Art does not always belong to the people. It's a strange feeling to write a review of a movie I didn't get to see. And apparently no one will succeed. At least as long as Vincent Gallo is alive. But everything in order.
A little history. In 1997, Gallo made his debut as a director with the remarkable ironic-sad and largely autobiographical film Buffalo 66. Critics generally accepted the film, although the final competition at the festival in Cannes was not allowed. According to Vincent, this was influenced by Angelica Houston, with whom he had a conflict during filming. In 2003, no one could stop Gallo from bringing his new painting “Brown Rabbit” to the Cannes Film Festival. In it, by the way, was not without autobiographical moments. His character is a motorcycle racer, and the whole film is haunted by memories of a girl from the past. Gallo himself at one time achieved the professional level of a motorcycle racer and performed even at the level of the US Championship, and the love of his youth was a certain Jolie Brown (Brown), who like a shadow passes through all his work. After all, the main character of Buffalo 66 is Billy Brown, his next film Brown Bunny, and Vincent’s favorite color is brown. In the case of Vincent Gallo, this cannot be a coincidence.
So that's what happened to Brown Rabbit in 2003 in Cannes, I hope everyone knows. Many critics immediately smashed the film to dust, and the authoritative Roger Ebert hastened to christen it the worst film in the history of Cannes. Gallo had to go on stage and apologize to everyone, and he said he would never make films again. After the festival, Vincent found the strength to work on the editing of the film, as a result, before the rental, the timing decreased by 20 minutes. Film critics eventually became more supportive, and the same Ebert, revisiting the film, stated: “The version shown at Cannes was a bad film, but now Gallo has made an accessible and deep cinema.”
I do not rule out that after "Brown Rabbit" Vincent really wasn't going to shoot anything else. The story of Promises Written in Water is even more interesting. In fact, initially it was supposed to be a very different movie, with a different director in which Gallo would just play one of the roles. But in preparation for the shooting, something went wrong and the project decided to close. However, Gallo revised the situation, leaving the backbone of the actors and a couple of staff decided to do a completely new job. As a result, the shooting took place in early 2008 in California. The film was directed by Masanobu Takayanagi ("Warrior, My Boyfriend is Psycho, Fight, etc.). The film was made in black and white.
From the filming process, it is known that Vincent wanted the film to be “honest”. He didn’t want his cast to “play” too much, he wanted him to behave naturally in front of the camera. In view of this, several improvised scenes were filmed, where there was no pre-written script and dialogue.
And on September 7, 2010 at 13:30 at the festival in Venice, the world premiere of Vincent Gallo’s new film: “Promises Written on Water” took place. At Gallo's request, nothing was said about the film for the festival - essentially nothing but a brief description and a sheet with his surname: "Vincent Gallo: actor/director/writer/composer." No website, no advertising photos, newspaper clippings - nothing.
From the short extract for the film, we can understand that the story tells about Kevin (Vincent Gallo), a photographer who, with the help of Mafioso (Sage Stallone), gets a job in a funeral home. His new girlfriend, Mallory (Delphin Bafort), is terminally ill and contemplating suicide. As a result, she asks Kevin to take responsibility for her body after her death and supervise her cremation.
The show was attended by Quentin Tarantino, as well as festival director Marco Muller. A portion of the applause went to the lead singer Delphine Bafort, who appeared in a long gold dress. Officially, Vincent Gallo did not attend the screening and asked to cancel the press conference. However, eyewitnesses saw him in the city on this day and even some claimed to have seen him in the hall at the time of the premiere. The film itself was well received, it was noted that it was the saddest and most touching film of the festival.
Then there was another 1 screening of the film in Toronto (September 13, 2010). That's it. Next, Vincent Gallo put it far away on the shelf and declared that he would never show it again, thus insulating it from the "dark energy of the public." Shows in Venice and Toronto Gallo explained certain arrangements with the performer of the main female role Delphine Bafort. As a result, so far (2018), not a single frame of the film has been leaked to the network. There is only a photo of Vincent with cameraman Masanobu Takayanagi taken while working on the film, but outside the set.
So now we have almost no chance to see this picture. I don’t know what would happen to Vincent Gallo to change his mind and make a film. I understand that he has been offended since the days of Brown Rabbit, and maybe even before, because all this repeats the story of painting, which he gave up to do, in his own words: “it’s bad that no one had his paintings.” On the other hand, there are still many people interested in his work, for whom each of his new films would be a real gift. It's selfish of course, but I don't want Vincent to blame. I should, but I don't want to. Maybe it’s because I hope one day I’ll give the film a shot. In the meantime, I'll just leave the green for lack of brown.