First published in 1982, Ham on Rye is Bukowski's fourth novel, and now makes its first UK appearance under the auspices of Scotland's canny independent press, Rebel Inc. Tracing the youth and . Ham on Rye is not obviously political, but it is also deeply political, pointing out, in lazy, absurdist, carelessly clever frames a deep-set American wrongness that was quietly murmuring away long before the current blowhard moment, and that will continue long after. "That boy," said my grandmother, "when I tried to pick him up out of Now, as a memory growing more distant every day, all thats left is the dreamlike impressions of these places Ive loved so much and then abandoned. among other publications, he began writing reviews for our paper earlier this summerthough I first met him long before that, in 2014, when we had a conversation at the Harvard Film Archive regarding the films of director Wojciech J. Bukowski's words aren't going anywhere at this point. 49 pages of chapter summaries, quotes, character analysis, themes, and more everything you need to sharpen your knowledge of Ham on Rye. And then, also being from the suburbs myself, youre dealing with these signifiers that are very familiar to me. Its also about the inherent strangeness of rituals like the prom, though the prom is not whats about to unfold here, and few participants seem to think its very strange. 4 [deleted] 2 yr. ago The film premieres at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival this week, and the official site is here. [2] The story takes place at home, at his different schools, at the doctor's office (for his never-ending acne treatments) and at various other locales around town. Director: Tyler Taormina Henry agrees to teach little kid how to play a game and by the end of it he just walks out. Twayne Publishers, New York, 1997. p. 40, 41. It became about the suburbs I grew up in, and those teenagers left when college began and they didnt come back and a whole generation of teenagers disappeared and who was left? [3] It begins with Chinaski's early memories. I doubt if it would be published in modern times (first published in 1982). Ham On Rye was an absolutely enthralling experience and taking this journey with Henry "Hank" Chinaski was nothing short of a delight. The novel focuses on the protagonist, Henry Chinaski, between the years of 1920 and 1941. Its kind of about how you grow up and curiosityespecially curiosity about systems and societal functionsis not welcomed. Increasingly fearful Louisa insists on returning to her own apartment. Where Kaufman jams his long sweeping camera shots and claustrophobic car journey with anxious forced repartee, Taormina pushes his lens uncomfortably close for extended runs with little dialogue. And so by the time it reaches the mythic ceremony that occurs near its halfway point. Running time: 1 hour 25 minutes. Ham on Rye makes no such assurances which of course makes it more honest, even if its oblique lessons will be heard by a tiny, tiny fraction of the number who navigated adolescence by the. But things like that were very important [to me]. Ham on Rye, the feature film debut of Long Island-native, Los Angeles-beached Tyler Taormina, is one of the strangest and most discomfiting "coming-of-age" films of recent memory.I put "coming-of-age" in quotes because, yes, ostensibly it follows children between the ages of 15 and 18 becoming Something Else, Something Bigger. Director of photography: Carson Lund Tyler Taorminas debut film starts in the vein of classic high-school comedies until it turns toward a dark surrealism. You are using an out of date browser. Twayne Publishers, New York, 1997. p. 35. The post-facto rationalizations they concoct for their hostility, however, involve his inability to play sports and his being viscerally revolted by cruelty to animals, the latter being one of the favorite past-times of neighborhood men and boys alike. 6 reviews. Can anyone explain the end of 'Ham on Rye'? and I read PO, HOR, Women in that order, personally, just because I found PO first. Gleaning a sense from all these excessive details, these things you dont strictly need to see for the sake of narrative momentum, but that maybe overwhelm the characters, who are young, angsty, and kind of overwhelmed by life. One also notices that while before the dialogue was ambiguously foreshadowing, now its ambiguously looking backwards (the way Lund put it is, in the second half the dialogue becomes more textural than expository.) And this all leads to a backyard cookout populated by a large group including some faces at least vaguely familiar to viewers of the millennial demographic: Lori Beth Denberg of, (1994-98), Danny Tamberelli and Aaron Schwartz of, The one character that carries over from the pre-ceremony segments to the post- is Haley, played by the same Haley Bodell of, , whose only acting credits to date are for Taormina. At the start of the film, before the dance, you get a sense of the excitement and hope for the future. [1] Scenes outside of Los Angeles show Chinaski as an intruder, as with an early scene where he and his family are chased out of an orange grove. The following guest essay on the making of Ham on Rye is from cinematographer Carson Lund. Chinaski, growing up poor in Los Angeles during the Great Depression, is shown developing into a sarcastic loner. By accepting all cookies, you agree to our use of cookies to deliver and maintain our services and site, improve the quality of Reddit, personalize Reddit content and advertising, and measure the effectiveness of advertising. It is an uneasy journey where some find purpose, escaping their suburban constraints, as others remain behind, their blank faces reflecting more circumscribed lives. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding. Ham on rye (2022) . Ham on Rye has been one of my two favourite novels for almost thirty years. Detail fetishism, he begins, before starting a new thought. It seems like in some poems somewhere I've seen Bukowski talk about reading the great philosophers and he seemed to work his way out of the classes, to become his own man free from all the constraints of the working man.It took a hell of a long time, but he did it through perseverance. Ham on Rye explained Ham on Rye is a 1982 semi- autobiographical novel by American author and poet Charles Bukowski. Though of course Taormina can pull the episodes whenever he wants, or Youtube or Vimeo could take them down for any reason including none whatsoever, and then theyd be left to a small handful of hard drives, at most, where a random crash might erase them on any given sunday. And then some of them are magicked away, a process that happens here with a crude, pencil-eraser-style effect the whole film is drenched in old-fashioned stylistic flourishes, that somehow manage not to foreground themselves but create a mood of heightened ambiguity: long, slow-fading dissolves; abrupt sound edits; janky close-ups; and sudden, non-sequitur inserts, like of a father giving his son a manly, go-get-em pep talk. Raw, simple, nihilistic hedonism with a great dash of bitterness and violence. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. Not at all. Get help and learn more about the design. Henry is not athletic but wants to be and therefore tries hard to improve. We were pulling from those reference points a little bit. I just wanted to make these dots between them, and theres no real reason for it. Were not told when the film is taking place, or where the film is taking place, or even whats the deal with this big local event all the kids are moving towards. I'd read Ham On Rye, Post Office and Women in that order. Thats suggested from the starta scene at a public park that under another director mightve been rendered chaotic but that under Taorminas eye is cut down into digestible insert shots which seem to archive each action or gesture: a hand trying to spark a cheap lighter, another working to retune a guitar, yet another grasping an ad-perfect glass of lemonade. keys best up at one end of the piano where there was hardly any sound at all-- the sound the keys made was like chips of ice striking against one another. Filed Under: A+E, Film. Following a nocturnal tour of the now much-less-populated location (in a scene that for me betrays Lund's appreciation . 1985. All Rights Reserved. So to both make and spruce up the required disclosure, let me say that I not only consider Carson Lund a close friend, but that I also consider myself a dedicated fanof his film criticism (which also includes notes for the programs of the Harvard Film Archive), his music, and now of course his filmmaking practice, which in addition to his cinematography for Taorminas feature also includes a short film that he produced and directed in 2016, Starr Farm, and a screenplay that he co-wrote and hopes to direct sometime in the near future. This is a confusing taboo that weighs very heavily on mein fact, I feel it may have in a way forced me away from home. Nothing but alienation. ". While its eventually seen that some of the kids have mobile phones, Taormina purposefully dresses his cast and designs their environment in a way that throws them into a sort of temporal never-never land. [Bodell and I] worked on Suburban Legends, then a short film Wild Flies, and finally Ham on Rye, Taormina said. Written in the first person, the novel follows Henry Chinaski, Bukowski's thinly veiled alter ego, during his early years. We talked about pointillism too, said Lund during the call. is the key word there: During this first movement of, whats most narratively engaging is the matter of whats been established for sure vs. whats left deliberately unclear. Its a day were going to remember for the rest of our lives, says the opening dialogue, and the generic phrasing blurs certain lines to build upon the very particular biorhythmic point where Taorminas movie takes place: A kid who says that might be talking about their prom, or about having sex, or about moving out, or maybe even about school graduation, among other possibilitiesbut no matter what, theyre probably talking about something meant to happen in the period that weve come to calling the teenage years. Interesting view into the life of a boy who just never caught a break. He only wanted to be left alone to drink. Reddit and its partners use cookies and similar technologies to provide you with a better experience. The teenagers most of them acting first-timers, with an untrained awkwardness in tune with the off-kilter vibe collect into little tribes, on their way to a bizarre social event, held at the uninspiring Montys Deli. 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