The Brown Bunny

The Brown Bunny
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Vincent Gallo
Written by	Vincent Gallo
Produced by	Vincent Gallo
Starring	Vincent Gallo Chloë Sevigny Cheryl Tiegs
Distributed by	Wellspring Media
Release dates	May 21, 2003 (Cannes FF) August 27, 2004
Running time	93 min.
Countries	United States France
Language	English

The Brown Bunny is a 2004 American independent art house film written, produced and directed by actor Vincent Gallo about a motorcycle racer on a cross-country drive who is haunted by memories of his former lover. It had its world premiere at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival to boos and catcalls. The film garnered a great deal of media attention due to the explicit and unsimulated sexual content of the final scene, and due to a war of words between Gallo and film critic Roger Ebert, who stated that The Brown Bunny was the worst film in the history of Cannes, although he later gave a re-edited version of the film his signature "thumbs up".

The film stars Vincent Gallo and Chloë Sevigny, as well as a cameo performance by former American model Cheryl Tiegs.

Plot

Bud Clay (Vincent Gallo), a motorcycle racer, undertakes a cross-country drive, following a race in New Hampshire, in order to participate in a race in California. All the while he is haunted by memories of his former lover, Daisy (Chloë Sevigny). On his journey he meets three women, but is unable to form an emotional connection with any of them. He first meets Violet (played by Anna Vareschi) at a gas station in New Hampshire and convinces her to join him on his trip to California. They stop at her home in order to get her clothes, but he drives off as soon as she enters the house.

Bud's next stop is at Daisy's parents' home, where there is Daisy's brown bunny. Daisy's mother does not remember Bud, who grew up in the house next door, nor does she remember having visited Bud and Daisy in California. Next, Bud stops at a pet shelter, where he asks about the life expectancy of rabbits (he is told about five or six years). At a highway rest stop, he joins a distressed woman, Lilly (played by Cheryl Tiegs), comforts and kisses her, before starting to cry and eventually leaving her. Bud appears more distressed as the road trip continues, crying as he drives. He stops at the Bonneville Speedway to race his motorcycle. In Las Vegas, he drives around prostitutes on street corners, before deciding to ask one of them, Rose (played by Elizabeth Blake), to join him for a lunch. She eats McDonald's food in his truck until he stops, pays her, and leaves her back in the street.

After having his motorcycle checked in a bike shop in Los Angeles, Bud stops at Daisy's home, which appears abandoned. He leaves a note on the door frame, after sitting in his truck in the driveway remembering about kissing Daisy in this place and checks in at a hotel. There, Daisy eventually appears. She seems nervous, going to the bathroom twice to smoke crack cocaine, while Bud waits for her, sitting on his bed. As she proposes to go out to buy something to drink, Bud tells her that, because of what happened the last time they saw each other, he doesn't drink anymore.

They have an argument about Daisy kissing other boys. At this point, Bud undresses Daisy and she performs fellatio on him. Once done, he insults her and as they lie in bed, talking about what happened during their last meeting. Bud continuously asks Daisy why she hooked up with some men at a party. She explains that she was just being friendly and wanted to get high smoking pot with them. Bud becomes upset because Daisy was pregnant and it transpires that the fetus died as a result of what happened at this party.

Eventually, the viewer understands that Daisy was raped at the party, a scene witnessed by Bud, who did not intervene. Bud explains to her that he did not know what to do and decided to leave the party. As he came back, he saw an ambulance and Daisy explains to Bud that she is dead, having passed out prior to the rape and then choking to death after vomiting while unconscious. The movie ends as Bud is driving his truck in California.

Filming

The movie was filmed in 16 mm and then blown up in 35 mm, which gives the photography a typical "old-school grain". Vincent Gallo is credited as director of the photography as well as one of the three camera operators along with Toshiaki Ozawa and John Clemens.

The version of the film shown in the US has been cut by about 25 minutes compared to the version shown at Cannes, removing a large part of the initial scene at the race track (about four minutes shorter), about six minutes of music and black screen at the end of the movie, and about seven minutes of driving before the scene in the Bonneville Speedway.

Neither Anna Vareschi nor Elizabeth Blake, both in the film, were professional actresses. Kirsten Dunst and Winona Ryder were both attached to the project but left. In an interview from The Guardian Sevigny said of the sex scene: "It wasn't that bad for me, I have been intimate with Vincent before."

Controversy

Cannes reception and reviews

The screening of the film at Cannes was a fiasco; hundreds walked out, and the remaining audience booed and made catcalls, reportedly bringing Sevigny to tears and prompting a humiliated Gallo to apologize for the film. Gallo added that the fact that several French critics were defending the film despite its unfinished state was "almost like salt in the wound."

The uproar stemmed not only from the film's unconventional, avant-garde style, but from the film's final scene, which features a graphic, unsimulated act of fellatio performed on Gallo by Sevigny. Many audience members found the scene to be inappropriate and left the screening, while others remained to shout out and "boo" the film.

Upon his return to America, Gallo took a defiant stance, defending the film and finishing a new edit that clarified and tightened the storyline. A war of words then erupted between Gallo and film critic Roger Ebert, with Ebert writing that The Brown Bunny was the worst film in the history of Cannes, and Gallo retorting by calling Ebert a "fat pig with the physique of a slave trader." Ebert then responded, paraphrasing a statement attributed to Winston Churchill, that "one day I will be thin, but Vincent Gallo will always be the director of The Brown Bunny." Gallo then claimed to have put a hex on Ebert's colon, cursing the critic with cancer. Ebert then replied that enduring his colonoscopy would be more entertaining than watching The Brown Bunny. Gallo subsequently stated that he had been misquoted, and that the hex had actually been placed on Ebert's prostate, and that the whole thing had been meant as a joke which was misinterpreted by a reviewer.

A shorter, re-edited version of the film played later in 2003 at the Toronto International Film Festival (although it still retained the controversial sex scene). The new version was regarded more highly by some, even Ebert, who gave the new cut three stars out of a possible four. On the August 28, 2004 episode of the television show Ebert & Roeper, Ebert gave the new version of the film a "thumbs up" rating. In a column published about the same time, Ebert reported that he and Gallo had made peace. According to Ebert:

Gallo went back into the editing room and cut 26 minutes of his 118-minute film, or almost a quarter of the running time. And in the process he transformed it. The film's form and purpose now emerge from the miasma of the original cut, and are quietly, sadly, effective. It is said that editing is the soul of the cinema; in the case of The Brown Bunny, it is its salvation.

The Brown Bunny maintains a 45% approval rating at Rotten Tomatoes.

French cinema's magazine Les Cahiers du Cinéma voted The Brown Bunny one of the ten best films of 2004. The film won the FIPRESCI Prize at the Vienna International Film Festival for its "bold exploration of yearning and grief and for its radical departure from dominant tendencies in current American filmmaking".

Sevigny's response

In August 2004 upon the film's limited theatrical release in the United States, star Chloë Sevigny took to defending the film and its controversial final scene, stating:

It's a shame people write so many things when they haven't seen it. When you see the film, it makes more sense. It's an art film. It should be playing in museums. It's like an Andy Warhol movie.

Right before the film's Cannes premiere, the William Morris Agency had dropped her as a client, stating that "The scene was one step above pornography, and not a very big one. William Morris now feels that her career is tainted and may never recover, especially after rumours began circulating about the even more graphic outtakes that didn't make it into the actual film."

Sevigny continues to work as a professional actress using another talent agency.

Billboard promotion

The Brown Bunny also attracted media attention over a large billboard erected over Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood, California in 2004 promoting the movie. The billboard featured a black and white image taken from the fellatio sequence, drawing complaints from residents and business owners. The image showed Vincent Gallo standing with Chloë Sevigny on her knees, and did not show any explicit sexual content. It was eventually removed.

In Richard Schickel's documentary Welcome to Cannes, aired on Turner Classic Movies, there is mention of a rumor launched during the Cannes Film Festival by French filmmaker Claire Denis, who directed Trouble Every Day, a movie featuring Vincent Gallo. According to Denis, the penis appearing in the infamous fellatio scene was a prosthetic stolen from the set of Trouble Every Day.

Some have made allegations to the effect that "Brown Bunny" is a euphemistic term for feces, implying that Vincent Gallo intentionally made a "crap movie". Vincent Gallo has confessed (perhaps in jest) that he makes artistic decisions specifically to upset people.

Theatrical release and DVD

A shorter, re-edited version of the film also won a U.S. theatrical distribution deal from Wellspring. The film had the highest per screen average in its first opening weekend, grossing $50,601 in a limited U.S. theatrical release (5 screens). The film won approval from Sony Pictures Entertainment, which acquired multi-territory distribution rights of the film in February 2005. Sony also released the film on DVD in North America in August 2005. According to Ryan Werner (who had worked for Wellspring), this movie ended up being profitable for everyone involved, including Wellspring and Gallo himself.

Cultural references

Numerous references to the film (and in particular the fellatio scene) are made in the pilot episode of the BBC comedy Freezing, as much of the episode's plot involves Elizabeth McGovern being considered for a role in an upcoming Vincent Gallo film.

Soundtrack

Main article: The Brown Bunny (soundtrack)

See also

• List of American films of 2004
• List of mainstream films with unsimulated sex

External links

• The Brown Bunny at IMDb
• Roger Ebert. "The Brown Bunny".
• "Playboy Bunny: Vincent Gallo proves he just wants to be loved", David Edelstein, Slate.com, 10 September 2004.
• The Brown Bunny, Charles Taylor, Salon.com, 17 September 2004.