| QUOTE (Ebert on the screening at Cannes) |
| I refer to the press screening; at the public screening, reaction was more evenly divided between applause and boos, but the press hated the film. The impression got around that I led the boos, perhaps because the hex on my colon drew untoward attention toward me, but the British trade magazine Screen International, which convenes a panel of critics to score each entry, reported that "The Brown Bunny" got the lowest score in the history of their ratings. Did I sing "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on my Head" at one point during the screening? To my shame, I did, but softly and briefly, before my wife dug her elbow into my side. By that point the screening was out of control, anyway, with audience members hooting, whistling and honking at the screen. As it turns out, the French director Gaspar Noe was seated near me. "He's not a great pal," Gallo said, "but I do know him, and he sort of twerks me on all the time, he loves to wind me up. And he came out of the screening and left like six messages on my voice mail. And he pinned it all on you, because he was sitting close to you and he presented it to me that you were orchestrating ..." |