Quentin Tarantino's INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS

[Jason Shier]

Chris, I'm a quarter of the way through the Charlie Rose interview and I'll post after I see it all. (He has it up on his website now). So far so good. I also (as QT did) liked the "ouvre" clips at the beginning.

But to get back to your disagreement with Eli Roth's comments, revenge always gets a bad rap. There's a part of me that wanted to go along with George Bush's "revenge war" for 9/11. But my intellect told me that it was wrong all the way. Wrong in how he went about it. That's probably what angered me so damn much about Bush: he had the world in his hand and he threw it away, like he threw his brain away as soon as he was sworn into the oval office.

If you were a woman, and were raped, are you telling me you wouldn't want revenge? If someone killed your son or your wife or your mother you wouldn't want revenge? Forget about being too much like the perpetrators, they invaded your life. They invaded your "being". It's damn regrettable to dismiss morality in a situation like that, but I'm telling you, if something horrifically evil happens to me, I won't be dwelling on whether or not I'm gonna look or act like the perpetrator. I'll be dwelling on how best to get revenge. Is it by leaving it up to the "authorities", who stand a good chance of bungling the "investigation" in the name of "justice"? Or is it by nailing the bastard? I may be wrong on moral grounds, but at least I'd have justice in my mind. I don't want to take the law into my own hands, but sometimes, in life, some shit just must be avenged. And if you can do it, do it.
If you worry about God and "two wrongs don't make a right" or your conscience, then by all means, let the authorities deal with it.
I'm not saying go off half-cocked, like an unhinged loon, looking for justice. I'm saying think long and hard about it, (the context), and make sure you're ready to face jail time before you do anything in retaliation. Because there are definite consequences. Know what your doing, not forgetting your thinking cap, because emotions can cloud that. You could cause unforseen traumas or accidents- think about that too. Think about all of the possible outcomes. What's your contingency with your revenge? What are you exactly "revenging"? Is it worth it?
Killing Nazis? Burning them down to hell?

Lock and Load, Basterds!!!!!!!!
Jew Bear! Bring that fuckin' Bat!!!!

[Jason Shier]

Excellent interview. Very informative. Lots of grist for the film buff mill...

Quentin reveals a lot about his working methods and it's made me appreciate his films even more. He's very passionate about cinema, no argument at all on that, from anyone. I love his enthusiasm for his own work, for the Good, the Bad, & The Ugly and his knowledge. It's quite considerable. Loved learning about Wyler's Mrs. Miniver & the Goebbels connection.

It's an inspiring interview, actually. He explains why the music in his films is enough, that he doesn't have to make a musical. He talks about how "A Day in the Life of Elvis Presley" is more interesting than a whole bio-pic. He's right: seeing all the events of the whole day leading up to Elvis walking into Sun Records for the first time is way more interesting than a hammy "whole-life" story. I hope he makes that Elvis movie sometime. He'd do it severe justice. I can envision some of his scenes now..LOL

He's the Man. His point about the bravery of the German before he's killed by the Jew Bear is bang-on. A great refute to David Denby's scathing critique...

That is an interview you could watch over and over.
Thanks to Mr. Rose and Mr. Tarantino. Fine fine televison.

[Chris Knipp]

The new Charlie Rose Quentin Tarantino interview is here.

Revenge is a primitive and un-Christian. It deserves a "bad rap." But as a theme it is exciting and suspenseful and it allows Tarantino to play endlessly with references to Westerns and Samurai movies and other cinema he feels the greatest kinship with. QT's movies are such a guilty pleasure at times and so full of energy because he touches on animal impulses, on things so politically incorrect we can hardly believe how much they delight us. "Clarence Worley? Sound like a niggah name." God how I love that line! And: "I'm gonna get medieval on your ass." Terrific! The sheer panache of being able to write such stuff! These are primitive impulses, but pushing those buttons feels way better than some liberal softy PC film about the downtrodden like Frozen River.

Thanks for mentioning those points in the interview -- Tarantino's lack of need to do a musical, and his boredom with the biopic form, which indeed is mostly an excuse for turning out stuff that is repetitious and boring. One can see how the single day in the life of Elvis leading up to his walking into Sun Records for the first time would get QT's creative juices flowing much, much more and deservedly so.

Michuk (Borys Musielak) of FILMASTER watched the interview at my suggestion and then went on to watch all the Charlie Rose interviews. A good idea; they're good. I don't think I've seen them all and want to. But this new one is particularly comprehensive and good.

By "ouvre" you mean "oeuvre," but QT mispronounces it himself and maybe you were trying to capture his flavor.

tabuno: will take a look at that Slate review.

[Jason Shier]

He talked about the suspense in Basterds being "stretched like a rubber band" until it snaps in the Charlie Rose interview.

He also said in another interview in a paper I read that Brad Pitt and him agreed to expose each other's audiences to each other: a win-win situation. Which is why I won't gripe too much about his casting, which I felt was wrong. I didn't feel his character was real enough, that a number of better actors could have done that role and made it more juicy, more memorable. I mean, at the premiere of "Nation's Pride", Raine looks like he's trying to mimic Brando in the Godfather- with the stuffed cheeks and weird eyes...

[Jason Shier]

He was a caricature for me, not a "character"

[Chris Knipp]

I like the opening part of the Slate review (whcih, by the way, is by Dana Stevens), where Stevens lists recent movies about Nazis and points out how abusrd or dubious they are. But I differ with him when he goes here:

As a cathartic fantasy about kicking Nazi ass, Inglourious Bastards falls short even of last year's pallid Defiance. The scenes showing the Basterds in action offer plenty of Nazi-bashing, but they're dramatically inert. We learn nothing about, for example, why the unit is under the command of the gentile Lt. Raine or how the soldiers relate to him or to one another.

Defiance is pallid, and conventional, and INGOOURIOUS BASTERDS definitely is neither, nor is any moment in it "dramatically nert." And even if it were, waht would that have to do with why the "gentile" [sic] Lt. Raine is in command of the Apache Jews. Who doesn't know the reason for that? It's to put Brad Pitt at the top of the movie's cast and win huge box office, and that has worked. As for Pitt's performance, it works also, if you realize that despite its horrific moments, INCLOURIOUS BASTERDS is not meant to be either realistic or serious.

This is a good line to debate: "Like Spielberg, Tarantino is director enough to elicit cinematic wows even at his most reprehensible." And the set pieces "are near-perfect examples of taut, suspenseful moviemaking." In many ways Stevens gives QT his due. But he doesn't like it, and I guess that's where he and tabuno are in perfect harmony.

Everybody acknowledges Tarantino's faults, but some go on to acknowledge his genius, and others don't.

[Chris Knipp]

Yes, Lt. Aldo Raine is a caricature, but some of Tarantino's characters usually are. They are the quintessence of something. He's a film pastiche. So is Christoph Waltz's character; he's just more suave and speaks more languages.

But that said, Brad Pitt was better, in fact priceless, as an actor in a Tarantino-authored film in his cameo as the stoner in TRUE ROMANCE.

[Johann]

Do I reply as Jason or Johann?
How I should reply from now on?
How about this: Jason sticks if accreditation comes through.
If it doesn't, then it's Johann forever. Deal?
So it's up to you, TIFF communications office....



Absolutely, Pitt was better in True Romance, a movie I love.
Everybody in Basterds is a caricature in a way, but I want them to be REAL caricatures..real in the sense of absolute identity.
Raine has kind of an unknown or shaded identity. He's just "there". He doesn't give me the sense that he's been in war forever, that he's an officer who's earned his stripes to be Commander of the Basterds squad. Yes, he's got a rope burn around his neck. So what? I didn't think about it at all until Tarantino mentioned it in the Rose interview. As a matter of fact, I would've liked to have had a little more background info on all the Basterds. Just a little more info. Not the whole enchilada, just some more clues into their "characters". Make no mistake, I worship this movie.
Loved it, through and through. And always will.
(It's a big movie event in my life, what with seeing QT and Eli Roth in person at the Premiere, and I'm so glad I love it. It would've sucked the big weenie if I had that priviledge and then the movie was a turkey to me). I'm just being nitpicky, really.
Tarantino made the movie the way he did, and to me it's excellent.
Excellent premise, excellent performances, excellent cinema.
I don't wanna get too nitpicky, as he said he doesn't delve too much into subtexts at all in his movies.
He likes to keep it on the surface.

[Chris Knipp]

It is important to see or meet filmmakers and stars, to cement an admiration. I've seen a lot of those at the Nyff, thanks to PMW's original push to cover it in 2005. I don't know why, but I always think of being in the narrow entrance hallway to the Walter Reade facing Penelope Cruz. And seeing Kate Winslet, Nicole Kidman, Catherine Deneuve, and Catherine Breillat in person, as well as the loquacious (in two languages) Pedro Almodovar, and Mike Leigh, and many more. There have been some cute guys... I also love to sit through lengthy Q&As in French and Italian with an interpreter. The French one at FSLC is really good..

You can still review TIFF films whether you get this accreditation or not, and when you post in the Festival Coverage section, use Jason. Elsewhere I suggest when you post a full-fledged review, use Jason. For rants and debates, stick to the old familiar Johann.

[Johann]

That way I can hide, right?
No way.
My cover's blown now...HA HA!
I live at ------- ----- st.
My phone number is--- --- ----
LOL

I hide from NO ONE. LOL

Oh, the price of infamy...ha ha ha

[Chris Knipp]

We know where you are. We can go into your computer and read your hard disk.

[Johann]

I'm quite jealous now. Nicole Kidman? Breillat? Deneuve?Winslet?
Wow. That's some star power, right there.
And didn't you say Agnes Varda was at the Rendez-Vous?
Glad some "cuties" tickled your fancy...lol

[Johann]

Originally posted by Chris Knipp
We know where you are. We can go into your computer and read your hard disk.

Do you hear that? I hear chopper blades overhead!
What was that?!
I think I just saw a S.W.A.T. man rappel past the window...

[Johann]

I notice nobody's mentioned the effective use of the David Bowie song.

Puttin' out a fire with GASOLINE...

[Chris Knipp]

It indicates that Agnes Varda was there, but I can't remember if she came to the press screenings. Sometimes they dont' for the Rendez-Vous. For the NYFF they more often seem to. Here's a FSLC pdf file I dredged up listing the French people who were expected for Rendez-Vous 2009.

I Tarantino appearance probably was more energetic than most of these, but when you have Christopher Doyle Bridgette Lim, and Wong Kar-wai sitting in a row, or people like that, it holds my attention as much as any cuties.