SS Col. Hans Landa is a..

Nazi...

a Schemer...

a Cold-blooded murderer...

And now...


a Defender of Good Literature.


Well, 1 out of 4 isn't too bad...right?

"The Bride will fight again." Solid promise, or total hogwash?

Source: Slashfilm.com

Oh, boy. Here we go again. A year and a half ago seeing Quentin Tarantino proclaim his intention to make a film wouldn’t have meant much. But then came his appearance on a French talk show stage during Cannes ‘08, where he promised to be back a year later with Inglourious Basterds. We all laughed, knowing that he’d been talking about that movie for a decade. Then he actually followed through, and did so with a great film that has become his biggest hit. So now, when Tarantino tells an Italian talk show “the Bride will fight again,” I suppose we have to take him more seriously.

Quentin Tarantino's next project!

AKA: Why I love The Onion.

Source: The Onion

MADRID—While attending a European press junket Monday for his film Inglourious Basterds, director Quentin Tarantino announced that his next project, Jack Rabbit Slim, will go into production this fall, and will be an homage to his favorite director and screenwriter of all time: Quentin Tarantino.

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Tarantino

"I've been a Tarantino fan for as long as I can remember," said Tarantino, who repeatedly referred to his hero as "The Master." "Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Jackie Brown—those movies were basically my film school. I mean, the ability to take a genre or a subgenre, embrace it to its core, and then blow it up and make it your own is something that has to be admired."

"We're talking about the quintessential writer-director of our time," Tarantino added.

A self-described "Tarantino geek," Tarantino said Jack Rabbit Slim was conceived as a tribute to his idol, and is deeply influenced by Tarantino's blaxsploitation movies of the late 1990s, Tarantino's classic multi-volume kung fu pictures, and the grindhouse films of the late 2000s that Tarantino made famous.

Tarantino has already cast the once-popular actor Eric Roberts to play Slim, in a role director believes will resurrect Roberts' career.

The film will reportedly feature elements and techniques lifted directly from Tarantino's past works, including numerous point-of-view shots from car trunks, and references to Tarantino's favorite cult films, My Best Friend's Birthday and From Dusk Till Dawn.

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Stills from four of the films that inspired the director to emulate Tarantino's style.

In one sequence Tarantino called "distinctly Tarantino-esque," Slim delivers an unexpectedly poetic monologue on cheeseburgers while dancing to an Ennio Morricone instrumental with a drug-addled Uma Thurman. And in the film's stunning climax, Slim remembers his training with a martial arts expert in China and then exacts revenge on the film's antagonists: a Nazi colonel, a Hollywood stuntman, and a Los Angeles syndicate of 88 yakuza warriors.

As an homage to Tarantino, Tarantino said he also plans to give the famed director a minor role in the film.

"If nothing else, I hope Jack Rabbit Slim makes moviegoers want to go back and explore the complete filmography of this great, great American artist," Tarantino said. "I really can't think of another living director who has made as large a contribution to the evolution of world cinema, and I feel it is my duty as a filmmaker to remind people of that."

Added Tarantino, "God, I love Quentin Tarantino."

The filmmaker, who became more and more excited when talking about the films of Quentin Tarantino, admitted that he has an autographed Reservoir Dogs poster signed by the director hanging in his living room. He also bragged about owning the syringe that John Travolta used to give Uma Thurman an adrenaline shot in Pulp Fiction.

"The actual one," Tarantino stressed.

Tarantino went on to say he was pleased to see that, almost 20 years into his career, director Quentin Tarantino was still going strong with his latest film, Inglourious Basterds, which Tarantino felt was one of the legendary filmmaker's "very best."

"If Jack Rabbit Slim is even a third as good as Basterds, I might just make a movie so good that Tarantino himself will give it a standing ovation," Tarantino said. "You know what, I bet he will."

"Inglourious Basterds" - REVIEW

It's been a good few years for villains in cinema, with each successive 12 months giving us at least one standout, albeit supporting, antagonist. 2007, great year that it was gave us two: Javier Bardem as Anton Chigurh in "No Country for Old Men", and Casey Affleck as Bob Ford in "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford" (although Chigurh fits the notion of "villain" somewhat better than Ford). Then 2008 gave us, what else, Heath Ledger as the Joker in "The Dark Knight". Each of these three, whether quietly malevolent like Ford, or obviously deranged like the Joker, had a way of making an impression: Ford's strange aloofness throughout the entire film, Chigurh's conversation in the gas station, and the Joker's first hostage video. Not exactly low standards. So, who is in the running to be 2008's prime candidate for achievement in villainy? None other than Col. Hans Landa of the S.S., played by Christoph Waltz. Though he has been given the nickname "The Jew Hunter", he quite enjoys his work, going through an inspection of a French farm house in the film's opening scene with a casual demeanor and a smile. And this role, this wonderfully eerie role than doesn't even begin to show its full insanity until much later, is just one of the reasons Tarantino's World War II spaghetti western "Inglourious Basterds" succeeds.


Divided into six chapters, "Inglourious Basterds" refers to the Basterds, a group of Jewish-American soldiers dropped behind enemy lines to give the Nazis total hell, do not actually dominate the story, and this turns out to be quite a good thing. It's not that those segments featuring the Basterds are bad, but they contain the film's key weakness, which I'll touch on later. Let's focus on the positives first. The other story threads concern The Jew Hunter, and the plotting of Nazi downfall in a movie theater by Shoshanna Dreyfuss, whose parents murder serves as the opening chapter. Much of the early praise has gone to Mr. Waltz as The Jew Hunter, but Ms. Laurent (as Shoshanna) is certainly worth some attention. Mostly displaying a totally stoic expression, whether in the presence of Joseph Goebbels or a young Nazi celebrity sniper (Daniel Bruhl), she gives us several glimpses of emotion, and each one, no matter how fleeting rings true. Though it would most likely make a much shorter movie, I actually wouldn't mind seeing a deeper look into Shoshanna, considering that it is Shoshanna's scheme that helps make the film's finale as wickedly satisfying as it is. The Basterds may be in the title of the film, but it's Shoshanna who, along with Landa, becomes the most interesting to watch. In fact, just about all of the foreign cast members are more interesting than the Basterds, even Diane Kruger as a German double agent who spends all of her time with the Basterds. There's re stories filled with better flowing, more intrigue, and better characters, whereas in the Basterds segments, barely anyone gets to talk (those of you "Freaks and Geeks" fans who are hoping for a few moments of fun from Sam Levine? He doesn't even get a single line of dialogue, and his one action scene, shown in the first trailer, has been cut).

So what exactly is the problem with the Basterds portions? The answer is none other than Brad Pitt. The accent is amusing, but cartoony, as is Pitt's portrayal, which feels more like a glorified caricature, which is a shame considering all of the great characters Tarantino has written in the past. Though he probably had some of the best lines, Pitt's over the top accent and empty posturing make some of said lines less satisfying to the ear, in contrast to past Tarantino roles like Bill in "Kill Bill" or Jules in "Pulp Fiction", both of whom were given stellar monologues and delivered them perfectly. And then there's the internal competition from Waltz, who only gets to shine more at the end because of Pitt's surface-only performance. Making it worse is the fact that none of the other Basterds have any sort of depth whatsoever. Sure, Eli Roth can talk about how he and Tarantino created a backstory for Roth's Boston-born Donny Donowitz (aka "The Bear Jew"), but we never get any looks into that backstory, whether in dialogue, actions, or in flashbacks. In fact, all of the other Basterds are more fun to watch than Pitt, though we know little to nothing about them, save for Hugo Stiglitz (Til Shweiger), a Nazi-turned-Basterd. Luckily, despite Pitt's star power, there are plenty of Basterds moments without him. Best example? A scene in a basement where several of the Basterds rendezvous with Kruger's Bridget Von Hammersmark, only to find that the bar there is crowded with Nazis. In very Sergio Leone-like fashion, Tarantino builds suspense by lengthy conversations, turning up the tension slowly, notch by notch, only to have the payoff be quick-but-bloody bursts of violence. And what makes the scene work so well? No sign of Pitt, seeing as Lt. Aldo Raine can't speak German. Whew, what a relief.

Directing wise, Pitt's misguided interpretation aside, this is Tarantino at his finest, and like most of his movies, "Basterds" is, well...a movie. Pure entertainment, no social commentary or deep, sorrow-drenched character study whatsoever. The music is just as unconventional yet oddly appropriate and production values are great. But perhaps his best choice as a writer and director, was his decision to mess with history. In this politically correct age, it's become common to give bad guys, especially real bad guys like The Fuhrer, a sense of depth, Tarantino cuts us a break. The Nazi leaders, Hitler and Goebbels (the two we see the most of) and all the rest are simpering, blathering fools. There are no "Downfall"-esque moments of introspection where we get glimpses into Hitler's madness. We know what he did, we know he was bad, and as far as Tarantino's concerned, that's all we need. It's all of these things that help "Basterds" reach its finest, most satisfying moments in its grand finale, which is so delightfully insane and satisfying that when a woman's face appears on screen and laughs as flames rise, I kept expecting the screen in my theater to combust. It's this descent into dazzlingly mad historical fantasy that allows "Basterds" to succeed where other "let's-try-to-kill-Hitler" films like "Valkyrie", grounded in reality and facts, failed. We already know how those films are going to end, so Mr. Tarantino did the politically incorrect thing and messed with history, and the result is twisted bliss. And that's what entertainment looks like.

Grade: B+

"Inglourious Basterds" clip: The Cafe

"Inglourious Basterds" TV spot

New "Inglourious Basterds" poster

2nd trailer for "Inglourious Basterds"

New "Inglourious Basterds" footage

New poster for "Inglourious Basterds"

Harvey Weinstein might be asking Tarantino to cut 40 minutes of "Basterds" footage?

Source: SlashFilm.com

Forcing a filmmaker to submit to editorial oversight can be a good thing, but when the Big Brother hanging over your Avid is Harvey Weinstein? Things can get ugly. We knew that Quentin Tarantino was making some cuts and changes to Inglourious Basterds in the wake of the film’s Cannes Premiere, tightening that 2 hour 27 minute cut and even adding a scene or two. But Sharon Waxman at The Wrap claims that The Weinstein Company wants Tarantino to cut a massive 40 minutes. Is this an artistic move to strengthen the film or a desperate bid to squeeze more cash out of the film in August by keeping the running time down? With The Weinstein Company having massive cash problems, what do you think?What Waxman says is this:

Weinstein and co-producer Universal are both trying to convince Tarantino to cut it by 40 minutes. (It’s now 2′40″, and considered too long a sit, especially for American audiences.)

But that’s not quite true. The Cannes cut was 2′27″ (as pointed out by The Playlist) while the longest edit Tarantino could deliver while still retaining final cut (which he still has), is 2′48″. So he doesn’t have to give in to Harvey, and very well might not. Consider what Tarantino told The Hollywood Reporter about the Cannes cut:

It’s a no-fucking-around kind of pacing. That doesn’t mean it’s a big action movie. It just means there’s a good, steady pacing. I don’t luxuriate in every scene.

Regardless, I’m hoping this is the end of the Tarantino/Weinstein partnership, no matter what happens to TWC when all the financial troubles

are said and done. This is why, when reporting on that likely baseless rumor of Tarantino and Brad Pitt circling The Millennium Trilogy, I parenthetically wondered if Pitt might only be producing. Because at this point, please, get Tarantino away from the Weinsteins. If Quentin and Harvey ever had a real Hitchcock/Selznick relationship, it is over. Time to move on. Set up shop with Pitt’s Plan B (or anyone, really) and make a picture under the influence of people who actually like movies.

"Inglorious Basterds" heads back to the editing room; Maggie Cheung's scenes officially cut out

Source: CHUD.com

Shortly after Inglourious Basterds premiered to less than overwhelming enthusiasm at Cannes, rumors began to surface that Universal, the co-distributor on the film along with The Weinstein Company, wanted Quentin Tarantino to trim and tighten the film prior to it's August release in the United States. 

Now Tarantino has confirmed to Anne Thompson that he'll do some work on the film. It's widely known that he rushed the movie, formally announced just a year ago, to make the Cannes fest. But Thompson suggests that wasn't due only to a desire to hit the Croisette this year. Tarantino evidently feels that Death Proof didn't benefit from his typical long post-production process, and the Basterds schedule was an intentional departure from his typical pace. 

The film currently runs two hours, 27 minutes; QT had to deliver at 2:46 or less to retain final cut. But he'll go back for "an audience pruning cut" after some test screenings in the states. And while Maggie Cheung's scene(s) won't be reinstated (they didn't make the Cannes cut), a scene introducing Michael Fassbender probably will go back in.

With that running time, the film can almost certainly be cut to a more manageable length. But the primary criticisms have been that Basterds lacks the unpredictability of other Tarantino films, and that's something that may not be possible to inject at this stage. And yet the Best Actor award handed to Christoph Waltz, who plays the 'Jew Hunter' Colonel hans Landa, is enough of an advance nod that Basterds has some glory, no matter the reviews.

Cannes Film Festival 2009 Award Winners!!

Gainsbourg for Best Actress? "Basterd"'s Waltz for Best Actor? Wow. I guess I shouldn't be too surprised about the former, seeing as there were no other female performances generating massive amounts of buzz, and Von Trier does know how to get great performances out of his leading ladies (Watson in "Breaking the Waves", Bjork in "Dancer in the Dark", Kidman in "Dogville"). But after all the wild reactions to the movie as a whole, it's interesting to see that the jury still gave her an award. Of course, the really interesting thing will be to see if any of these major wins carry over to Oscar glory. Remember Benicio Del Toro for "Che" last year? Probably not what most of these winners want to happen to them, unless they enjoy swimming in obscurity....

Source: The New York Times

By Manohla Dargis

CANNES, France — “The White Ribbon,” a meticulous examination of patriarchal domination, won the Palme d’Or at the 62nd Cannes Film Festival on Sunday. Directed by the Austrian-born Michael Haneke and shot in black and white, the much-admired film — a foundation story about National Socialism set in a rural pre-World War I German community — turns on a series of violent events that appear to be the work of some children. In 2001 Mr. Haneke won the Grand Prix (effectively second place) for his harrowing drama “The Piano Teacher,” which starred Isabelle Huppert, president of this year’s competition jury.

The Grand Prix, also announced on Sunday, went to “A Prophet,” a pitch-perfect film from the French director Jacques Audiard about a young inmate who becomes a master criminal during a prison stretch. The film was the critical favorite throughout the festival, and Mr. Audiard received a standing ovation from the audience when he mounted the stage. Far more surprising was the Jury Prize (third place), which was split between “Fish Tank,” a slice of Brit-grit realism from Andrea Arnold, and the neo-exploitation vampire flick “Thirst,”from the South Korean director Park Chan-Wook. Both were booed by the press watching the show via live broadcast.

The director Terry Gilliam, here with the noncompetition film “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus,” delivered some funny onstage shtick by pretending to accept the directing prize, which he was meant to bestow. (“Terry, you don’t receive, you give,” the host explained, promising that Mr. Gilliam could have something next year if he didn’t create a scandal.) The actual winner of the director award was Brillante Mendoza, from the Philippines, whose grisly, widely loathed shocker, “Kinatay” (“Slaughter”), hinges on a man who doesn’t prevent a murder. The screenwriting award went to Mei Feng for“Spring Fever,” a rather baggy if underappreciated drama about young Chinese malaise.

Ms. Huppert handed the prize for best actress to Charlotte Gainsbourg, who delivers a wild, fearless performance as a grieving mother in “Antichrist,” an English-language film from the Danish director Lars von Trier. It’s easy to imagine that Ms. Huppert and her fellow juror, the actress Asia Argento, both ferocious screen performers, were impressed with the intensity of Ms. Gainsbourg’s performance, which involves a fair amount of nudity and some frantic (and graphic) backwoods masturbation.

The best-actor award for the Austrian Christoph Waltz, who plays a Nazi officer inQuentin Tarantino’s World War II movie, “Inglourious Basterds,” made everyone happy. Speaking in French, English and German, Mr. Waltz called the film an “unbelievable experience,” thanked his co-star Brad Pitt, along with the creator of Mr. Waltz’s “unique and inimitable” character, Colonel Landa. His voice colored with emotion, he addressed Mr. Tarantino directly: “You gave me my vocation back.”

Ms. Huppert presented the director Alain Resnais — who turns 87 next month — with a “lifetime achievement award for his work and his exceptional contribution to the history of cinema.” He should have won something as well for his dazzling competition entry, “Wild Grass.” Wearing sunglasses (bright lights bother him), a dark suit, a red shirt and a magnificent swirl of white hair, Mr. Resnais took the stage and was greeted with a sustained standing ovation. He expressed his gratitude to the jury and the festival and asked his cast to stand and receive applause before he was cut short by the music.

The Caméra d’Or for best first feature, awarded by another jury, went to an Australian film by Warwick Thornton that was largely below the critical radar, “Samson and Delilah,” a teenage love story set in the Outback.

Despite the on-screen carnage that was amply rewarded by Ms. Huppert and her jury, the festival put on its usual glittering show that for 12 days made cinema seem as if it mattered to the world. News media attendance and spirits might have been down, but the sun came out as did the jostling crowds, red-carpet stars and distributor wallets.

“This is the center of independent films from around the world,” Michael Barker, co-president of Sony Pictures Classics, said on Saturday. Unlike many Americans he stays until the end because one never knows what might turn up: last year his company bought the Palme winner, “The Class,” which was screened on the last day. This year it bought “The White Ribbon” and “A Prophet.”

Although big Hollywood still turns up at Cannes (the Pixar movie “Up” opened the festival), the studios don’t show much work here unless Clint Eastwood has a new one. All too often quality is now the province of their specialty divisions, some of which were recently shut down. That makes older, established companies like Sony Classics and newcomers like Oscilloscope Laboratories even more important. IFC Films, for one, has made a nice habit of buying some of the best movies here, and this year grabbed “Antichrist” and Ken Loach’s “Looking for Eric,” a crowd-pleaser about a postman who, in the midst of a meltdown, conjures the philosophizing form of his favorite soccer star. It’s no wonder that IFC Entertainment’s president, Jonathan Sehring, characterized the festival as “very, very good.”

But while Hollywood movies are not much in abundance, the stars still come out, if somewhat fewer this year. Most of the American headliners (“Brad!” “Angelina!”) turned up at the premiere of “Inglourious Basterds.” They soon disappeared, but Mr. Tarantino was everywhere. He danced on the red carpet, chatted in English on French television and praised Mr. Mendoza’s “Kinatay.” Mr. Mendoza, a rising talent who was at Cannes last year with the rowdy “Serbis,” could use all the help he could get with this movie. A morality tale that he wields like a blunt instrument, “Kinatay” hinges on the inaction of a police-academy student while a prostitute is murdered and dismembered. The movie had its respectful fans, but many others fled the theater.

By closing night a lot was still in play, which may portend good news for American movie lovers. Oscilloscope, the company founded by the Beastie Boy Adam Yauch, bought“Wendy and Lucy” last year, and this year picked up another film, but has not announced its title. This was Mr. Yauch’s first time at Cannes.

“I was glad to see everyone in tuxes and ball gowns going up the red carpet,” he said in an e-mail message from New York on Sunday. “I was afraid that the photos I’ve seen ofGrace Kelly and Cary Grant would have faded into history like everything else, and that people would be walking into premieres in shorts, T-shirts and Crocs. So I was impressed when I saw a man in a suit turned away because he was wearing sneakers. Perhaps Cannes is the last bastion of dignified decadence.”

First review of "Inglourious Basterds"!!

Source: Empire Magazine Online

Empire has just seen Quentin Tarantino's eagerly-awaited WWII flick, Inglourious Basterds, and it's rather brilliant. Every bit as idiosyncratic as the spelling of its title, it's a wonderfully-acted movie that subverts expectation at every turn. And it may represent the most confident, audacious writing and directing of QT's career. Forget what you think you know is such a cliché, but here it more than applies. Tarantino has made a career out of subverting expectations – this is the man who made a heist flick without a heist, after all – but he’s outdone himself with Basterds. It’s an action movie that has barely any action. The Basterds themselves, including Brad Pitt’s Lt. Aldo Raine, are off-screen for long periods of time. And it takes wild liberties with history. But that’s all set up by the opening title card (the film is divided into five chapters), ‘Once Upon A Time In… Nazi-Occupied France’. Not only does that allow Tarantino to use Spaghetti Western-esque musical cues and swipe the odd shot and convention from the likes of Sergio Leone, but it frees him up to take those liberties. This is a fairytale world, in which American soldiers can ghost behind enemy lines, scalp hundreds of Nazis and never get caught. And in which… no, we won’t go there. Not yet. But the ending is so thrillingly audacious that this reporter laughed out loud when it happened. Even when, having read the script, I knew it was coming. The performances are superb across-the-board. Pitt is hilarious throughout, lending his lines that air of cocky movie-star insouciance that was a touchstone of his turns in the Ocean’s movies. But the standouts for me were Michael Fassbender, who deserves to become a star on the basis of his turn as British officer Lt. Archie Hicox, and Christoph Waltz, as the movie’s villain, Col. Hans Landa, aka The Jew Hunter. A complex creation, refined, calculating and yet utterly monstrous when the time comes, Landa was the role that Tarantino struggled to fill, so much so that he might have had to pass on making the movie had he not filled it. But in Waltz, he’s found gold. He may look like an evil Rob Brydon, but the Austrian actor is fantastic: oleaginous, chilling and often devilishly charming. He may be a shoo-in for a Best Supporting Oscar nom, and even though it’s mighty early yet, he could become the first actor to win for a Tarantino film. There are flaws, of course – what film doesn’t have flaws? But they may be exaggerated depending on your feelings about Tarantino. Some of his Grindhouse flourishes – large captions stamped on screen, the usual flirting with structure and chronology, offbeat musical cues (a David Bowie track shows up at one point) and the sudden introduction of a hip narrator (Samuel L. Jackson) – may irk some, but this movie-movie approach has been Tarantino’s forte since Uma Thurman drew a box on the screen inPulp Fiction. It’s certainly very talky, and there’s no doubt that Tarantino is in love with the sound of his characters’ voices, but QT dialogue is so much better than most other screenwriters that it’s hard to quibble. If all scenes in movies are about control, Tarantino understands that perhaps better than anybody, and some of the scenes here – the opening exchange between Landa and a French dairy farmer, and the Reservoir Dogs-esque scene in French bar, La Louisiane – are masterclasses in how to switch control from character to character. Indeed, both scenes are as tense as anything Tarantino has ever done in his career. Remember, though: this is not the official Empire review, simply a reaction to this morning’s screening. Empire’s official verdict may differ from mine, so bear that in mind.

Chris Hewitt

New "Inglorious Basterds" images

"Inglorious Basterds" character banner: Diane Kruger

Another "Inglorious Basterds" character poster: Eli Roth

Posters for "Inglorious Basterds" and Hayao Miyazaki's "Ponyo"

Wow...I didn't realize how amazing the English-dub cast for Ponyo was. It will most likely not be as good as seeing the film in Japanese with English subtitles, but either way that lineup is impressive. Who would've thought that Tina Fey and Cate Blanchett would ever be in a film together....

New teaser/behind the scenes video for "Inglorious Basterds"

And about that man with the British accent narrating the montage... that's Mike Myers.

Six stills from Vanity Fair's "Inglorious Basterds" shoot