The Brown Bunny

[meatwad]

I think this looks genius. Buffalo 66 was a great film. Without Christina Ricci, it may lack a little, but it's getting some good buzz




//www.thestate22.com

[AlguienEstolamiPantalones]

people are making a big deal about the sex in the movie

[lamas]

do you have any information besides what's on imdb and the cannes site?  a couple of those shots on the cannes site look BEAUTIFUL

[MacGuffin]

From The New York Observer covering the Tribeca Film Festival:

And there was actress Chloë Sevigny, in a short black dress and black heels, matter-of-factly discussing her adventurous upcoming role in Vincent Gallo’s new film, The Brown Bunny.

At the Vanity Fair Oscar party, Mr. Gallo—who has long identified himself as a Republican—had told us that his film, which he directed and stars in, was going to be the most sexually explicit American film ever made. Mr. Gallo didn’t explain why, but a recent item in Page Six reported that the film, which will screen at Cannes, features an explicit oral sex scene.

And so when we spotted Ms. Sevigny talking to restaurateur Brian McNally, we asked her if Mr. Gallo’s claim was true.

"Probably," she said with a smile. "I haven’t seen the movie yet. But, she added: "The sex is not gratuitous."

Was the sex simulated or actual, we asked her.

"Ea-sy," Mr. McNally told me.

But Ms. Sevigny didn’t even flinch. "I did the deed," she said. "We dated a long time ago," she explained, referring to her and Mr. Gallo. "So been there, done that."

[AlguienEstolamiPantalones]

From The New York Observer covering the Tribeca Film Festival:

And there was actress Chloë Sevigny, in a short black dress and black heels, matter-of-factly discussing her adventurous upcoming role in Vincent Gallo's new film, The Brown Bunny.

At the Vanity Fair Oscar party, Mr. Gallo—who has long identified himself as a Republican—had told us that his film, which he directed and stars in, was going to be the most sexually explicit American film ever made. Mr. Gallo didn't explain why, but a recent item in Page Six reported that the film, which will screen at Cannes, features an explicit oral sex scene.

And so when we spotted Ms. Sevigny talking to restaurateur Brian McNally, we asked her if Mr. Gallo's claim was true.

"Probably," she said with a smile. "I haven't seen the movie yet. But, she added: "The sex is not gratuitous."

Was the sex simulated or actual, we asked her.

"Ea-sy," Mr. McNally told me.

But Ms. Sevigny didn't even flinch. "I did the deed," she said. "We dated a long time ago," she explained, referring to her and Mr. Gallo. "So been there, done that."

can we in some way get katie holmes to hire chloes agent

[bonanzataz]

going to be the most sexually explicit American film ever made

I think John Cameron Mitchell is going to one-up him on this.

[Ernie]

This is definitely my most anticipated Cannes film this year...just looking at how awesome Buffalo 66 is. I thought you had a link to the trailer or something at the bottom of your post there at first glance!

Anyway, I hope the whole sex thing isn't just some gimmick, that could wreck the whole movie.

[MacGuffin]

Cannes profile; includes some photos and dialogue excerpts:

http://www.festival-cannes.org/films/fiche_film.php?langue=6002&id_film=4081368

[MacGuffin]

Film Review: the Brown Bunny
By Kirk Honeycutt
CANNES (Hollywood Reporter) - In "The Brown Bunny," Vincent Gallo puts the "self" into "self-indulgent."

In his second feature as a director, Gallo acts as writer, director, producer, star, cinematographer, production designer and editor. Thus, the failure is all his.

Seldom has any Competition film at Cannes been treated to such a hostile reception as "The Brown Bunny" at its press screening. But the problem for those of us who detest the film is that Gallo may acquire the cache of the misunderstood artist.

A whiff of scandal, owning to its angry rejection here and Gallo letting fellow actor Chloe Sevigny perform graphic oral sex on him during the film's last half-hour, may encourage its celebration by those who feel the need to rescue films and artists who have been marginalized.

No one should rescue a film of such crude technique and thundering banality. Nevertheless, Gallo, an actor whose 1998 debut film as a director, "Buffalo 66," had its moments despite a rambling narrative, will no doubt attract admirers for this film from the same crowd that once applauded an Andy Warhol movie about a man sleeping.

What encourages this is the fact that Gallo had a good film idea -- just one he executed about as poorly as possible. Gallo plays a professional motorcycle racer who, after losing an East Coast race, crosses the country in his truck for a race in California.

The first three-quarters of the movie detail the mind-numbing minutiae of the journey. We watch Gallo shower, go the bathroom, brush his teeth, lie in bed -- and those are just the highlights.

In between lie really boring moments. At one point, when he gets out of his truck to slip on a sweater, the audience applauded this much-needed bit of action. Too bad Gallo didn't take on one added task on the picture, that of window-washer, as one tires of looking at the road through the bug-splattered windshield.

Three separate encounters with women en route imply that Gallo is haunted by the memory of a woman he once loved and lost. Once while lying in bed, he dreams of this woman, which is our only glimpse of Sevigny until the climactic sequence. Gallo finally makes it to Los Angeles.

After two unsuccessful attempts to connect with Sevigny, she suddenly appears in his hotel room for a confrontation that will explain everything. Had this scene not been so badly written and staged, it might have packed dramatic punch because the back story proves more intriguing than anything else in the movie.

The film then winds up in a stupefyingly trite ending, which undercuts the one almost-effective scene in the movie.

Gallo's camerawork and editing are deliberately primitive in his all-too-successful attempt to create the monotony of a cross-country journey.

[Ghostboy]

I'll probably love it.

[Sal]

Interesting reactions.  Can't say I'm surprised, and I definitely can't wait to see this thing.  

[Sal]

http://www.festival-cannes.org/journal/index.php?langue=6002&jour=21

I believe that will take you to a video segment you can watch either on realplayer or windows media that has "highlights" of the day, mainly The Brown Bunny and The Barbarian Invasions.  I recommend watching it...Chloe and Gallo hold a press conference, and it's priceless watching Gallo do Winona Ryder impressions, lol.  No clips from the film though, which was somewhat of a letdown..

[children with angels]

I adore that interview! It was nice to see Gallo looking kinda happy too: he didn't yell at one person...! Not even that annoying English guy who seemed to be trying to provoke him into giving one of his trademark outbursts. And Chloe's sitting there just getting more and "oh my God, oh my god, Vinnie, what the are you DOING...?" as he talks about Winona (watch her face when he mentions the "tablets"...)

I'm looking forward to this film so much. I was a little concerned when I heard reports of Gallo bragging about how it was going to be the most sexually explicit US movie ever - I thought might have kind of lost it after the sweetness of Buffalo 66... But to hear him talk about it reassured me somewhat. It sounds like it'll be be a little out of place within the rest of the movie (and it happens near the end. Kind of like Audition...!) - but hey, I guess it was only a matter of time before Vincent wanted to show the world his huge member he keeps talking about...

[Ghostboy]

More of the same, this time from Ebert....

CANNES, France--Coming up for air like an exhausted swimmer, the Cannes Film Festival produced two splendid films on Wednesday morning, after a week of the most dismal entries in memory. Denys Arcand's "The Barbarian Invasion," from Quebec, and Errol Morris' documentary "The Fog of War," about Robert McNamara, are in their different ways both masterpieces about old men who find a kind of wisdom.

But that is not the headline. The news is that on Tuesday night, Cannes showed a film so shockingly bad that it created a scandal here on the Riviera not because of sex, violence or politics, but simply because of its awfulness.

Those who saw Vincent Gallo's "The Brown Bunny" have been gathering ever since, with hushed voices and sad smiles, to discuss how wretched it was. Those who missed it hope to get tickets, for no other film has inspired such discussion. "The worst film in the history of the festival," I told a TV crew posted outside the theater. I have not seen every film in the history of the festival, yet I feel my judgment will stand.

Imagine 90 tedious minutes of a man driving across America in a van. Imagine long shots through a windshield as it collects bug splats. Imagine not one but two scenes in which he stops for gas. Imagine a long shot on the Bonneville Salt Flats where he races his motorcycle until it disappears as a speck in the distance, followed by another shot in which a speck in the distance becomes his motorcycle. Imagine a film so unendurably boring that at one point, when he gets out of his van to change his shirt, there is applause.

And then, after half the audience has walked out and those who remain stay because they will never again see a film so amateurish, narcissistic, self-indulgent and bloody-minded, imagine a scene where the hero's lost girl reappears, performs fellatio in a hard-core scene and then reveals the sad truth of their relationship.

Of Vincent Gallo, the film's star, writer, producer, director, editor and only begetter, it can be said that this talented actor must have been out of his mind to (a) make this film and (b) allow it to be seen. Of Chloe Sevigny, who plays the girlfriend, Daisy, it must be said that she brings a truth and vulnerability to her scene that exists on a level far above the movie it is in.

If Gallo had thrown away all of the rest of the movie and made the Sevigny scene into a short film, he would have had something. That this film was admitted into Cannes as an Official Selection is inexplicable. By no standard, through no lens, in any interpretation, does it qualify for Cannes. The quip is: This is the most anti-American film at Cannes, because it is so anti-American to show it as an example of American filmmaking.

[godardian]

More of the same, this time from Ebert....

CANNES, France--Coming up for air like an exhausted swimmer, the Cannes Film Festival produced two splendid films on Wednesday morning, after a week of the most dismal entries in memory. Denys Arcand's "The Barbarian Invasion," from Quebec,

I'll reserve judgment on the Gallo film (I don't always trust Ebert), but seeing something new and supposedly good from Arcand is exciting to me. I adore his Decline of the American Empire, from 1986, dislike the play-turned-into-a-movie he did with Thomas Gibson in the early 90s, haven't seen Jesus of Montreal. Anyone else here seen any of his films?