The Brown Bunny

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The Brown Bunny
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	USA
Language	English
IMDb profile

The Brown Bunny is a film by actor/director Vincent Gallo that had its world premiere at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival.

1 Plot
2 Filming
3 Controversy
4 Cultural References
5 Soundtrack
6 Notes
7 External links

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Bud Clay, a motorcycle racer (played by Vincent Gallo) undertakes a cross-country drive to California after a race in New Hampshire to particpate 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 convinced her to join him in his trip back to California. He drops her 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 remembers 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, Lily (played by Cheryl Tiegs), comforts and kisses her, before starting to cry and eventually leaving her. Bud apperas 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 with him. She eats Mc Donald'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 in an hotel. There, Daisy eventually appears. She seems nervous, going to the bathroom twice to smoke pot, 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 a (unsimulated) fellatio upon him. Once done, he insults her and as they lay 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 explained that she was just being friendly and wanted to get high smoking pot with them. Bud gets upset because Daisy was pregnant and it transpires that the foetus 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 "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 4 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.^[1]

Both Anna Vareschi and Elizabeth Blake were non-professional actresses.

[edit] Controversy

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. Sevigny, already known for taking on controversial roles, was Gallo's ex-girlfriend. After the film's release, the William Morris Agency dropped her as a client. In spite of that, the actress continued to get work and currently has one of her most notable rules as Nicki Grant in the HBO series Big Love.

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. [1]

[edit] Cannes reception

The screening of the film at Cannes was a fiasco; the audience openly 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."

At that time, many people predicted that this movie would never receive theatrical release in U.S.

[edit] Ebert spat and re-edit

Upon his return to America, however, Gallo took a defiant stance, defending the film and denying his apology. 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 once made by 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.

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). While not receiving the highest praise, neither did it garner the same level of derision as the Cannes version, and on the August 28, 2004 episode of Ebert & Roeper, Ebert gave the new version of the film a thumbs-up. In a column published at about the same time, Ebert reported that he and Gallo had made peace.

A shorter, re-edited version of the film also won a U.S. theatrical distribution deal from Wellspring. The $10 million film only grossed $356,734 in a limited U.S. theatrical release. But the film still won approval from Sony Pictures Entertainment, which acquired multiterritory distribution rights of the film in February 2005. Sony Pictures Entertainment 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. ^[2]

[edit] Billboard controversy

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. Vincent Gallo never saw the billboard, as he was in New York until the billboard was taken down.

[edit] Cultural References

Numerous references to the film (and in particular the fellatio scene) are made in the pilot episode of the BBC comedy Tight Spot, 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".