The line-up at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival was roundly ridiculed by most visitors, and the focal point of the collective trashing was a movie called “The Brown Bunny,” from the mind of actor-writer-director Vincent Gallo.
The Cannes press screening was a chorus of jeers and booing, and Roger Ebert later pronounced the film the worst offering in the history of the film festival – although strictly speaking, he could hardly know that to be true.
The movie’s reportedly endless, meandering scenes were bad enough, it was said. But then there was the small issue of an explicit sex scene between Gallo and an Oscar-nominated actress, Chloe Sevigny. (The two had been intimate in the past, and decided to share the love for the camera.) This unfaked sex act seemed destined to overshadow whatever merits the film might otherwise have had.
And that, surely, would be that. Such a movie could never be released, right?
Well, Gallo went back into the editing room and lopped almost a half an hour from the picture. And it’s here. And it happens to be an interesting, difficult, weird, incoherent, and rather moving film.
There are many lessons here. One is that when you gather a bunch of international critics into a room together, they can very often be wrong. I’ll bet that if “The Brown Bunny” were in French and had subtitles, it would have gotten some good reviews, even in its long form.
What’s it about? A man named Bud (played by Gallo at his greasiest and most hangdog) finishes up a motorcycle race in New Hampshire. He packs his cycle in a van and heads for California, a trip that takes up most of the picture.
Along with many wordless sequences of Bud staring into space or the camera looking through a bug-spattered windshield, there are occasional encounters with women. Bud tries to connect with them, but he cannot. It leads to the notorious scene with Sevigny, who plays Bud’s lost girlfriend.
The movie is certainly pretentious and experimental, as advertised. What wasn’t advertised is that “The Brown Bunny” also has a shape to it, and a central idea, and a tender delicacy in its acting. Gallo’s way of looking at the world may be mopey and self-absorbed, but at least he has a way of looking at the world.
There are scenes in which virtually nothing happens. A shot looking through a windshield for the duration of Gordon Lightfoot’s song “Beautiful” probably sounds awful in principle. But I like looking through windshields, and I like Gordon Lightfoot, and I liked the scene in the movie very much.
Gallo has a gift for finding people. In the first 10 minutes, there’s a sequence with a gas-station attendant, played by a non-professional, Anna Vareschi. She’s not around long, but you are convinced within moments that this is a special person, with a life of her own. Same for a weird scene with former model Cheryl Tiegs, who does not speak.
“The Brown Bunny” can be recommended for only the most adventurous audiences. Maybe that’s obvious. It’s a foolish movie in some ways, but it’s not a joke, and it deserves better than to be treated as one.
“The Brown Bunny” HHH
Better than its reputation: An experimental, incoherent, but rather moving film concocted by director-actor Vincent Gallo. He plays a hangdog motorcycle racer traveling cross country in his van. Its long wordless passages and an explicit sex scene with co-star Chloe Sevigny brought the film great derision at the Cannes Film Festival, but it’s better than that.
Rated: Not rated; probably NC-17 for nudity, subject matter; no one under 18 admitted.
Now showing: Varsity, Seattle.
“The Brown Bunny” HHH
Better than its reputation: An experimental, incoherent, but rather moving film concocted by director-actor Vincent Gallo. He plays a hangdog motorcycle racer traveling cross country in his van. Its long wordless passages and an explicit sex scene with co-star Chloe Sevigny brought the film great derision at the Cannes Film Festival, but it’s better than that.
Rated: Not rated; probably NC-17 for nudity, subject matter; no one under 18 admitted.
Now showing: Varsity, Seattle.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
