The Brown Bunny

[AlguienEstolamiPantalones]

by the way, if all you remember is the corpse scene does that not say something about you

Yes. It says that nudity of any sort does not constitute a "key moment" for me, but a character becoming a corpse does.  

This sequeways nicely (lest I commit another digression...) into my sincere doubt that this supposedly scandalous oral sex in Brown Bunny is really going to be the most memorable bit.

WHAT ???????????????? are you saying that the blowjob scene in brown bunny is not going to be the most well known scene in that movie

i will go so far as to say that is the only thing people will say about this movie

thats the only thing people so far have said about it, and mind you these  are people in canne

and by the way katie holmes sexulaity is key to the gift, and the tease scene with greg kinear is very important to the plot, thats why he kills her

[SoNowThen]

Yeah, I certainly hope you're right. It's like when people came out of Magnolia and all they wanted to do was talk about whether or not they hated the frogs. I guess they missed the other 3 hours of the film. It's a shame that one shocking thing can make dolts overlook absolutely everything else about a movie. Sigh.

[AlguienEstolamiPantalones]

Yeah, I certainly hope you're right. It's like when people came out of Magnolia and all they wanted to do was talk about whether or not they hated the frogs. I guess they missed the other 3 hours of the film. It's a shame that one shocking thing can make dolts overlook absolutely everything else about a movie. Sigh.

the reason why the frogs is not the key issue to magnolia is that it has three hours to back it up

this film may have nothing to back it up

and well pta is a film maker and not just some guy who is trying ti inflate his image by telling us how cool he is

which is what gallo is

he is not trying to contribute to cinema

all he wants to do is tell us how cool he is and how un cool everyone else is

i do that shit all the time, because i fucking rock

but i have the goods to back it up

say have you ever seen me Mambo ?????

[EL__SCORCHO]

Here's what Ebert recently posted on his site, apparently even Gallo thinks it sucks:


May 25, 2003

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CANNES, France--The Affair of the Brown Bunny, one of the most astonishing episodes in the history of the Cannes Film Festival, took another turn Friday when director Vincent Gallo apologized for his film and said, "It is a disaster and a waste of time."

Gallo's "Brown Bunny," which screened as one of three American entries in the official competition, was the lowest-rated film in the history of Screen International, the British trade paper that tabulates votes of a panel of critics. It was booed and laughed at during its screenings, there were countless walkouts, and its inclusion as an official selection called into question the judgment, even the sanity, of the programmers. That several French critics liked it was, Gallo said, "almost like salt in the wound."

The film consists of an unendurable 90 minutes of uneventful banality, as Gallo's character travels cross-country toward a motorcycle race in California, followed by a hard-core sex scene in which he imagines he receives fellatio from his lost love, played by Chloe Sevigny. Let it be said that Sevigny, who reportedly cried during the screening, is heroic in the way she finds conviction and truth in her character, in the midst of the general catastrophe. Many minutes of the earlier scenes consist of such shots as a windshield gradually accumulating dead bugs.

Gallo is talented as an actor, and his first film as a director, "Buffalo 66" (1998), was so quirky and free-spirited you not only forgave its eccentricities but cherished them. Nothing in his previous career would predict the disaster of "Brown Bunny."

"I accept what the critics say," Gallo told Screen International, whose panel gave the bunny its record low rating. "If no one wants to see it, they are right. I apologize to the financiers of the film, but I must assure you it was never my intention to make a pretentious film, a self-indulgent film, a useless film, an unengaging film."

"L'Affaire Brown Bunny" has generated so much publicity, as the low point of a dismal year at Cannes, that it may actually find French distribution; there may be a cachet attached to seeing such a universally derided film. Some French critics specialize in defending the indefensible, to show that they alone can understand a rejected work; their explications of "Brown Bunny" may be--indeed, must inevitably be--more entertaining than the film.

Gallo might be expected to leave town quickly after the bunny debacle, but he is also an actor in Peter Greenaway's "The Tulse Luper Suitcases: The Moab Story," which plays in the official competition here over the weekend. That means he will be expected to march once again up the red carpet and into the Palais--where, he said, the "Brown Bunny" screening was "the worst feeling I ever had in my life."

Roger Ebert



I think Gallo's acting like a pussy putting his own film down like this. Had the movie been given a warm reception, he wouldnt have said these things. Seems pretty chickenshit to me.

[MrBurgerKing]

Maybe he knew it was horrible all along and wanted people to suffer through it. Kinda Kaufmanesque.

[Gold Trumpet]

Hah, if Kaufman was in this situation, he would be touting the film as the greatest since Citizen Kane and calling all people who hated the film some crude things. To make things even more grandstanding, he would invite the few french critics who liked it to lunch and televise it as his next comedic special.

~rougerum

[MrBurgerKing]

That's true, good point! It's kind of weird that he would completely turn on the film all because other people didn't like it.

If everyone in the world turned on Burger King and said it is terrible, I'd stick by it. I know some prick who saw Punch-Drunk Love and hated it, but then when he got home and read the positive reviews, he completely changed his opinion.

[RegularKarate]

My Prediction is that now that it's been labeled the worst film in the History of Cannes, there will be people who decide everyone was missing something and go on to talk about how wonderful it is, just making shit up.

It's pretty rare that a film that is panned hard-core by almost every critic, including the filmmaker is ever really good.

I may rent the dvd and fast forward through a lot of the shit... some people will go and say "it's important to watch it all, to soak in the mood of the banality... it really capture the everyday dullness" to which I will reply "I can be bored on my own, thank you, I don't need to be told what that's like".

[children with angels]

I still really want to watch it though, even if it is the biggest follow-up disappointment ever after the wonderfulness of Buffalo (the highest ranking for me so far is Panic Room). I have a sneaky suspicion though that what people are calling boring I will think is fucking hilarious... Kind of Beckett-like... Could be wrong - I don't want to sound like one of those people RK so rightly predicts will come out of the woodwork. I just have a suspicion I'm gonna like it...

[EL__SCORCHO]

Damn, the guy who just won the Camera de Or at Cannes said, "Vincent Gallo, dont give up".

Are people pitying him now?



I just wanna see Chloe Sevigny giving a blowjob. Hope they dont cut that out on dvd.

[Ghostboy]

I don't know if it's pity. I bet a lot of people just really root for him.

I wonder if The Brown Bunny is REALLY that bad. From what I've read (AICN had a pretty detailed review), I think I know exactly what the movie will be like. It won't be great, but it doesn't sound like the worst film of Cannes ever. I think a lot of critics are just disgruntled because the selection isn't as good as past years.

[Pozer]

well you do like the taste of men ass

and that much we can agree on.

I frequently visit a board that has posts like these?

[godardian]

I don't know if it's pity. I bet a lot of people just really root for him.

I wonder if The Brown Bunny is REALLY that bad. From what I've read (AICN had a pretty detailed review), I think I know exactly what the movie will be like. It won't be great, but it doesn't sound like the worst film of Cannes ever. I think a lot of critics are just disgruntled because the selection isn't as good as past years.

It's just possible that the film community worldwide hates Gallo as much as the domestic one does, and that could have a lot to do with its horrible reception.

It's too bad that now it seems none of us can see it with our own eyes given the debacle at Cannes... but I'm still going to try.

[Sal]

I think there's a very good chance of seeing The Brown Bunny.  It's garnered great attention, and if a film grabs a lot of attention, there will be a demand.  Doesn't matter if it's good or bad.

[ono]

*SPOILER*

You don't see her naked until it's already "too late," if you know what I mean.

That's not entirely true.  There's also the confrontation between her and Greg Kinnear's character where she's topless.  Yes.  But *ahem* The Gift was a good movie despite Katie Holmes' toplessness.  That was just a pleasant bonus.  ;)

As for The Brown Bunny, it's one of those trainwreck things, that people will want to see to say they've seen it.  I haven't seen Pink Flamingos myself, but I've heard descriptions, and read Ebert's review, saying how the trailer was just of people's reactions to the movie itself, and I'm sure there are more movies along those same lines.  Could name some, but you get the idea.

I'd just recently heard of Gallo, and want to see Buffalo '66, but I've gotta say I feel bad for the guy, him making a misstep like that, and hope he isn't serious about that "stopping making movies" thing, although I can understand how being booed would be a blow -- that is, if he was serious.