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As another unashamed 'friend' of Vincent Gallo, I was appalled at the his treatment at Cannes, most notably at the press conference where he was accompanied by Chloe Sevigny. It seems to me that figures like Gallo, at an adjunct to the ongoing poverty of film directors that roam Cannes (yes..the Watchowski's), become the focus of unmitigated aggression from the panel precisely for their self-mythologising habits. I actually read, I think in the Independent on Sunday, that certain critics were 'appalled' at the lack of action in the first half of the movie. How dare Gallo dedicate so much time to the reverence of his own self image was a repeated sentiment. And yet Chantal Akerman, darling of Cannes, has made a career from the very same visual practice, from the earliest 'Hotel Monterey' and 'Chambre' movies right through 'Je Tu Il Elle' to 'La Captive'. Not much happens, as Yvonne Marguiles reminds us, in Akerman. There's little action in Brown Bunny too, yet Gallo as a figure conscious of his own celebrity he calls certain a respect------may I remind people that this is a man who has been exhibiting as a painter since the early eighties, was a contemporary of Basquiat, has released 2 great albums, published an incredible photojournal, and made one of the seminal contemporary independent movies. So what if his bastard-ometer is perpetually set at max. Reading interviews with Gallo...the man drips sincerity. I read he fired Winona Ryder for not turning up on set at 9 am. Good. Whats wrong with a little boat rocking. His comments on Korine are harsh admittedly, but they electrocute that dead dog indie cinema. Few would scorn the days when Goddard issued challenges willy nilly, in defence of his insurmountable 'cine-sincerity'. Perhaps Gallo's films, in their fullest sense, are inseparable from his self-mythologising extratextual world. Bufallo 66 "as quasi-biopic of Gallo" is still the discursive line---it seems critics cannot divorce Gallo as myth from his films. Gallo is perhaps reminiscent of Paul Morrissey, the republican who worked with Warhol on Flesh, Trash and Heat, at their decadent height. He gives us oral sex on screen, and tears after a press conference. I mourn the day that such artistic hypocrisies are not taken with open arms. Having noted that the last nail has been firmly hammered down on the coffin of film-as-language; with the gap-advert, orientalist, clumsy car-crash that was 'Matrix Reloaded' and 'Daredevil'; perhaps Gallo is doing more good than harm. He is showing that you dont have to spend monstrous sums of money to further the form. finally, Gallo's music videos/adverts are shoestring sublime. You can see them at http://www.galloappreciation.com/index2.html gratuitously, a Gallo fan-- Dave Surman Warwick Film and TV __________________________________________________ Yahoo! Plus - For a better Internet experience http://uk.promotions.yahoo.com/yplus/yoffer.html