It’s certainly up there, yes.
Of course I’d be even more excited if it had been made by someone totally unknown…
It is the best film about loneliness I have seen
and the ending is perfect of course
I need to watch this one again but Gallo is very interesting.
The most overrated, pretentious, badly acted piece of pseudo-intellectual trash I’ve ever had the misfortune to see. Chole Sevigny prostitued herself in this. But, hey, what do I know?
Having never seen the film, why do those that think it’s good think it’s good and why do those that think it’s bad think it’s bad?
There are a variety of reasons. Most importantly it deals with real emotions in a totally authentic way- loneliness, guilt, conception of reality etc- it never talks down to the audience. Also, very important to me, the flow of time within the film (through well used long takes) is spot on. It’s not the least bit “pseudo-intellectual” because it’s not focused on the intellect really (although it’s not anti-intellectual either)- but it is more concerned with emotion.
I see it fitting in very well with work by people like Bresson, Tarkovsky, Ozu etc. Gallo’s not at quite their level, but he’s a lot closer than all of these other overrated filmmakers like PT Anderson and really any of the other American directors who are getting awards and nominations.
Jesse: If only it was shot on Super-8 :-)
Haven’t seen any Gallo yet, is this a good intro?
For sure :)
This one definitely- I didn’t like Buffalo ‘66 very much (but now I’m thinking I should see it again).
Hey Jesse, I think we were in a couple of MySpace groups together. Good to have you on the Auteurs.
I still haven’t seen The Brown Bunny yet mostly due to my dislike of Gallo. Although I do admit to getting a kick out of his interviews.
Hiya Jeff!
Yeah Gallo’s a thoroughly unlikeable person, which is what took me so long to see it. Plus it being villified for that one scene.
I dont find him too unlikeable
read his interview with ebert; he seems like a prince
I don’t agree that the brown bunny is a good starting point.
Start with Buffolo 66 and if u dont hate it see brown bunny
but if u do see brown bunny first and don’t like u still might like buffolo
I actually enjoyed Buffalo ‘66. I think I was put off by all the negative publicity The Brown Bunny received. Wasn’t Gallo so upset by the negativity that he sold all his movie equipment on eBay and vowed to never make another film?
Not a fan. I just don’t find Gallo interesting onscreen. Might like his films better if he didn’t act in them.
:O
I would have went and watched this movie if it wasn’t for that TWBB comment….
honestly, i thought this trailer (http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi2525626649/) was better than the movie. i felt like i “absorbed” its emotions after 20 minutes or so and didn’t find much reason to continue—though the soundtrack and moody driving scenes are pretty sweet, and i definitely respect it as a piece of deeply personal filmmaking. i guess if you’re in a certain way, it can be a pretty cathartic experience.
Well, thanks in part to this thread I cast aside whatever feelings I have about Gallo and gave The Brown Bunny a fair shake and watched it. While I wouldn’t go as far as Jesse and call it the best US made film of the decade, I liked it a whole lot better than I ever imagined I would. It helps that I’m a sucker for road films and this one definitely fits that description. You do need to watch it all the way until the end so the story makes sense. What I thought was going to be a tale of unrequited love turned out to be something entirely different. Without giving away the ending, let’s just say I did not see that coming. I have mixed feelings about Chloe’s infamous blowjob sequence. It’s effective and jarring but I don’t know how necessary it really was to the story. Either Gallo wanted to play up to his bad boy image or he did it deliberately as a way to get back at Sevigny, who was his girlfriend previously. In fact, I think it’s safe to say that the movie was about their relationship.
So, an interesting turnaround for me. A film I thought I’d despise turns out to be a haunting elegy to lost love and guilt.
Man, walked out of this one.
OK
>>honestly, i thought this trailer (http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi2525626649/) was better than the movie.<<
Jeez. The movie must be godawful, then. All I saw was a lot of wobbly, badly-frames, out-of-focus footage.
Just saw Gallo in ‘Trouble every day’. Beautiful haunting Horror flick with excellent Cinematography and a great Score.
I thought the Brown Bunny was a bunch of garbage. Just really really boring with an unneeded blowjob scene, in my opinion. I guess that I was more disapointed in the fact that I absolutely LOVED Buffalo 66 and I was really excited about more Vincent Gallo but his career has fizzled out
I am actually going to repost the first review I ever wrote about this movie here, and then add about how this movie has lived me with me over time:
“Since this movie is known most for the controversy, I am going to start and finish with it to reflect people’s habit of starting and ending their impressions of something with a scene out of context. It wasn’t porn, and my argument for that comes completely from the context… what happens directly before and after that moment. Basically, people have been angry at Gallo for being self-involved in this movie, especially that scene, but during that scene the self-involvement is literally the point. It’s masturbatory, but the key is that it drains him, just like masturbation. One thing the DVD box says about it is that it’s one of the “frankest portrayals of male sexuality on film” and so let’s be frank here
His sexual confusion is part of his grief, and part of grief is the habit of trying to deny it actually happened. So when he starts acting dominant during that scene with what’s happening, it’s his subconscious trying to throw a sort of male sexual dominance over something he doesn’t understand and hasn’t allowed himself to accept. But when it drains him, he’s forced to admit that he doesn’t only grieve for her but hates her for forcing him into that grief, and from there comes probably one of the best conversations (or inner dialog) I’ve seen in film in a long time.
But does it necessarily need to be “shown” rather than implied? Well yes. Because the character’s focus is so involved on it, it literally is all his mind is allowing him to care about in that moment. Basic rule of a close-up: if the camera focuses on something like that, then the director is trying to point something out. If it’s porn, it’s meant to arouse… but this scene isn’t arousing, especially because of its context.
But enough of that, because I want to discuss something else about this movie. Partly because of the controversy around this movie, and partly because of the publicity, I had the initial impression that Gallo was an abrasive and over-masculinized character in this film. Wow, complete opposite… I totally related to his character. Of course, his short relationships with those women don’t seem to work at first, but once we get an idea of where he’s coming from in his grief (and men’s general dislike of expressing it or asking for help), the relationships make perfect sense in terms of being representational (thus the obvious motif of all of their flower names and his name as “Bud”). Basically, the first woman fits what he’s looking for courteously, the second emotionally, and the third emotionally, but none of them match the full attraction he has to the only woman he’s ever loved. I liked it.
And the long continuing imagery of the road trip was really neat too, as it actually really captured that introspective feeling of it. Most roadtrip movies show the car in moments of time from the exterior… which kind of changes the perspective of what a roadtrip is. This movie shows it literally from the passenger seat, complete with the dirty/smudged window and the long road stretched ahead. I think there was only one shot that was actually an exterior of the van when on the freeway, the rest of the exteriors were when the van was parking or he was stopped somewhere. I find it very lovely, ultimately, and as my mother once said, “The road trip is something of a rite of passage amongst American males. It’s a moment when they take on as much of the world as they feel necessary all on their own.” Gallo seems to have the same idea, though there is a major American film genre built around that idea as well: the road as a literal transfiguration of self-discovery.
So, going back to the controversy, it really disappoints me that this film has to be known for that when there is so much more art and beauty and innocence it has to offer. I also find the controversy rather inconsistent, considering most people have absolutely no trouble with the female body in various states of arousal, yet as soon as “the male gender” is shown, it’s pornographic! The funny thing is, it contributes to that very male sense of fear and dominance they feel they must assert sexually. So I guess I could make an argument that Gallo did that scene to attack that inconsistent form of sexual censorship, but if I didn’t already know that basically Sevigny and he agreed to do it because, “Why not, we were in a relationship, we did it before, might as well just show it!”
Over time, the “controversy” has meant less and the meaning more. Gallo seemed to have actually captured that zone out introspective feeling of riding shotgun to your own desires in a road trip movie that otherwise would have been amazingly boring. Also, I’ve managed to see so much more Chloe Sevigny, including seeing Kids for the first time last night, that frankly it’s worth acknowledging the chick puts out visually, but always always always for the commentary of sex represented, which is usually more disturbing or saddening than arousing. She seems to willingly allow herself to be portrayed as the object of obsessiveness (Brown Bunny), desensitization (Demonlover), and profligate adolescence (Kids). On the other hand, this could also be a result of dating such weird people as Harmony Korine and Vincent Gallo….
I like to compare and contrast Chloe Sevigny and Samantha Mortan. Both seem absolutely dedicated to portraying female roles in independent, personal movies, and both are really good actresses, but Sevigny manages to stay in actually good independent, personal movies whereas Mortan tends to miss a few here and there.
—PolarisDiB
Gallo claims that Coppola’s The Rain People is one of the films that influenced him and that is easy to see in The Brown Bunny; it has that same aesthetic. Maybe that’s why I like the film, because I hate Gallo.
The Brown Bunny works, though it is far from perfect. One has to be in the frame of mind to watch it and be patient. There is a payoff beyond the notorious moment.
I think the film fits well into the The Rain People, Easy Rider, Medium Cool, Five Easy Pieces school and is a great deal more than one scene.
I agree, Uli.
yeah it’s like a mix between the road movie, and the male isolationist film that Americans in particular do so well
I saw B.B and Last Days as being connected in more than a few ways, despite being quite different from each other. Both films were singular in their efforts to get inside the character’s subjective emotional state and make us feel what the character is feeling, without being too intellectual about it. Both films centered on sad, lonely, powerless, introverted, angst ridden young men that had met with tragic fates. Both films were also examples of American indie film making that are Euro influenced but remain quintessentially American. Brown Bunny was more of a throwback though and perhaps more closely connected with older American films than Last Days.
They were also released around the same time too(from memory), so that is part of the reason i’m grouping them together at least hehhe. I also wrote an essay back at uni comparing the two films and linking them both with ‘male isolationist’ sub-genre, or ‘trope’, depending on your perspective ;-) I could be dead wrong, but i got a decent mark so i don’t care ;-0
Haven’t seen it, bust best American film of the decade must be Mulholland Dr. (though it’s a little overrated), A History of Violence, Punch-Drunk Love, There Will Be Blood, No Country for Old Men, one of those. Maybe The Assissination of Jesse James.., a dark horse.
Jesse Richards
I don’t usually go for the “best” types of statements and also in a big way it pains me to say this, because I’m less than fond of Vincent Gallo as a human being- but except for two fairly minor problems, The Brown Bunny is probably the most authentic, worthwhile film made by an American director in a long time. I only just saw this about a month ago after avoiding it for years- but after seeing tons of overrated foolishness like “There Will Be Blood” and “No Country for Old Men”, it was nice to see something that made me feel hopeful about the possibility for personal American filmmaking.