"If you're going to try, go all the way. Otherwise, don't even start. This could mean losing girlfriends, wives, relatives and maybe even your mind... You will be alone with the gods, and the nights will flame with fire. You will ride life straight to perfect laughter. It's the only good fight there is." Cast Matt Dillon as Henry Chinaski Lili Taylor as Jan Marisa Tomei as Laura Bruce Bohne as Gas Station Owner Adrienne Shelly as Jerry Fisher Stevens as Manny Karen Young as Grace Didier Flamand as Pierre Punnavith Koy as Actor Production The film is principally a French-Norwegian co-production, although with an American cast. It was released in Norway in 2005 and distributed in the U.S. by IFC Films in 2006. It was released on DVD in the U.S. on 26 December 2006. Bukowski's picaresque novel, also titled Factotum, was published in 1975. The book and the film both center on the character of Henry Chinaski, Bukowski’s alter ego, who appears in much of his fiction. Although events in the book take place in Los Angeles in the 1940s, the film has a contemporary setting, and was shot in the twin cities of Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Minnesota, including the then-vacant Fairmont Hotel on Hennepin Avenue and Palmer's Bar on the West Bank. Bukowski's poems The script also makes use of Bukowski's poems published in What Matters Is How Well You Walk Through the Fire and The Days Run Aways Like Horses Over the Hill, and some of Bukowski's notebook entries published in The Captain Is Out to Lunch and the Sailors Have Taken Over the Ship. For example, Matt Dillon reads the poem "Roll the Dice" (from What Matters Is How Well You Walk Through the Fire) in a voiceover at the end of the film. Awards Nominee Best Director - Norwegian Academy Awards (Bent Hamer) Winner Best Director - Copenhagen International Film Festival (Bent Hamer) Winner Best Actress - Copenhagen International Film Festival (Lili Taylor) Winner Best Supporting Actress - San Diego Film Critics Society (Lili Taylor) Nominee Golden Spike - Valladolid International Film Festival (Bent Hamer) References External links Factotum Quotes 2005 films 2005 comedy-drama films American comedy-drama films 2000s English-language films English-language French films English-language Norwegian films Films about alcoholism Films about writers Films based on works by Charles Bukowski Films directed by Bent Hamer Films set in the United States Films shot in Minnesota