The Brown Bunny (2003)

User Rating:

4.9/10   

Director:

Vincent Gallo

Writer:

Vincent Gallo (written by)

Release Date:

14 November 2003 (Austria)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

Professional motorcycle racer Bud Clay heads from New Hampshire to California to race again. Along the way he meets various needy women who provide him with the cure to his own loneliness, but only a certain woman from his past will truly satisfy him.

Plot Keywords:

Love | California | New Hampshire | Motorcycle | Loneliness

Awards:

1 win & 2 nominations

Cast

Vincent Gallo	...	Bud Clay
Chloë Sevigny	...	Daisy (as Chloe Sevigny)
Cheryl Tiegs	...	Lilly
Elizabeth Blake	...	Rose
Anna Vareschi	...	Violet
Mary Morasky	...	Mrs. Lemon

Runtime:

93 min | Canada:90 min (Toronto International Film Festival) | France:119 min (Cannes Film Festival)

Country:

USA | Japan | France

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Germany:16 | Ireland:18 | Switzerland:16 (canton of Zurich) | New Zealand:R18 | Canada:18+ (Quebec) (DVD rating) | Canada:R (Manitoba/Ontario) (DVD rating) | Italy:VM18 | Brazil:18 | Finland:K-18 | France:-16 | Portugal:M/18 | Switzerland:18 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:18 (canton of Vaud) | USA:Not Rated | Sweden:15 | Australia:R | UK:18

Filming Locations:

Best Western Inn - 6141 Franklin Avenue, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Kinetique

Trivia:

The opening scene of Gallo driving was originally almost 20 minutes of him just driving until it was cut down because it was too long.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Bud speaks to Daisy's mother, a glass on the table appears and then disappears between shots.

Quotes:

[first lines]
[Bud walks up to a young woman, working behind the counter in a gas station store]
Bud Clay: Hi.
Violet: Hello... Did you just come from the race track?
Bud Clay: Mmhm.
Violet: Did you win?
Bud Clay: No.
Violet: Oh.
Bud Clay: How much is this?
Violet: $2... Will you be racing again?
[...]

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "The Daily Show: (2006-05-04)" (2006)

Soundtrack:

Beautiful

THE BROWN BUNNY: Theatrical Release Version (Vincent Gallo, 2003) BOMB

Although I had long suspected that the notorious unsimulated fellatio sequence would be the only reason for me to watch this movie, I had no idea that I would have had to suffer through around 75 minutes of excruciating boredom before it got there! Having just come from a 3-month film-making program in Hollywood, I can understand a director succumbing to the temptation of pointing his camera at anything hoping that it will eventually make sense in the editing suite; however, Gallo's film looks and feels like all the available footage has just been pasted together without any editorial intervention! Scenes just go on and on without any rhyme or reason, characters whisper unintelligibly all through the picture and Gallo's character comes off as a chick magnet with no sex drive, and a cry-baby in the bargain!! I can't begin to think how the Cannes Film Festival audience felt when having to sit through an even longer (by 26 minutes!) cut of the film! As for me, I found myself helplessly bursting into laughter occasionally at the sheer self-indulgence, pretentiousness and absurdity of it all; even that sequence is not free of chuckles, as Gallo has his character and Chloe Sevigny's carrying on a would-be rhetorical conversation while the latter is giving him (pun intended) lip service!! I can understand the furore this sequence has caused given that it features a recognizable, Oscar-nominated Hollywood starlet but, again, Gallo is hardly breaking new ground here, as explicit oral sex sequences featuring established actors were also featured in Nagisa Oshima's AI NO CORRIDA (1976) and Marco Bellocchio's DEVIL IN THE FLESH (1986; I can't wait to get my hands on the No Shame DVD)! Maybe he just decided to insert the scene because someone reminded him that the word "gallo" in Italian means "cock" - as in rooster. The "twist" at the end makes everything, particularly that sequence, all the more stultifyingly inept and redundant...