the movie Buffalo 66

[northernsky]

Became the one of those hip indie films for a spell, when Vincent Gallo was briefly being heralded as the next big thing ( whatever happened there??). Personally I found it empty and indulgent, although Christina Ricci was very fetching!

And whatever happened to Ricci? Just checking her filmography, I saw 4 of them in 98-99 alone - Buffalo 66, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, The Opposite of Sex, and Sleepy Hollow - and enjoyed all of them. Seen nothing with her in since. I should probably check Monster some time; the list after that looks grim!

Gallo personally is of course repugnant. A creep of the highest order as far as I can tell.

He's been off my radar since. I only know he had some kind of critical fiasco with The Brown Bunny. Which I haven't seen. But, it seems you might be onto something!

Production
Gallo had difficulties working with his cast and crew. Gallo and Christina Ricci reportedly did not get along on the set, she was not even mentioned in the credits of the film. He called her a "puppet" who did what she was told. Ricci vowed to never work with Gallo again. She also resented the comments he made about her weight three or four years after filming. Anjelica Huston also did not get along with him, and Gallo claimed Huston caused the film to be turned down by the Cannes Film Festival. It was director Stéphane Sednaoui that suggested to Gallo to use cinematographer Lance Acord. Although Acord was widely credited with the film's distinct visual style, Gallo has claimed credit for designing most of the film's cinematography. He also publicly disparaged Acord, saying "This guy had no ideas, no conceptual ideas, no aesthetic point of view."

[Bent Fabric]

I love it dearly.

I first saw it on an airplane flight (when Virgin Atlantic were doing Chicago-London, you'd get all of these "arthouse films" on the in flight entertainment) and immediately fell in love with Ricci (she could never be THAT Christina Ricci forever, by the time she was doing things like Ally McBeal three years later, there had been an irreversible shift). The overall magic of the film...the sort of twisted plot devices and relationships, the filmic use of (then) deeply unfashionable things like 69-72 era Yes and Lake era King Crimson...it was if someone had made a movie specifically for "late twenties me" (and I've always remembered the sheer frequency of people my age asking me about Yes after seeing that movie).

I don't watch it weekly now, but I remember it with considerable warmth and affection.

[Sneelock]

Yeah, I really enjoyed that one. My favorite performance was probably from Ben Gazzara.

and here I thought I had nothing good to say about it. Yeah, BG was good - he was always good. I buy BG in it. I don't really buy the leads.
Gallo especially.

[bobzilla77]

It's the only thing I've seen by Gallo that I liked. Yeah CR was fine fine fine in it. And it was on-point for the times.

Boy Vincent Gallo is a creep, though, huh? A friend of mine who knew Kim Deal said she brought Gallo over to his house for a BBQ and all he did was insult everyone there and complain about the lack of vegetarian options. My friend ended up kicking them out of his house after Gallo said something demeaning to his wife.

[Matt Wilson]

Not to mention having Chloe Sevigny service him in The Brown Bunny.

[bobzilla77]

The Brown Bunny, lol. I watched that thing. A twist movie without the movie. It wasn't QUITE as bad as Roger Ebert's review made it sound. But it wasn't what you call good neither.

[Matt Wilson]

I would never watch something like that. I can't believe he'd ask an actress to do something like that, and she says she doesn't regret it either.

[Loki]

A friend of mine who knew Kim Deal said she brought Gallo over to his house for a BBQ and all he did was insult everyone there and complain about the lack of vegetarian options.