF ORDINARY MADNESS (1981)

"Style is the answer to everything... a fresh way to approach a dull or dangerous thing. To do a dull thing with style is preferable to doing a dangerous thing without style. To do a dangerous thing with style is what I call art. Bullfighting can be an art. Boxing can be an art. Loving can be an art. Opening a can of sardines can be an art." 

There is something positively epic about Ben Gazzara's unnerving performance as the booze-soaked woman-obsessed author Charles Serking in Marco Ferreri's stunning 1981 Charles Bukowski adaptation Tales of Ordinary Madness.  Gazzara's performance is devastating  disturbing and towering...everytime I watch him in the film reciting Bukowski's memorable words I can't conceive why more of a major film-cult hasn't been built around him.  

Gazzara was on one of the great runs in the late seventies and early eighties.  Within a five year period he appeared in such masterworks as Saint Jack, The Killing of a Chinese Bookie, Opening Night and They All Laughed.  Gazzara was at his absolute peak when he appeared opposite the otherworldly Ornella Muti (perhaps the most beautiful woman in screen history) in Tales of Ordinary Madness and his work as Serking is absolutely searing...like a devastating poem that only begins to make sense after it has time to settle completely in.  

-Jeremy Richey, 2012-

No Passion Without Pain: 12 Great Ben Gazzara Performances

When we lost Ben Gazzara a few days ago we lost one of America's truly great actors. A heavyweight whose best performances, whether they be as a character actor or leading man, contained more moments of devastating beauty and true poetry than most great actors could ever claim. Ben Gazzara was never nominated for an Oscar, and the majority of the awards he had on his shelf were for his television work, but he was one of cinema's most accomplished actors and, in a career that stretched over six decades, he never gave less than an unforgettable performance. To honor one of Moon in the Gutter's favorite actors, here are my ten favorite performances from him. Share some of your favorites in the comments if you will.

1. as John Russo in Peter Bogdanovich's They All Laughed.



2. as Cosmo Vittelli in John Cassavetes' The Killing of a Chinese Bookie.



3. as Charles Serking in Marco Ferreri's Tales of Ordinary Madness.



4. as Jack Flowers in Peter Bogdanovich's Saint Jack.



5. as Manny Victor in John Cassavetes' Opening Night.



6. as Dino Romani in Pasquale Festa Campanile's The Girl from Trieste.



7. as Harry in John Cassavetes' Husbands.



8. as Jack Mckay in Lars Von Trier's Dogville.



9. as Lenny Jordan in Todd Solondz's Happiness.




10. as Jackie Treehorn in The Coen Brother's The Big Lebowski.




11. as Jimmy Brown in Vincent Gallo's Buffalo 66.



12. as Joseph Coppola in Ferdinando Baldi's The Sicilian Connection.





Thank you Ben.

Behind the Scenes With My Favorite Actors: Ben Gazzara in John Cassavetes' The Killing of a Chinese Bookie

"They say sex is everything...here at the Crazy Horse West we give you a lot more than that."







***A small sampling of the images found on Criterion's absolutely wonderful double disc set of The Killing of a Chinese Bookie.***

Images From My All Time Favorite Films: Vincent Gallo's Buffalo 66 (1998)

...for my friend still up in that Skyway.