The Brown Bunny (2003)

Note des utilisateurs:

4.9/10   

Réalisateur:

Vincent Gallo

Scénariste:

Vincent Gallo (written by)

Release Date:

14 novembre 2003 (Autriche)

Genre:

Drame

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 | Motorcycle | New Hampshire | California | Loneliness

Awards:

1 win & 2 nominations

Avis des utilisateurs:

The Brown Bunny is a radical American masterpiece

Ensemble

Vincent Gallo	...	Bud Clay
Chloë Sevigny	...	Daisy
Cheryl Tiegs	...	Lilly
Elizabeth Blake	...	Rose
Anna Vareschi	...	Violet
Mary Morasky	...	Mrs. Lemon
Jeffrey Wood	...	Featured Racer
Eric Wood	...	Featured Racer
Michael Martire	...	Featured Racer
Rick Doucette	...	Featured Racer
Jim Lester	...	Featured Racer
Michael Niksa	...	Featured Racer

Durée:

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

Pays:

USA | Japan | France

Langue:

Anglais

Couleur:

Couleur

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Son:

Dolby Digital

Classification:

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

Emplacements De Pelliculage:

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

Company:

Kinetique

Anecdotes:

When Roger Ebert first viewed the movie in May 2003, he stated that he thought it was the worst movie in the history of the Cannes Film Festival. In August 2004, after watching an edited-down, shorted version of the film, Ebert gave it a thumbs up on his show, stating its editing changed the film.

Goofs:

Errors in geography: When driving through St. Louis, it shows him crossing the Mississippi River from Illinois to Missouri via the Poplar Street Bridge. Soon after, he's shown driving on Hwy 40 through Saint Louis, but in the opposite direction. He's actually traveling back towards the Illinois side of the Mississippi River.

Guillemet:

[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 "Gilmore Girls: Die, Jerk (#4.8)" (2003)

Soundtrack:

Tears for Dolphy

The Brown Bunny is a radical American masterpiece

I had heard about the controversy surrounding The Brown Bunny (who hadn't?)--the feud with Roger Ebert, the graphic sex scene--so when I received an invitation to a press screening, I jumped at the chance to see what the trailer calls "the most controversial American film ever made". What the trailer and all the hype didn't prepare me for was the fact that The Brown Bunny could also be considered one of the most original American films ever made. In a time of overblown budgets and enormous productions with endless crew lists, Vincent Gallo has almost single-handedly made a concise, well-thought out, conceptual film--a poignant, touching love story. It's not often that a director's second film is more daring than his first--money, greed and Hollywood power seem too tempting to most and sophomore efforts usually represent the big sell out. Not so The Brown Bunny, not so Gallo the iconoclast. He manages to make a second film more interesting, more intimate, more revealing and more memorable than his first. And he manages to do it outside the system.

Gallo's instincts as a director are spot-on. Not only does he pull from Chloe Sevigny the performance of her career, he also solicits from a cast of complete unknowns and non-actors (including Cheryl Tiegs) painfully believable performances. I have always thought his talents as an actor were underrated, but surely The Brown Bunny will provide him his due as Bud Clay, a motorcycle racer undergoing a breakdown while driving across the country. Simply put, Gallo as Bud is devastating. At one point during the film, I was so tense watching him fall apart that I realized that I had been holding my breath through the entire scene. When you stop to think that he is also directing himself and directing the photography, it's that much more impressive.

I don't know how someone circumvents the Hollywood system to make a movie in this day and age, but it seems that Gallo has not only done that, but done it in a way that is memorable, haunting and visually stunning. This is a truly radical film made by a very courageous filmmaker, someone willing to tell a story, tell it honestly and suffer the consequences of his convictions. Pasolini would be proud.