A drunken homeless man (Rutger Hauer) in Paris is lent 200 francs by a stranger (Anthony Quayle) as long as he promises to repay it to a local church when he can afford to; the film depicts the man's constant frustrations as he attempts to do so.

This project started when producer Roberto Cicutto (Hotel Rwanda) bought the rights to Roth's book of the same name. A few directors were approached and turned the film down because the plot was too "thin" and "vague". Finally, Ermanno Olmi (Tree of Wooden Clogs) was suggested by Tullio Kezich's wife, and he accepted. Perhaps because of modesty, Kezich suggests that Olmi wrote the bulk of the script, with Kezich merely "watching him work". Kezich is best known as the film critic for Corriere della Sera and for his award-winning biography of director Federico Fellini.

According to Kezich, Robert DeNiro wanted the lead role, and Cicutto flew him to Europe to meet with Olmi. DeNiro was in awe of Olmi, but apparently the feeling was not mutual. Oddly, Rutger Hauer was wanted by Olmi because of his role in "The Hitcher" (1986),which makes little sense. Hauer himself concedes that he was more comfortable with action, and less comfortable with nuance.

In fact, Hauer was probably a better choice than DeNiro, despite the latter's bigger star power. Hauer is quite effective as the alcoholic, not overdoing it. The way he is dressed and presents himself makes the "holy drinker" an interesting character because on the surface he appears quite well-to-do when, in fact, he sleeps under a bridge.

Worth noting is Anthony Quayle, who has a small but important part, as he really commands attention from the audience just with his presence. Unlike Hauer, Quayle was primarily a stage actor, steeped in Broadway and Shakespeare. This may be why he so naturally comes off as "distinguished" because he certainly was.

The film won the Golden Lion at the 45th edition of the Venice Film Festival. It also won four David di Donatello Awards (for best film, best director, Best cinematography and best editing) and two Silver Ribbons (for best director and best screenplay). The film was selected as the Italian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 61st Academy Awards, though it was not accepted as a nominee.

This mysterious tale -- almost a dark, dry comedy -- really comes to life on the Arrow Blu-ray. The special features are fairly slim, though the 25-minute interview with Kezich is enlightening and the 10-minute interview with Hauer is a joy. The best thing about this film is that it is now going to be available to a new audience. Though not well-known, it ought to be. In this reviewer's humble opinion, "Holy Drinker" is superior to "Tree of Wooden Clogs", and may be Hauer's finest role.

This tale of a tramp who is the recipient of the milk of human kindness but who finds it difficult to repay the goodness shown to him is typical of its director, Ermanno Olmi, but whereas other Olmi films deal with the common-place with an uncommon beauty this tale of the mystical is overtly simplistic. "The Legend of the Holy Drinker" is visually superb and we should expect nothing less from an Olmi picture but it is also very dry, very dull and very unevenly acted, (the partial dubbing of its international cast certainly doesn't help).

As the tramp Rutger Hauer staggers around looking a little too bewildered at what's happening to him and the supporting cast are fundamentally just bit players in his far from interesting story. The Stravinsky score also sits somewhat uneasily on proceedings. Some people think this is a masterpiece while others have simply dismissed it. Personally I found it a crashing bore.

Dutch actor Rutger Hauer plays the part of Andreas Kartak a Catholic-Pole and tramp living in Paris. An ex-coal-miner he receives 200 francs from a well-to-do dapper gentleman (Anthony Quayle) as long as he donates part of it to charity. In appearance he sports medium-length wavy fairhair, a flatcap and moustache plus traces of coal-dust under his fingernails - a tell-tale sign of the trade of coal-miner - a rough-tough job to say the least and there are brief shots of Kartak in a Polish mine-shaft in an earlier life. He finds work, the company of women and the companionship of fellow Poles but is let down by his alcoholism, imprudence if not stupidity and an extreme sense of bad luck. The film based on Lemberg-born Jewish writer Joseph Roth's novella, shows warmth and a rich spiritual feel - it has the same sense of art & spirituality as Dostoyevsky's novel The Idiot featuring the epileptic and saintly Russian Prince Leo and fellow Russian Andrey Tarkovsky's art film Nostalghia (1983) perhaps relating to the difficulty of East Europeans/Slavs exiled from their homelands. The '80s were in some ways abrasive years. Paris is revealed as a timeless organically glamorous city. Why the film feels poignant is hard to describe. Along with his performance as the fairhaired adventurer Claude Van Horn in Roeg's Eureka (1983) this is Hauer's best ever performance.