20/10/2009

Stephen, a sweet but pathologically timid boy, has not left his apartment for years. At home, he catalogues his existence in dozens of containers full of absurd objects: buttons, bus tickets, straws diligently collected from 1993-96, and so forth. Besides his mania for taxonomy, his life is full of mental trips through a crazy and colourful world accompanied by his friend Bunny, a slave to sex, alcohol and gambling.

Bunny & the Bull [+see also:
trailer
film profile] is the kaleidoscopic debut feature by British director Paul King. It was presented out of competition in the Extra section of the Rome Film Festival to uproarious laughter and great applause.

Starring Edward Hogg and Simon Farnaby, the film is the first road movie filmed entirely inside a flat, in which Stephen’s mental voyage – simultaneously hilarious and dramatic – leads audiences through imaginative and implausible scenarios comprising animated cartoons, collages and all types of plastic models.

With visual nods to Terry Gilliam, Monty Python and Michel Gondry, but with an accumulation of small inventions that over time can be a little trying, the film thankfully exalts the talents of Farnaby/Bunny, a trashy Patrick Swayze, who evokes laughter as well as tears.

Produced by the UK’s Warp Films Ltd., Bunny & the Bull debuted at the Toronto Film Festival and has so far been sold by Wild Bunch to Germany, Israel and Australia. It will open domestically on November 27.