VincentGallo Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Some people go to Fantastic Fest to focus on horror films; me, I grab the rare opportunity to see animated movies made for grownups. I especially like animation that looks and feels a little different than the mainstream -- for example, the rotoscoped look of A Scanner Darkly. Metropia touches on some of the same themes as A Scanner Darkly, but this animated feature looks like nothing else you've seen onscreen lately.

Metropia is set in Europe in 2024, in a grim future where natural resources have dried up, financial collapse has left most people struggling, and the biggest corporation in the world is Trexx, which runs a giant Metro system (subway) all across the continent. Roger (Vincent Gallo), a Swedish call-center worker, is considered paranoid for worrying about whether Trexx, and the Metro, are involved in some sort of oppressive conspiracy. When his bike is broken and he's forced to ride the underground train, he has to fight a voice in his head that doesn't quite sound like his own, as well as the urge to follow his dream girl, Nina (Juliette Lewis), whose face adorns popular shampoo ads and bottles everywhere.

Francis Ford Coppola may never again craft a classic like The Godfather, but after years spent toiling on bland studio fare – as well as 2007's ambitious, muddled Youth Without Youth – the director regains his mojo with Tetro, a saga of familial strife and Oedipal conflict equally indebted to '60s euro cinema and the theatrical traditions of Tennessee Williams and Arthur Miller. An independently financed gem, Coppola's first self-penned film since 1974's The Conversation is shot in lustrous black and white and marked by an old-school formal proficiency that's highlighted by an endlessly intriguing and expressive frame. It's also rife with echoes of the past, in terms of its cinematic forbearers – including The Godfather, and its focus on the shadow cast by titanic father figures on sons – as well as its narrative proper, which concerns the reunion in Buenos Aires of 18-year-old Bennie (newcomer Alden Ehrenreich) and his older brother Tetro (Vincent Gallo), the latter of whom up and left home years prior on a writing sabbatical and was never heard from again. As is slowly revealed, his departure was spurred by both men's father Carlo (Klaus Maria Brandauer), a world-renowned symphony conductor whom Tetro disdainfully refers to as "The Great Man" and whose stature, and accompanying egomaniacal behavior, caused an unspecified rift that hasn't yet healed.

Vincent Gallo's persona is anything but brightly colored and melodic. In fact, it's mostly brooding, insane, and tense. He's lathered the hate on for who knows how many fellow actors and actresses, journalists, websites, and other bystanders he's come in contact with. He's redefined crude by offering to sell his sperm to light-complexioned people (the blonde and blue-eyed would even get a discount!). Nevertheless, some of his art can be undeniably and irresistibly sweet and melodic.

His CD "When" is an exercise in gentle soft sounds, and in the cinematic realm, there's nothing that compares to the Christina Ricci bowling alley dance scene in Buffalo 66. The lights dim, King Crimson's "Moonchild" purrs, and a spotlighted Ricci taps in time to the music. Sure, I'm a Crimson fan and I have a thing for under-saturated colors, but the gem of this scene lies in that wistful look in Ricci's eyes, as she's illuminated by the spotlight but still seemingly unnoticed. A whole movie plays out in one and a half minutes, and as much as I love the quirk that comes before and after this scene, I can't help but want more of these melodic moments.

Seeing nothing else of Gallo's work, one might tap him for the perfect person to overwhelm us with whimsy or dip into the land of fairy tales -- yet it's all housed in one of the most irascible names on the outskirts of Hollywood.

With an entire absence of color, Gallo can be seen this week in Francis Ford Coppola's Tetro.

It was inevitable -- as soon as Francis Ford Coppola rethought a trip to Cannes for Tetro, you knew that a trailer would undoubtedly appear. But how would a brief look into Coppola's first original story since The Conversation, and next indie step after Youth Without Youth, turn out?

Stunning, dark, and just a little bit confusing, if the trailer is any indication. I'd say it's a welcome strangeness and indicative of an interesting cinematic ride, but Movieline isn't so sure: "You can see the danger here amid the flashes of beauty and passion, reminding viewers all too well of the never-ending hangover of perfection." Indeed, it's not your usual trailer, mixing distinct artistic images and a few splashes of color in the story of familial struggle.

Vincent Gallo's Tetro is much like any other Gallo, but it also seems like he was made for Coppola's black and white eye --ripped out of Buffalo and finally finding a home in a timeless, color-free Buenos Aires. But check out the trailer and weigh in below: Has the Tetro trailer piqued your interest?

Things don't seem to be going smoothly for Matt Dillon. For the second time this year, his lead role is going to someone else. First it was Cadillac Records. Now it's Francis Ford Coppola's Tetro. The Hollywood Reporter has posted that Vincent Gallo has signed on to star in Coppola's next directorial gig, with no reference to the previously-attached Dillon.

Gallo, meanwhile, signs on for the project after throwing a big stink about his previous gig, Giallo. Back in February, he was less than pleased that Dario Argento had cast daughter Asia Argento, and wanted out: "I'd rather not be in a movie with her. I'm not a fan. I was a fan of her father's. I'm retiring." I guess Javier Bardem and newcomer Alden Ehrenreich can feel honored that Gallo is willing/interested in working with them!

With production beginning at the end of the month in Buenos Aires, the film focuses on two brothers, played by Gallo and Ehrenreich. They're "torn apart by rivalries and betrayal," older bro Gallo heads to Buenos Aires, and younger brother Alden goes there to find him. Bardem will play an Argentinian literary critic and Maribel Verdu is Tetro's love interest.

Have no fear -- Vincent Gallo isn't going to become the next Tim Allen -- one of those unlikely men whose interesting past is buried as they become a bright and shiny Disney name. And no, this new project is not a big-screen version of the Canadian TV drama. Metropia is gearing up to be adult fare with a Swedish twist, and Variety reports that Gallo and Juliette Lewis are leading the film's voice cast.

According to ATMO... "Metropia is taking place in a not-so-distant, terrifying Europe. The world is running out of oil, and the net of undergrounds has been connected, creating a gigantic web underneath Europe. Roger from Farsta (a suburb of Stockholm) tries to stay away from the underground. He think it's unpleasant and he sometimes hears strange voices in his head." Then, this dude finds out that every detail of his life is being controlled. (But I ask, if every detail was controlled, could you actually discover that and change it?) The best part: "To succeed, he needs supermodel Nina to help him. Or, is it maybe Nina that needs Roger?" The best way to survive the scary future: supermodels!

Since Gallo and Lewis are leading the voice cast, I imagine they will be Roger and Nina. Are they the people you would pick for a guy suffering from strange voices and a future-saving supermodel? Joining them -- Udo Kier, Stellan Skarsgard, Sofia Helin, Shanti Roney, and Alexander Skarsgard. In the works for a handful of years now, this project should be pretty interesting -- the plan is to blend live action with animation, and Tarik Saleh, the film's director, says: "The border between animation and regular fiction film is blurring. In the future, the audience will not categorize films in the way we tend to do today. Metropia is steps ahead." Well, we'll find out fairly soon -- the film's release is slated for Spring 2009.

Where could the Italian horror master go after The Mother of Tears? Our Scott Weinberg called it "the master's best flick since ... hell, since at least the mid-'80s." That leaves a pretty big wake to fill, and Variety reports that Dario Argento is planning to follow it up with Giallo, "an English-language homage to the genre that made him a cult helmer." (Aside from meaning Yellow, Giallo is also the word given to pulp thrillers in Italy.) The flick is being produced by the LA-based Hannibal Pictures, and comes from a screenplay by Damned writers Jim Agnew and Sean Keller. But what of its stars? Take out the "i," and you've got one -- Vincent Gallo -- who will be joined by Ray Liotta and Dario's daughter, Asia Argento.

In usual horror form, the movie "will revolve around serial slashings of some very attractive women being investigated by a solitary cop, played by Liotta, who engages in a cat-and-mouse game with the psychopathic perpetrator," Vincent Gallo. Someone must've been watching Dirt last season and thought there was way too little blood when Vinnie came to visit. He's definitely the right sort for this role, and I wonder if his penile fixation will find its way into the flick in any way. It'd fit with the whole attractive woman angle. As for vixen Asia, there's no word on who she'll play -- perhaps a would-be victim that Liotta has to save.

When production gets underway this February in Turin (where he shot Tears), Argento aims to put together a movie that taps into the director's 70s thrills, like The Bird with the Crystal Plumage and Suspiria. Thoughts?

On the one hand, there's Julie Delpy. She's divorced the unable-to-consummate Karol, played a lipstick lesbian and lusted and loved an American named Jesse. She also makes films like 2 Days in Paris, which inspired Erik Davis to say: "if you're not wiping off tears of laughter and heartache by the time the end credits roll ... well, then you're simply not human." On the other hand, there's Vincent Gallo. He's been in a myriad of roles, which are probably best encompassed by his 2001 films -- Get Well Soon, the Courtney Cox co-starring film about a troubled talk show host and Trouble Every Day, Claire Denis' sex/gore film. He's also the guy behind the wildly-popular Buffalo '66 and the troubling The Brown Bunny and as if that wasn't enough -- he sells his sperm and body on the Internet.

Hearing that they're co-starring together in a criminal movie sounds puzzling at first. They are definitely not the first pair I'd think to throw together (although they did get some screen time together in L.A. Without a Map). The film in question is The Last Mile, and it is a thriller currently being launched at Cannes. The duo are part of a group of criminals who try to pull off an amateurish heist. Unfortunately, their getaway car gets stuck in a huge traffic jam. While I'm not entirely titillated by the premise, there is something about the thought of Delpy and Gallo stuck in a car in infuriating traffic that will have me running to the theaters. They've each got a good hold on neurotic craziness, and I can just imagine them clashing. Delpy is co-producing the feature with Christophe Mazodier, and it will be the freshman feature of writer-director Philippe Rouquier. Unfortunately, the film has to wait for Delpy to film her second feature, The Countess, which means that it won't go into production until January. Countess actually has Gallo on the cast list ... is Delpy the next lady in Gallo's romantic wasteland?

Just when you thought the IMDb was the greatest asset to movie lovers, the site has gone and revealed itself to be less a service to the cinematic community and more of a privilege from another corporate power worried about its public image. It isn't clear when the site instituted this, but as of today the IMDb has a search filter that makes it difficult to locate some titles, specifically pornographic or otherwise sexually explicit titles. These titles include the usual XXX fare, but also include more mainstream films like John Cameron Mitchell's Shortbus and Caligula, which stars Golden Globe winner Helen Mirren.

They aren't gone from the database, though. Shortbus can be found by way of Mitchell, who shows up when searched. The same goes for Caligula, which can be found in a roundabout way via its stars. But the IMDb isn't only filtering out the titles, it is also filtering out some performers who appear in adult titles. At least that's how it seems. The Rabbi Report experimented with the IMDb search and discovered that while most of the Shortbus cast doesn't show up, some large profile porn stars do show up. As further examples, I tested out the names Jenna Jameson, John Holmes and Ron Jeremy -- all were easily searched. Then I looked up The Brown Bunny and the documentary Inside Deep Throat -- neither was easily located.

Damn Vincent Gallo for cursing cancer on Roger Ebert! Ebert will be going back into surgery on June 16 to remove a cancerous growth on his salivary gland. Back in 2002, the film critic underwent surgery for papillary thyroid cancer. A year later he was back in the operating room for the salivary gland and afterward he went through radiation therapy. Not long before Ebert first showed signs of the cancer, actor Vincent Gallo had coincidentally cursed the disease on Ebert after receiving a bad review from him.

Ebert told Chicago Sun-Times columnist Robert Feder that the cancer, "isn't life threatening," and he'll, "continue to function as a film critic during this time."

We at Cinematical wish him a very quick and healthy recovery.