Vincet Gallo on Promises Written In Water
It’s in the Venice Film Festival lineup. Cool.
i’ve never seen any of Gallo’s work yet, but what i have read in interviews and hear in audio clips, he seems sort of on the edge.
not that it’s a bad thing or a good thing-some of the most self-fufilling people in the world have put out some of the best work. when you strip it down to the basic idea of pleasing yourself and being content with what you have accomplished, it can be a more rewarding experience for everyone.
I think Buffalo 66 and The Brown Bunny are wonderful examples of personal cinema. I would watch anything he makes. Some of you have absolutely no sense of humor or irony or a sense for anything that isn’t on the surface. Every aspiring filmmaker or artist should watch his movies and try and learn something, because he is clearly a singular talent. Filmmakers like Gallo should be encouraged, but they’re not, because doing what Gallo does takes balls, a quality that is in short supply in both American film and American film writing.
Wonder if he knows of the Yoshida film, A Story Written on Water.
Well said Mac.
Awesome news, User!
Really looking forward to seeing this film. Also, I haven’t seen this talked about, but Kelly Reichardt’s Meek’s Cutoff is also in competition at Venice.
Great news, Adam! I still have to catch up with Old Joy.
it’s one thing if you make personal “diary” films for yourself, thats fine, good for you. but its another thing to make personal “diary” films for yourself and then say “ha ha ! you can’t watch it !” but then again, this just fits right in with his whole persona.
“its another thing to make personal “diary” films for yourself and then say “ha ha ! you can’t watch it !””
What is this referring to?
maybe i misunderstood? it sounded like from what he said he wasn’t planning on definitely releasing it? whatever, i dont care that much, let him do what he wants. hhahah
Looking forward to seeing this.. Personally, I loved Buffalo ’66 and thought The Brown Bunny was a pretty good film as well..
agree Mac, but it also applies to European directors nowadays too. almost everything seems watered down over there.
The Brown Bunny is one of the most personal films i’ve ever seen to ever get major distribution.
Why is he so defensive all the way?? Well what can I say, after what had happen to the Brown Bunny and all those booing !! hahahahaha.. But I was amazed by the ending…
Any way this new film of him sounds good!!
- 2 is the most insightful:
The crowds have gathered to see just how further up himself one man can travel…..True to form, Gallo’s drama puts the i in solipsism (and then dots it with a scowly face). It is a film in thrall to the micro-budget monochrome art movies of the 1960s and 70s; a picture that loves the cinema of Andy Warhol and John Cassavetes almost (though not quite) as much as it loves the cinema of Vincent Gallo…….His film is what it is: an unvarnished, unapologetic chunk of black-and-white vérité about a pair of inarticulate souls living life on the margins. As such, it comes with a distinct whiff of danger. There is no telling just where it will go, or what it will do next. In the straitjacketed world of narrative film-making, that has to count for something.
Vincent Gallo in Venice.
Very excited, the first, negative review pretty much sold me and the second and third were like icing on the cake. The film may or may not be good but the first reviewer is kind of a moron since she doesn’t seem to have any clue that the things she is saying are wrong with the film can and have been strengths in many films. The second reviewer focuses too much on the spectacle or lack thereof, surrounding Gallo’s public persona. The last review is too short to be very insightful, as are the first two, but I’m still excited.
This from #2 actually got me interested in the film:
…a pair of inarticulate souls living life on the margins. As such, it comes with a distinct whiff of danger. There is no telling just where it will go, or what it will do next.
If the name in the credits was Clint Eastwood, rather than Vincent Gallo, I doubt there would be any talk of solipsism or self indulgence. However, since Gallo seems to be passionate about his work and is willing to stand up to shallow critics with narrow viewpoints he get labeled as narcissistic. Now I’ve yet to see any of his films so perhaps the labeling of his critics as shallow and narrow minded is unfair, although people whose opinion I hold in high regard would probably agree with the label. My only experience with Gallo is an interview he did on the Howard Stern Show in which he seemed like a genuinely good guy who cared deeply about his work. With that said I look forward to seeing Buffalo ‘66, The Brown Bunny, and his latest work. My only worry is that on the film’s website it says “Not currently planned for release”. Let hope that changes.
@Grey
I can only imagine this picture was taken after the premiere with an angry mob of film critics coming after him.
the general response has apparently been decent though, as in crowd response, and the Italian critics like it too from what i’ve heard.
someone on imdb typed up a bit of an interview Gallo did with Lodown Magazine about the process of making Promises Written in Water:
“I would use his (Pete Red Sky´s) crew, his cameras and his actors to pretend to be making a movie, but then I would bring in my camera and sound men, and I would be filming something else…I´d call cut here and action there, then I´d do these improvs and film people while they were on set while they were waiting for the lighting or film rehersal, or film some of the sets they had made.”
“There´s 100 hours of film, so the first criteria is to reduce that to 10 hours of what the most beautiful photography was – it could be landscapes, it could be the same take of the same scene, it didn´t matter – whatever I thought was the best 10% of footage. All of it looked pretty good, so when I reduced it to 10% we´re talking about phenomenal footage.”
“So now I have 10 hours of film, and the next criteria or filter is that everything has to look good aestethically. So the first two phases are aestethic only, I have no idea after that. There´s sound, but I don´t want to hear it. Now the 10 hours go down to 5 hours. The next level is I turn up the sound – by the way, this movie has 10 minutes of no sound – and the I choose anything I think is 100% honest. I don´t mean documentary, I mean no performance – no acting. So now, I cut that down to 2,5 hours of film.”
“3 months go by and I´m looking at these 2,5 hours of footage and I´m not thinking about it as a film whatsoever. So I look at it, and suddenly I realise what´s happening – I see a conflict, a metaphor, a story – not all of it is on the screen but I know what it is. I now know 100% what the film is about, at least to me, I see what the universe is reflecting here out of these 2,5 hours of footage. There´s this lesson and insight about life. And from that, I cut a 77 minute film.”
Interesting, thanks for posting it here Adam!
Vincent Gallo in his ‘regular’ outfit for Venice:
Gotta love this man!
the best place to read official details about the film is here:
www.promiseswritteninwater.com
there’s more about the other film projects (a short called The Agent and Anea 17 experimental film):
Now that Sage Stallone is dead, i wonder if this will get a release finally? Not that Sage was a big star, but maybe Gallo might feel obligated to release it, or maybe Sly will get more of an interest it in himself.
That would be good, curious to see an adult Sage act.
Was suprised to learn he turned down a reprise role in Rocky Balboa
idreamincelluloid
i find it a strange occurrence that the title of the film is about promises of an uncertain nature and Gallo’s uncertainty about whether the film will be released. I do not know if it means anything, just an ambiguous observation.