The Brown Bunny

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The Brown Bunny
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Vincent Gallo
Produced by	Vincent Gallo
Written by	Vincent Gallo
Starring	Vincent Gallo, Chloë Sevigny
Distributed by	Wellspring Media
Release date(s)	August 27, 2004
Running time	93 min.
Country	United States France
Language	English
IMDb profile

The Brown Bunny is a 2003 American independent film written, produced and directed by actor Vincent Gallo about a motorcycle racer on a cross-country drive who is haunted by the 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 sexual content of the film 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,^[1] though he later gave a re-edited version of the film his signature "thumbs up".

1 Plot
2 Filming
3 Cannes reception
4 Theatrical Release/DVD
5 Controversies
6 Cultural references
7 Soundtrack
8 References
9 External links

[edit] Plot

Bud Clay, a motorcycle racer (played by Vincent Gallo), undertakes a cross-country drive to California after a race in New Hampshire to participate in a race in California, haunted by the memories of his former lover, Daisy (played by Chloë Sevigny). On his way, he meets different women, but is unable to form an emotional connection with 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 back to California. He stops at her home in order to get clothes, but leaves her as soon as she enters her home.

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 before deciding to ask one of them, Rose (played by Elizabeth Blake), to join him for a lunch. She eats McDonald's 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 some alcohol, 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, they talk 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 in relation to 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. He 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 having choked to death. The movie ends as Bud is driving his truck in California.

[edit] Filming

The movie was filmed in 16 mm and then blown up in 35 mm, which gives the photography a typical^{[citation needed]} "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 (also credited as gaffer/grip) 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 the Cannes Film Festival, removing a large part of the initial scene at the race track (about four minutes shorter), about six minutes of music of black screen at the end of the movie, and about seven minutes of driving before the scene in the Bonneville Speedway.^[2]

Neither Anna Vareschi nor Elizabeth Blake, both in the film, were professional actresses. Kirsten Dunst and Winona Ryder were both attached to the project and left for unknown reasons, though Internet speculation has mostly involved the final scene.^{[citation needed]} Sevigny said of the scene, "It wasn't that bad for me, I have been intimate with Vincent before" in an interview from The Guardian.^[3] After the film's release, the William Morris Agency dropped her as a client. In spite of that, Sevigny continued to get work as an actress.

[edit] Cannes reception

The screening of the film at Cannes was mixed; the audience gave the film a very long ovation while at the same time a minority of people booed and made catcalls. Several French critics were defending the film despite its unfinished state but the boos were "almost like salt in the wound" to Gallo who had endured much physical pain to finish 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."^[4] 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, afterward, 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.^[5]

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 highly thought of by few, even by Ebert, who gave the new cut three stars out of a possible four. And 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 at 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".

[edit] Theatrical Release/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.^[6]

[edit] Controversies

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^[7], 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. Vincent Gallo never saw the billboard, as he was in New York until the billboard was taken down.^{[citation needed]}

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 on the infamous fellatio scene is a prosthetic stolen from the set of Trouble Every Day.

[edit] 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. The Brown Bunny is referred to as the "bloody awful whatever the other one is called with the blow job", as well as being "infamous because he got Chloë Sevigny to give him an actual blow job on camera." The Brown Bunny was also mentioned in an episode of Family Guy when Brian Griffin teases Stewie Griffin for eating a sausage.