The Brown Bunny
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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The Brown Bunny is a 2003 American independent film by actor/director Vincent Gallo about a motorcycle racer on a cross-country drive who is haunted by the memories of his former lover. It had its world premiere at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival to boos and catcalls. The film garnered a great deal of media attention due to the explicit sexual content (see list of mainstream films with unsimulated sex) of the film and due to a war of words between Gallo and film critic Roger Ebert, who stated that The Brown Bunny was the worst film in the history of Cannes.
Plot
Bud Clay (Vincent Gallo), a motorcycle racer, undertakes a cross-country drive, following a race in New Hampshire, in order to participate in a race in California. All the while he is haunted by memories of his former lover, Daisy (Chloë Sevigny). On his journey he meets three different women, but is unable to form an emotional connection with any of them. He first meets Violet (played by Anna Vareschi) at a gas station in New Hampshire and convinces her to join him on his trip to California. They stop at her home in order to get her clothes, but he drives off as soon as she enters the house.
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 remember 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, Lilly (played by Cheryl Tiegs), comforts and kisses her, before starting to cry and eventually leaving her. Bud appears 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 on steet corners, before deciding to ask one of them, Rose (played by Elizabeth Blake), to join him for a lunch. She eats McDonald'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 at a hotel. There, Daisy eventually appears. She seems nervous, going to the bathroom twice to smoke crack cocaine, while Bud waits for her, sitting on his bed. As she proposes to go out to buy something to drink, 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 fellatio on him. Once done, he insults her and as they lie 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 explains that she was just being friendly and wanted to get high smoking pot with them. Bud becomes upset because Daisy was pregnant and it transpires that the fetus died as a result of 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. Bud 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 then choking to death after vomiting while unconscious. The movie ends as Bud is driving his truck in California.
