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WE CONTINUE TO SUPPORT MICHAEL-AN AWARD WINNING ACTOR

Congratulations to the cast and crew of "12 Years a Slave" winning an Oscar for Best Picture

Michael is currently filming "MacBeth"

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Post by Admin Mon Feb 08, 2010 10:00 pm

http://www.teamwin.us/2010/02/inglorious-celluloid-tarantino-and.html

Monday, February 8, 2010
Inglorious Celluloid: Tarantino and Cinematic Language Part II of II

The insight to the characters by reference has been lost with Death Proof and Inglourious Basterds. The filmic references are no longer made by the director, but by the characters. Since Vanishing Point and Dirty Mary Crazy Larry are mentioned by name, any insight into the characters is lost, other than that they like Vanishing Point and Dirty Mary Crazy Larry and that we’re about to see them play at Vanishing Point and Dirty Mary Crazy Larry.

The film world is also dominant in Inglourious Basterds. This should come as no surprise to anyone because this film isn’t a WWII film. It’s a film about the director, Quentin Tarantino, making a film wrapped around the idea of making a WWII film film. Brad Pitt may be the most recognizable name on the acting credits, but the real star here is Tarantino himself.

Sit down for 2 hours and a half to watch the characters sit down to listen to each other deliver Tarantino lines, for the most part anyways (for example: that line about all the eggs in one basket is from The Great Escape). Although it’s bold to write a lengthy film where the characters are mostly sitting across from each other through an entire conversation, it becomes old fast. The longest scene/conversation takes place in a French basement tavern in the seclude town of Nadine where Bridget von Hammersmark (Diane Kruger) meets with Lt. Archie Hicox (Michael Fassbender) along with two of the Basterds, SGT. Hugo Stiglitz (Til Schweiger) and CPL. Wilhelm Wicki (Gedeon Burkhard) as part of Operation Kino. The Basterds were to meet with Bridget and quickly head out. A group of rowdy German soldiers delay them, however and eventually lead to their discovery. Everyone in the tavern dies except for Bridget, barely escaping with a bullet wound in the leg. The longevity of the screen hinders its effect. The tension being built dissipates because the ostentatious dialogue takes precedence over every other aspect of the film. Cut down ten minutes, the scene would have been effective, only if the same situation hadn’t already been played out earlier in the film.


The opening chapter of the film, “Once Upon a Time in Nazi Occupied France,” uses the same situation with the same outcome. In this earlier scene, Colonel Franz Landa (Christoph Waltz) interrogates Monsieur Lampadite, a farmer. Landa inquires about the Dreyfuses, whom the farmer is hiding beneath the floorboards. The conversation begins casually in French. Colonel Landa asks to switch to English, which serves two purposes: the Dreyfus family doesn’t speak English and it calms the subtitle-phobic American audiences. A glass of milk is served and is illuminated as it sits on the table, recalling the glowing glass Cary Grant carries in Suspicion. After a lengthy discussion between Landa and Lampadite about Landa’s nickname, the Jew Hunter, and comparing Germans to hawks and Jews to rats, Landa returns to speaking French and bids farewell to Lampadite, assuring him that all is well. This, of course, is to deceive the Dreyfus family just before they are gunned down by Landa’s men. This opening scene echoes an earlier scene in Sergio Leone’s Once Upon a Time in the West in which Henry Ford’s character guns down the McBain family on their property, Sweetwater. Instead of taking place in the desert, however, this opening scene is set on a dairy farm; replacing the browns of the desert with green pastures and blue skies. Another distinction between the two films: Leone’s film restrains dialogue which is overabundant in Inglourious Basterds. This opening chapter is the most effective of the entire film. By the end of it, the film seems to be going off into a straight narrative. This, however, is a Tarantino film and a straight forward narrative is not what he is aiming for.

The next chapter introduces us to the Basterds in a scene that echoes the opening credits to The Dirty Dozen. Here we meet Lt. Aldo Raines (Brad Pitt) and his basterds, including the Bear Jew, Donny Donowitz (Eli Roth). We find out that they have gained notoriety with the German soldiers. So much, that Hitler becomes furious and orders a soldier who came across the Basterds and survived to not tell anyone about the Basterds, despite having been branded with a Nazi sign on the forehead, very similar to the branding done by Burt Reynolds in Navajo Joe.

The next chapter shows us what happened to Shosanna Dreyfus, the only survivor of the murder of her family by Landa in the first chapter. This chapter is important to understand Tarantino’s intentions with the narrative of the film. We meet up with Shosanna four years after the death of her family. She is now running a theater under the name of Emmanuelle Mimieux. She catches the eye of Nazi private, Frederick Zoller (Daniel Brühl), the “German Sergeant York.” He is a cineaste and an admirer of Shosanna’s cinema. He, himself, is the star of his own bio-pic, Stolz der Nation. When the two characters speak for the first time, Shosanna is taking down a marquee announcing a screening of G.W. Pabst and Arnold Fanck’s White Hell of Pitz Palu starring Leni Riefenstahl. With a film that name drops figures of the Weimar cinema (Max Linder, Lillian Harvey), has Goebbels as a central character and includes a cameo of Emil Jannings, it’s interesting to note that Leni Riefenstahl is only mentioned in the first meeting of Shosanna and Frederick through this film instead of her seminal directorial work, Triumph of the Will. Later on, the marquee will show Georges Cluozot’s Le Corbeau, a film that had to deal with the German censors at the time of its release. Frederick later convinces Goebbels to have the premiere of Stolz der Nation at Shosanna’s cinema. It is at the premiere where all the characters cross paths, although they won’t really come together. Having all the important figures of the Third Reich attending the premiere, including Hitler, gives Shosanna the brilliant idea of locking them all inside the building and burning her collection of nitrate films. As she dresses up for the night with a red dress, the scene is set to David Bowie’s “Putting Out Fire” from the 1980s re-imagining of Cat People, starring Nastassja Kinski (whom Tarantino originally wanted for Bridget). After putting on a black veil, Marcel (Jacky Ido), Shosanna’s lover and accomplice, refers to her as “Danielle Darrieux,” a reference to the main actress in The Earrings of Madame De…, who puts on a veil in the beginning of the film (preparing to put on a façade just like Shosanna) as she leaves to sell her earrings. Again, all these characters are film savvy and the names of films, directors and actors are constantly being mentioned, which mean nothing if the viewer isn’t aware of them. Most American audiences don’t know who Danielle Darrieux. The mention of her name is irrelevant because the film doesn’t reinforce the significance of mentioning her. The Basterds and Bridget, on the other hand, decide to infiltrate the premiere and “blow up the basket.” Landa is on to them, however, and Bridget is choked to death, reminiscent to the scene in Frenzy. Landa captures Aldo and makes a deal with him. Tarantino rewrites history here. Both revenge plots take form. Donny and another Basterd shoot down Goebbels and Hitler. They then start shooting down the rest of the Nazi party in attendance. This happens while Shosanna’s revenge takes form. She rewrites the ending of Frederick Zoller’s film Stolz der Nation by editing her own ending to it, which culminates with the burning of the nitrate films. Shosanna is in the projection room having her own face off with Frederick. After refusing his advances for the last time, she shoots him down. Set to the Ennio Morricone score from Revolver, Frederick shoots her as well and she dies before the new final reel is projected. Landa managed to speak with Aldo’s superiors to grant him a pardon and consider him a member to Operation Kino. After the operation is over and history is (re)written, Aldo brands Landa with the Nazi sign on his forehead and declaring to Donny (director Eli Roth and Tarantino’s close friend) that this is his, “masterpiece.”



And that’s exactly how Tarantino feels about Inglourious Basterds, this is his masterpiece. These Basterds on a WWII revenge mission are surrogates to Tarantino and his own mission of rewriting cinematic history. So confident is he in his form of storytelling that, with this film, he affirms that he is here to change the cinematic course. This is why he uses the WWII genre to alter the outcome of an important part of the 20th century. By having the audacity to treat the subject matter, which has been sacred territory for many filmmakers, as just another hip, entertaining film, Tarantino attempts to state that as an “auteur,” he has enough power to rewrite history through cinema while expressing that he is a one-man cinematic movement. This couldn’t be emphasized more than with the title, Inglourious Basterds. The title is also the title of an Enzo G. Castellari film, Inglorious Bastards. Tarantino just uses the title to misspell it and show he has taken possession of it and the cinematic world. Pulp Fiction certainly certified him as someone to watch out for, as well as gaining him a pack of rabid followers who take in everything he makes. Many of those followers have gone on to become filmmakers and have attempted to imitate his style, often neglecting what has managed to make Tarantino stand out. Other than the filmic references, other important factors to his cinematic style include the novelistic approach to storytelling. Most of his films are separated into chapters and are usually not in chronological order. For example, the opening chapter in Kill Bill happens before the chapter where the Bride confronts Oren-Ishi. By placing this incident before the fight with Oren-Ishi, it establishes what the Bride’s goal is. We then jump back to the events preceding so we could see the trials she had to go through. Another crucial aspect to Tarantino’s filmmaking is taking typical genre conventions and showing what is usually not shown. One example of this is the heist in Reservoir Dogs. Most heist films show the planning of the heist and then the execution. Reservoir Dogs shows the planning of the heist and then the aftermath; never showing the heist itself. This serves as a jumping point to another crucial aspect of Tarantino’s filmmaking, which is the ostentatious dialogue. The dialogue is what most fans talk about and try to imitate. What Tarantino attempts to do is to have the characters speak of banal things. It is from the minutia of these conversations that he leads to the exploration of the character’s attitudes and what will most often lead to a violent conclusion. This is the case for most of the conversations in Inglourious Basterds. If violence doesn’t ensue at the end of the conversation, the threat of it lingers, such as the case when Shosanna and Landa are left talking in the restaurant over a piece of apple strudel (he orders her a glass of milk). She fears that he will recognize her. This scene, like the other scenes from Inglourious Basterds mentioned, takes place while everybody is sitting down. What most imitators of Tarantino don’t realize is that the scenes he writes could easily be performed on stage; he writes with this in mind. Reservoir Dogs can easily be performed on stage. What makes the films cinematic, however, is the use of violence and the film references. Regardless of this, many will continue to imitate him. His filmmaking style has become embedded in popular culture, although it may not fully be understood. One thing is for certain: Tarantino has changed the face of cinema as he so affirms with Inglourious Basterds. The change, however, may not necessarily be for the best.
Posted by LDA8880 at 6:39 PM
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Post by Admin Thu Feb 11, 2010 7:16 pm

http://www.secondshow.net/2010/02/inglourious-basterds.html

Inglourious Basterds
Posted in Labels: drama/war
Thursday, February 11, 2010

Hello people I hope you all are doing good and enjoyed my last Academy Award offering ‘Sherlock Holmes’. Today I am coming with yet another Best Movie Nominee for this year called ‘Inglorious Basterds’, Directed by my favorite Quentin Tarantino and starring none other than ‘Brad pitt’. Few days back I spoke to one of my friend who told he didn’t like this movie and it increased interest in me to watch this movie and to check ‘How can Tarantino go wrong??’ . But once it is nominated for 8 Academy Awards & after reading few popular reviews I thought of giving it a shot and hence watched it yesterday. As I expected the movie is wonderful, exceptional & truly remarkable. I don’t want to argue with my friend as this is his first movie of Tarantino’s which he watched….so he didn’t understood what is the difference between Tarantino & others.

The best part of Tarantino’s direction is he never tells us movie scene-by-scene…he always tells us in chapter-by-chapter. And that is why the whole chapter happens mostly at one place and hence it will(must) take some worth-full time to establish the characters & complete it. And another biggest plus point of Tarantino is…he never misses the point & tells what he needs to tell as uniquely as possible.

Building his technique movie-by-movie intensifying story chapter-by-chapter he became the most sought director in the Hollywood….and that is why this movie has been nominated for eight Academy Awards including ‘Best Movie’,'Best Director' and 'Best Original Screenplay' Categories…and I do strongly believe that this movie is worth every penny. So, lets get into the story…

This movie unfolds over five chapters: Once upon a time... In Nazi-Occupied France; Inglourious Basterds; A German Night in Paris; Operation Kino and Revenge of the Giant Face.

In France in 1941, SS Colonel Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz) arrives at a dairy farm to interrogate Perrier LaPadite (Denis Menochet) about rumors he is hiding the Jewish Dreyfus family. Landa persuades the farmer to confess to hiding the family underneath his floor. Landa orders the SS soldiers into the house to shoot the floorboards where LaPadite has confirmed the Dreyfuses are hiding below. The entire family is killed, with the exception of the teenage Shosanna, whom Landa allows to escape.

In Italy in the spring of 1944, Lt. Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt) recruits a team of eight Jewish-American soldiers for a mission to get behind enemy lines and bring fear to all German servicemen. He tells the soldiers that they each owe him a hundred Nazi scalps. They operate with a "take no prisoners" attitude and come to be known as the 'Basterds'. One survivor of an attack by the 'Basterds', Private Butz (Sönke Möhring), is interviewed by Adolf Hitler (Martin Wuttke). Butz's account of the attack is shown via flashback as he tells that his squad was ambushed and his Sergeant was beaten to death with a baseball bat by Sgt. Donny Donowitz (Eli Roth), known by the Germans as "The Bear Jew". Butz then reveals that Raine carved a swastika onto his forehead with a knife so that he will be universally identifiable as a Nazi after the war.

In June 1944, three years after her family's murder, Shosanna (Mélanie Laurent) has assumed a new identity as 'Emmanuelle Mimieux' and is operating a cinema in Paris. She meets Frederick Zoller (Daniel Brühl), a German marksman whose exploits are to be celebrated in a Nazi propaganda film, Stolz der Nation (Nation's Pride). Zoller is attracted to Shosanna and convinces Joseph Goebbels (Sylvester Groth) to hold the premiere of his film at Shosanna's cinema. Shosanna realizes that the presence of several high-ranking Nazi officials provides an opportunity for revenge and resolves to burn down the cinema during the premiere by using a large quantity of flammable nitrate film. The British also learn of the premiere and dispatch Lt. Archie Hicox (Michael Fassbender) to infiltrate the event aided by the 'Basterds' and German film actress and double agent, Bridget von Hammersmark (Diane Krüger). Hicox and two of the 'Basterds' meet with Hammersmark at a tavern where an SS officer (August Diehl) notices Hicox's odd accent and that he gives the wrong three-fingered order for drinks. The resulting standoff erupts into a firefight, leaving everyone dead except Hammersmark. Raine interrogates Hammersmark, and upon learning that Hitler will be attending the premiere, devises a plan where himself, Donny, and Omar (Omar Doom) will pose as Hammersmark's Italian escorts at the premiere. Landa later investigates the tavern and retrieves Hammersmark's shoe and an autographed napkin.

hmmm interesting...what happens next?? will they ever succeed in killing 'Hitler'...who will take the revenge first?? and who are not able to?? who will be the victim at last?? to know all these secrets you have to pick this DVD.

As per Vish: First thing first this movie is purely fictional. And as all movies of Tarantino this movie also carries some outstanding performances by all the actors and especially 'Christoph Waltz' who is nominated for ‘Best Supporting Character’. I really liked BG score, which most of the time multiplied the intensity of the scene. So, people if you are a fan of ‘Tarantino’ then this is for you…have a reel rolling Smile

Directed by: Quentin Tarantino
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Post by Admin Mon Feb 15, 2010 6:23 pm

http://ellietreagust.wordpress.com/2010/02/15/basterds-of-the-inglourious-nature/

Basterds of the Inglourious Nature. February 15, 2010
Filed under: Film — ellietreagust @ 8:02 pm

I cannot believe it took me until last Tuesday to first see this. It’s like ‘Pulp Fiction’ but with Nazis! So many merits on so many aspects, I have no idea which to divulge into first.

Seeing as I’ve sampled a few pieces here, let’s try music (if you haven’t yet pressed PLAY, you’re a fool. Get on it) Usually I’m not a fan of injecting contextualised films with contemporary instruments (such as in ‘Sharpe’ – the electric guitar just didn’t seem to fit), but it worked so well here. Is this possibly because the cinematography allowed it to look normal, and not with that slight twinge of colour so as to make it ‘1940’s’? I find this happens in so many British/American films set in the earlier part of the 20th century – ‘The Reader’, ‘Glorious ‘39′ and so on – and to be completely honest I find it incredibly patronising. Just because they were living 70 years ago does not mean they didn’t have vibrant colours… You don’t have to make a film look sepia just because the aged photographs look like that now. The score is out of this world too – it’s the first piece of Ennio Morricone I’ve really enjoyed, and somehow - somehow – it fits brilliantly. In any context, the piece ‘Un Amico’ seems to be a content, even slightly happy, piece, and yet it’s used when everyone’s dying. And it still works. How is this?! It seems to sort of say “Yes I know it’s tragic, but that’s life and it’s happening now so you might as well accept it”, almost like the contentment is one of “there’s no point worrying because there’s nothing I can do to stop it. So panic not.” Beautiful. Just epic. There was a lovely mix of authentic French 1940s ‘hits’, contemporary pieces (how does David Bowie fit in a film about Nazis? Is it because Tarantino is so damn good?), and the score, and I loved every minute of it. Nothing fits like a very satisfying glove more than an appropriate soundtrack. Go musicians!

What now?! So much to talk about! I think we should give time to the acting. I’ve researched a little and discovered most of whom ended up in the cast list were not the first choices of Mr Tarantino. But I think you’ll all agree they did an epic job. As annoying as he can be, Brad Pitt was brilliant. Absolutely, stunningly brilliant. From his brash Southern American tones and temperaments, which he kept going so well throughout the film, even when his character was trying to be Italian (“Bon-jor-no.” Yes Brad.), to his wonderfully unsentimental treatment of the Nazis and his courageous stand against them. And Christoph Waltz – yes yes f#%@#&! yes. Evilest man ever maybe? The fact I never want to meet him even as an actor (and probably a normal and nice man), does rather suggest his immense talent at playing this role. I believe he initially declined, stating the role was “unplayable”, but clearly he was lying. Michael Fassbender should also get a special mention, partly because of the name, partly because I loved his character, and partly because he did such a fantastic job with it. Eli Roth as the ‘Bear Jewwww’ was a brilliant idea – he’s so terrifying anyway (and so weird?!), it’s hard to imagine anyone else could have played it as well as he did. All actors made their characters so so believable. I think, obviously aside from Brad Pitt (who seems to be so bloody versatile anyway), Tarantino did very well to work with lesser-known actors, thus making them less typecast and more character based. Well played Quentin. Well played indeed.

I was also impressed with the story line – I haven’t seen many films involving Nazis where the Jews actually fought back. It took a refreshingly new angle on the persecution of the Jews, which I was not expecting and actually liked – even if it’s fictional, it’s nice to believe they were content to accept their ‘fate’ and just get on with it. ‘Tarantino gets lost in a fictional World War 2″ might be true, but there are so many conflicting answers and occurences in history that maybe Tarantino was playing on this, and saying “Would it not be great if…?” This is probably the first film I’ve actually enjoyed that was obviously historically inaccurate – and that never happens. I consider it to be the story telling which made it believable. Films like ‘The Boy In The Stripped Pyjamas’ – so inaccurate it is almost laughable, and that distracted from my full enjoyment of said film, but I found no qualms with ‘Inglourious Basterds’ doing this. It would be awfully good if the three most powerful men of the Third Reich were stupid enough to collect themselves so obviously into one room (sitting targets!), but alas.

In true Tarantino style, his ‘chapters’ featured too, but I find this can be good. Although sometimes he seems to want his films to be books. But it’s a good mini break and a good catch-up for the not-so-intelligent-viewer. The only thing I didn’t like was the amount of gore involved (when he says “scalps”, he really means scalps), but I assume this was aiming to be quite realistic, and I’m a bit of a ponce anyway – it’s not an actual criticism of the film.

All in all, there was a general feeling of “this is actually brilliant”, and it’s one of the best I’ve seen in ages. In many ways I hate Tarantino for being this awesome, but then if he didn’t make the films there would be nothing to view, and it’s awfully relieving to know that films of this calibre can still be made today. Very good work!
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Post by Admin Mon Feb 15, 2010 6:41 pm

http://wudfilmreview.com/2010/02/15/inglourious-basterds-2009/

Inglourious Basterds (2009)

Genres: Drama, Thriller, War
Director: Quentin Tarantino
MPAA Rating: R
Runtime: 153 min

Reviewer Ranking 9.5/10

Movie Review by: Mark Darnieder

Inglourious Basterds is the type of movie that reminds you why it is so great to pay $10 to sit in a dark room and stare at a screen. It has memorable characters, humor, action, smart writing, and a satisfying ending. In short, this movie has everything you hope for when you go to the movies.

Inglourious Basterds is a re-imagining of World War II, detailing the exploits of a group of Jewish-American soldiers, the Basterds, as they try to spread fear among German soldiers with their brutality. Meanwhile, a young Jewish girl is hiding in Paris disguised as the owner of a movie theater that is soon to host a Nazi propaganda film screening. As the war unfolds, their paths cross on the fateful night of the screening.

Starring as the leader of the Basterds is Brad Pitt (Fight Club) as Lt. Aldo Raine, a lovable hillbilly from Tennessee, boasting a thick drawl and a huge (and unexplained) scar around his neck. While Aldo might seem an odd choice as the leader of group of Jewish soldiers, Brad Pitt is a natural for the role. He proves his versatility with a role that could have easily been cartoonish and significantly hurt the movie. Pitt is a much better actor than many people give him credit for, as beneath all the tabloid headlines he has been choosing interesting, unique, and often risky characters for the last 15 years.

Pitt is the only A-list star in a cast that includes many familiar faces and pleasant surprises. Melanie Laurent (Paris) portrays the wise-beyond-her-years theater owner Shoshanna with confidence and grace. The Office alum BJ Novak shows up in a small but funny role, while Michael Fassbender (300) perfectly brings to life a charmingly stuffy British officer. The real star of the show, and likely Oscar winner, is unknown Austrian Christoph Waltz as Nazi Colonel Hans Landa, one of the great villains of recent memory. He achieves a perfect balance between likability and pure evil, and it is a joy to hear him masterfully speak four different languages. Tarantino called Landa the best character he’s ever likely to write, and I would tend to agree.

Quentin Tarantino (Pulp Fiction) puts his unique stamp all over Inglourious Basterds, serving as both writer and director. Even though this is a completely new genre for him, Tarantino’s unavoidable style shines through and you quickly know you’re watching a Tarantino film. This is likely his most ambitious undertaking, and he succeeds in making exactly the film he wanted to. He tells a huge story in a remarkably small amount of scenes, which allows him to dig deeply into his fascinating characters. The opening scene where a French farmer tries to hide Shoshanna and her family from Landa is some of Tarantino’s best writing ever. While his directing skills still lag a bit behind his writing, Tarantino has found much more of a presence behind the camera than in his early days. One of his triumphs is in making such an outlandish story be relatively believable, as long as you disregard the history books.

There are few faults in Inglourious Basterds, and none of them detract much from the overall product. That being said, I would have preferred more time with the title characters, as at times their story seems secondary. Among the few disappointments in the cast is Tarantino’s buddy and Hostel director Eli Roth, who doesn’t come across very well as Aldo’s second in command. He really over-exaggerates a Boston accent in a role intended for Adam Sandler (Funny People got in the way-right choice, Adam?). Others may find fault with the length, but a story this captivating justifies at least the 153 minute run time.

Verdict: Inglourious Basterds is an absolute blast, as writer-director Quentin Tarantino and the stellar cast create an epic re-imagining of WWII. Equal parts suspenseful, hilarious, clever, and vibrant, there is more than enough to be found here to remind us why we love movies so much.
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Post by Admin Thu Feb 18, 2010 6:44 pm

http://jenniferswrightreport.blogspot.com/2010/02/academy-awards-special-inglourious.html

Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Academy Awards Special - Inglourious Basterds
Auteur thy name is Tarantino. There is no film student who matriculated in the early 90's who didn't want to be Quentin Tarantino. Ironically, Tarantino didn't go film school. Or college. Or most of high school. Yet the director has churned out some the most original, maniacally brilliant films in the American canon. Tarantino has always utilized non-linear story lines and stylized violence to tell his tales, and yet one aspect present in nearly all of his films is rarely discussed. Tarantino has some of the most uniquely realized feminine characters ever to grace the screen. They are so evolved that they have achieved post-feminist status. In True Romance (which Tarantino wrote but did not direct), Alabama is a beautiful hooker who has had only a handful of clients. She meets Clarence and falls deeply in love, forsaking her career in prostitution. Despite Alabama's penchant for animal prints and push-up bras, Tarantino never paints her as cheap or wanton. He presents a full-blown heroine whose one mission in life is to love her husband. In Natural Born Killers, Mallory Knox is serial murderer who, after years of sexual abuse at the hand of her own father, is moved to kill indiscriminately with her beloved husband, Mickey. An ass-kicking beauty seems trite in the age of Angelina, but in 1994 those broads were few and far between. Finally, in Kill Bill; Volume I and II, Tarantino gave us Beatrix Kiddo. Kiddo is a martial-arts expert and killer-for-hire who undergoes a profound change once she becomes pregnant. She leaves both her lover Bill and her life of crime to pursue a quasi-Ozzie and Harriet-type life. Bill and his gang of female killers finds Beatrix and guns her and her wedding party down in cold blood. Beatrix awakes from a coma years later to find her in-utero cargo at large and the lady is pissed. Somehow, somehow, Tarantino (and of course, Uma Thurman) gives us an incredibly relatable character who avenges the loss of her baby by brutally murdering all complicit. Thurman becomes that virtually illusive woman who can both stomp ass and be touchingly vulnerable.
Which brings us to Basterds. In this rather imaginative (in Hollywood, what?) script. Tarantino places us in Nazi-occupied France. Christoph Waltz is the sociopathic Colonel Landa whose job it is to rid the French countryside of their pesky Jew problem. Landa and his thugs murder the entire Dreyfus family, save for their beautiful daughter Shoshanna, who escapes to Paris. Shoshanna hides in plain sight for years as the proprietor of a theater with her black lover Marcel. By this time, America has become aware of the genocidal evils of the Germany's National Socialist Party and has deployed a small band of Jewish soldiers to fight them. The crew call themselves the "Basterds" and are led by Lieutenant Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt, pulling off the year's most inexplicable feat by being the worst actor in the film and simultaneously the most watchable). The Basterds have one mission; kill and scalp as many Nazi's as they can. While the Basterds formulate a plan to get the biggest fish in the Nazi tank, Shoshanna is devising her own plan of remarkable similarity. Again, Tarantino makes his female lead the true heart of the story. Shoshanna is smart, tough and ravishing in the vein of Catherine Deneuve. She displays incredible fortitude in the face of unbearable fear. She is the character we long to return to, even as we salivate over the brutish Eli Roth's savage beating of a smarmy German officer. The talented Melanie Laurent is Shoshanna, and my one complaint about her acting is that she does not have the pathos needed to really make us cry for her. But Laurent is still young, and it is possible that she is just a bit too European in her approach for the emotional American movie-goer. The other actors in Basterds are top-notch, with Waltz being the standout. Michael Fassbender and Diane Kruger are both delicious, as is an unusually reserved Mike Myers as an English officer who desperately wants to partner with the Americans if it will only end the war. Inglorious Basterds is splashy, deeply colorful and touches lightly on camp, but it achieves the substantive feel with the rock and roll vibe that so defines all of Tarantino's films.
My Comment relates to the chick thing. There are very few stories that combine the duality of woman, particularly on film. In the last ten years, there has been a fascination with the angry, violent, cartoon-like images we see in action films. Angelina Jolie has always played these roles, because the studios realize the value in a feminine beauty who acts nothing like a woman. Jolie herself fed the frenzy by acting like a man in public. She was never the betrayed, always the betrayer, and she presented a black-leather clad package of testosterone wrapped in gorgeousness. More and more, I hear women say that they never want to get married or have children. It's as if they are warding off the inevitable label of desperate that so many men apply to women looking for a husband. These woman want to be seen as independent (read; not clingy), tough (not a silly girly girl), and interested in fun (able to pound non-faggoty drinks like tequila). But I offer up the theory that many of these women are actually using this act in order to impress men. In effect, they are acting like men so that men don't think they act like women, and then the men will want to date, marry and procreate with them. What is really so wrong with being independent and still wanting to fall in love with someone and have children? Why do we have to make a choice between the two? I submit that the post-modern feminist is the one who finds a way to be strong, self-reliant, able to play beer-pong with the boys and not be afraid to admit that her mate and baby make her sloppy with emotion. Come on ladies, if Angie can do it, why can't wait. Oh wait, because she's really hot and has nannies. Screw Angie, just do it.
Posted by Jennifer Wright at 1:52 PM
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Post by Admin Sat Feb 20, 2010 3:21 am

http://www.filmdogsonline.com/2010/02/19/tarantinos-masterpiece-oscar-review-of-%E2%80%9Cinglourious-basterds%E2%80%9D/

Tarantino’s Masterpiece: Oscar Review of “Inglourious Basterds”
Calendar February 19, 2010 | Posted by Mr. Will

If there was ever a director who knew how to make hyperbolic statements concerning his own work and upcoming projects it is Quentin Tarantino. Rumors of the semi-sequel to his early films’ “Pulp Fiction” and “Reservoir Dogs” titled “The Vega Brothers” have been talked up for years. So naturally when Tarantino said he had an idea for the WWII movie to end all WWII movies I simply rolled my eyes. Now don’t get me wrong, I wanted to see that movie in a bad way. I may have even thought of kidnapping him at one point, and forcing him to write the script, but thats neither here nor there…

So image my surprise when it was suddenly announced in the summer of 2008 that “Inglourious Basterds” was on the fast track for a 2009 release. I and many other film fans I’m sure, felt vindicated. Yet, could a film that I had been looking forward too for nearly ten years live up to the hype? The answer is a resounding YES.

“Inglourious Basterds” is a WWII film unlike any other, that takes the old “men on a mission” plot from such films in the genre as “The Dirty Dozen” and “Kelly’s Heroes” and turns it on its head. The movie features an endless well of amazing characters including Brad Pitt’s iconic Tennessean Lt. Aldo Raine, Michael Fassbender’s profoundly British Lt. Archie Hicox, and Diane Kruger’s elegant German Actress Bridget von Hammersmark. Even the smallest role is memorable here. Who could forget Nazi Master Sgt. Wilhelm plea’s for safety so he can be with his newborn son in the now famous 25 minute bar scene.

What? A 25 minute scene you say? How can that not be boring? The answer to these questions is simple. Tarantino is one of the finest screenwriters to ever punch out a script, and his dialogue here is more engaging that any big action scene. Classic lines abound, here are a few samples:

Lt. Aldo Raine: “We got a German here who wants to die for his country! Oblige him!”,

Lt. Archie Hicox: “Well, if this is it, old boy, I hope you don’t mind I go out speaking the king’s?”

My vote for most memorable line of the year? Easy, Col. Hans Landa’s “That’s a bingo!!” See for yourselves in the video below.

Consider Tarantino a lock for the best original screenplay award come Oscar night. Speaking of sure bets at the Oscars previously unknown German television actor Christoph Waltz should go ahead and clear a space on his mantle for his performance in the film. Speaking fluently in four languages, and exuding a quiet confidence Waltz creates one of the greatest villains in cinematic history with Col. Hans Landa. One cannot praise his performance enough, as any critic will tell you.

Now, I have purposefully not said much about the actual plot of the film. To do so would be to reveal too much. Needless to say a lot has been said about the ending of this film, and in my opinion it is classic. I can’t honestly remember a more satisfying conclusion to a motion picture. For additional commentary read this brilliantly written piece from Sheldon Roth, Harvard Professor and father of “Inglourious Basterds” actor/Nazi hunter hunter in the film Eil Roth. [Caution, read only if you’ve seen the film as spoilers abound]

In the end “Inglourious Basterds” is indeed the film I had always imagined it would be, and here’s hoping it will win best picture at the Academy Awards. All future entries in the WWII genre have a lot to live up too, as the bar has been set very high. The only man I can see breaking it is Quentin himself. Good thing an “Inglourious Basterds” prequel is already being talked about.
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Post by Admin Sun Feb 21, 2010 1:52 am

http://piercedtotheheart.org/2010/inglourious-basterds-before

nglourious Basterds (2009)
(Quick talk)
by Randy Heffner
Is the film worth your time?

If you take pleasure in revenge and you choose to go on taking pleasure in it, Inglourious Basterds will give you plenty to feed your pleasure. I don’t want that to be me, yet there is truth in what the film portrays: War time aggressors, like the Nazis, should be stopped. But it stung me deeply to watch how the film portrayed it. This can be a good thing. If I come away more aware of when I begin to feel vengeful, and especially if I come away from the film more aware of when I begin to take pleasure in vengeful actions, it will have served to form me in a positive way. The pity of it is that the film’s central question — how should we respond to evil that would exterminate us? — is not so much explored as it is given one direct and forcible answer: Become exterminators in return, and enjoy every minute of it. This takes away richness that Inglourious Basterds might have had, making it a low priority for viewing.

That said, there is a counter argument. To its credit, the film has elements that work against its flat, forcible answer of raw vengeance. Aldo Raine is satirically overplayed, both in the character’s naïveté as a military strategist and in Brad Pitt’s almost-over-the-top acting. Sections of the film are separated by chapter headings, providing a bit of distance from the film by reminding us that it’s fiction. Near the film’s climax, it includes a quasi mirror of itself (I’m being deliberately vague here) together with some telling reactions to it. Although these elements are weak against the broad strokes of the film, they seem to want to say, “take this with a grain of salt.” Indeed.

The filmcraft in Inglourious Basterds is excellent and rich. In particular, the character of Col. Hans Landa, a German SS officer, is a very good piece of work from all sides — dialog, acting, his role in the plot — and Christoph Waltz captures a compelling face of calculating, dispassionate evil. Mélanie Laurent’s Shoshanna is wonderful. Tarantino’s direction makes for a film that is technically very good, with many small and fascinating details. Watch Inglourious Basterds for its witty dialog. Watch it for its wry performances. But if you watch it, bring along a large dose of humanity to inoculate yourself against the Basterds’ counter-Nazism.
Introduction to the story

It’s World War II, and Lt. Aldo Raine leads a small special military team composed of Jews — the Basterds. Their mission is to kill Nazis. Any Nazis. And boy do they love to kill Nazis. Actually, “slaughter” would be a better term, except that they have more fun with it than that term implies. Wrapped around the Basterds’ exploits is the story of Shosanna, a Jewish girl whose family was slaughtered by Nazis. Although she is not joyously hunting the way that the Basterds are, she comes upon and pursues an opportunity to kill many Nazis. Here, the paths of Shosanna and the Basterds intersect. Running time: 153 min.
Content awareness

Inglourious Basterds is very violent and sometimes gruesome. To Nazism, its overriding answer is to become like the enemy. Occasional strong language; some passing drug use; one brief sexual scene.
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Post by Admin Mon Feb 22, 2010 4:45 pm

http://flixchatter.wordpress.com/2010/02/22/flixchatter-review-inglourious-basterds/


FlixChatter Review: Inglourious Basterds

February 22, 2010 by rtm

Ok, 2 down, 10 more to go. As I mentioned in my Oscar nom musings, I’ve got twelve movies to catch up on by Oscar time (both nominated for Best Picture and those that feature Oscar-nominated performances). In the past 2 weeks, I finally caught this one and The Hurt Locker, review forthcoming.

Since the movie is divided into five chapters, I thought I’d break down my review into five main parts just for the heck of it. Now, I’m not hugely familiar with Tarantino’s work, nor did I know much about his movie influences as this LA Times article pointed out. I have no qualms with him ‘borrowing’ certain aspects from obscure or foreign movies, as long as he’s able to make those scenes his own with his own actors and approach/style, which is exactly what he did in this movie.

Before I continue, here’s the plot: In Nazi-occupied France during World War II, a group of Jewish-American soldiers known as “The Basterds”, led by Lt. Aldo Raine, are chosen specifically to spread fear throughout the Third Reich by scalping and brutally killing Nazis.

PART I: The Story

Before I saw this I expected it to be an ultra-violent anti-Nazi flick, a revenge fantasy with Tarantino’s brand of panache and style. Well it was all that indeed, but it’s also so much more. The Basterds are absolutely hell-bent on revenge, but there’s more to the story than what Lt. Aldo (Brad Pitt) and the gang are up to. Their mission is cleverly interwoven with the story of Soshana Dreyfuss (Melanie Laurent), the sole survivor when his family was ambushed early on. There are many layers to the story, one knotty predicament after another — thanks to the shrewdness of Col. Landa (Christoph Waltz) — keeps on unfolding until it builds to a gratifying climax.

PART 2: Direction

It’s quite obvious that Tarantino must’ve paid homage to old-school film-making style in the opening sequence. It’s a long continuous shot of just two people – a French farmer and Col. Landa – conversing. That scene runs for a good 10-15 minutes with the camera focusing between the two characters and not much else, yet the dialogue (switching from French to foreign-accented English) and the expression of the French farmer is immensely tense. This is one of the three segments of the movie where I literally had to get away from the room and distract myself in order to calm my nerves. Of course after my husband assured me it wasn’t “that bad” that I came back and he re-wound the scene for me to watch. It’s an absolutely brilliant opening sequence that pretty much establish Christoph Waltz’s as one extraordinary actor. I was in for a surprise how much dialog-centric the script was, not so much a gore-fest merely to satisfy fans of the Saw franchise, despite Hostel director Eli Roth’s involvement. Yet, even the more talky scenes are so charged with suspense that my every nerve was stretched to its snapping point.

PART 3: Acting

The marvelous Christoph Waltz

There’s no doubt that Christoph Waltz is a revelation in this movie. He practically steals every single scene he’s in, he’s got that delicate combination of being comical yet deranged, a Nazi Patrick Bateman, but with less affinity for business cards surely. Many times during the movie I actually stopped and marvelled how good his performance was, and his knack for languages is even more mind-boggling, such a talent that’s as potent a weapon as any rifle. I could write an entire post on him the way I did for District 9’s Sharlto Copley, he really is that good! According to NY Times, the Tarantino admitted “I knew Landa was one of the best characters I’ve ever written and probably one of the best characters I will ever write” and thus “I literally had to consider I might have written an unplayable part.” Without Waltz, Tarantino might’ve given up making this movie and I agree, under less capable hands, Col. Landa would’ve been nothing more than a sadistic caricature villain. No wonder he’s nabbed just about every award given out this year, with last night’s BAFTA being the latest, and he’s definitely a shoo-in for Oscar.

Besides Waltz, the rest of the cast is also terrific. It’s no secret that I’m not a Brad Pitt fan, but he actually suited his character perfectly. Just like Ben Affleck, he’s got a real gift in comedy as I liked him more here than his more serious roles. Diane Krueger proves she’s more than a pretty face here, but it’s French actress Melanie Laurent that truly stands out to to me. Her scenes at the restaurant is such an exquisitely-controlled and affecting performance, her expression as Col. Landa finally leaves the room is one that stayed with me for a long time. She’s definitely overlooked in this year’s award season. Major eye candy Michael Fassbender as well as German actor Til Schweiger were equally compelling as allies to the Basterds, oh, even Mike Myers had a pretty memorable cameo.

Diane Kruger and Michael Fassbender

PART 4: Accent, accent, accent

If I wrote this post about movie accents after seeing this movie, I’d have listed it as one of the best examples of using subtitles. The way a person speak is an integral plot point here so naturally the actors have to pull off the various accents believably. I really enjoyed listening to the different languages spoken here (most notably by Mr. Waltz who speaks French, German, English and Italian fluently), it makes the movie all the more richer and adds a tinge of ‘foreign film’ flavor to it. Accent truly becomes a matter of life and death during the meeting point of “Operation Kino” at the basement of a French tavern, it’s one of the most nerve-racking and violent scenes in the movie, but the dialogue is absolutely to-die-for. Best movie sequence I’ve seen in a long time!

PART 5: Other observations: music and costumes

1940s costume is utterly fabulous!

The music is as quirky as the film itself. It doesn’t exactly fit the period but it certainly fits the scene and when put together, it just works. I mean, you’d never think of pairing renowned composer like Ennio Morricone (Cinema Paradiso) with cuts from David Bowie, that’s exactly what Tarantino did. This L.A. Times blog wrote about the method of how the Tennessee native went about choosing the right song for a particular scene, and how unlike other directors, he doesn’t work with a songwriter to custom-made a song for his movies, “… he handpicks each song and painstakingly injects them into scenes instead of simply hiring a music composer to do the work.”

Tarantino also pays careful attention to the beautiful costumes in his first period film, as costume designer Anna Sheppard said in this interview. The fabulous 1940s fashion provides a nice distraction from all the violent scalping and shooting scenes, there’s almost a Cinderella moment (with a nasty twist of course) with Col. Landa slipping on her pump on Bridget von Hammersmark’s delicate foot. The red dress that Melanie Laurent wore at the pivotal night at the cinema is almost as memorable as her iconic performance.

All in all Inglourious Basterds is a glorious film that truly exceeds my expectation in many levels. If you have reservations about this as you’re not really a ‘Tarantino fan’, give it a chance. Trust me, you’d be glad you did.
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Post by Admin Sun Mar 21, 2010 11:59 pm

http://jewrie.blogspot.com/2010/03/oooh-thats-bingo.html

Sunday, March 21, 2010
Oooh, that's a bingo!
Inglourious Basterds

By far one of the best and most fun movies of 2009 and my favorite Tarantino film, Inglourious Basterds is a "comedy of horrors." The film is hilarious and depicts a fictional, but awesome way to have ended World War II. However, it could be a mediation on violence and crippling revenge.

But first, I must give obvious praise to Christophe Waltz. Within the first five minutes of watching him on screen, he sucked me in. His performance is hypnotic, engrossing, and incredible. I knew he was destined for greatness in American cinema. As Hans Landa, also known as "The Jew Hunter," Waltz is pure evil and sprinkles his performance with uncomfortable and corny humor. He is chilling and theatrical. The opening scene is just...I have no words. I was literally on the edge of my seat. The way Waltz can switch back and forth between persona's as casually as he switches between languages is incredible. One has to remind him/herself that Waltz is playing a Nazi, a particularly evil one at that. I really look forward to seeing the work he'll do. Tarantino discovered a star.

Also notable is Melanie Laurent as the heroine Shoshana. Her performance is very subtle but her face speaks volumes. When reunited with Landa, Laurent does an excellent job of conveying Shoshana's fear and need to remain composed in front of Landa, the murderer of her family. She's breathtaking in many ways, particularly in that red dress.

Brad Pitt's hilarious Tennessee accent is a pleasure and Michael Fassbender is very enjoyable. Diane Kruger also turned out a great performance...but none of them can touch Waltz and Laurent.

Tarantino writes an excellent parallel between Waltz and Pitt's characters. Both are committed to their jobs, hunting and killing their respective "enemies." Both have nicknames, which they take pride in. Though Waltz kills persecuted innocents, both men have similarities that cannot be ignored.

Inglourious Basterds is a fantasy, a great "hey wouldn't it be cool if..." Tarantino clearly had fun writing and making this film. Nazi's are a universally despised symbol and watching American Jewish officers and a stunning French Jewish woman take them all down is many people's dream come true. Comedy, drama, thrills, suspense and a sweet love story all climb into bed together in Inglourious Basterds. Furthermore, there is no question that this is a Tarantino. The witty and snappy dialogue along with the perfectly selected music help the film fit nicely in Tarantino's filmography.

I read an article by Mark Blankenship around the time of the film's release. He wrote an excellent piece for The Huffington Post about the film's larger theme, of how revenge can cripple society. Blankenship writes how "culturally acceptable hatred creates a terrifying mob mentality." Case in point, the climactic and incredibly shot cinema burning scene. The audience watches a film of a Nazi soldier killing hundreds of Allied soldiers and we are disgusted. But when Shoshana sets the theater on fire and two of the Basterds, perched in an opera box or "bird's nest," start shooting at the people below, much like the Nazi in the film, we cheer. Blankenship asks, "when we celebrate death, who have we become?" Good question. When is violence worthy of celebration? I found myself internally cheering at the bloody demise of Hitler, Goebbels and other evil doers, but I felt a little gross afterwards too.
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Post by Admin Thu Mar 25, 2010 3:21 pm

http://thearteesticside.wordpress.com/2010/03/25/inglourious-basterds-2009/


Inglourious Basterds (2009)
Published March 25, 2010 A Movie A Night. Leave a Comment

When the last line spoken in the film goes, “I think this just might be My Masterpiece” [Spoken by a rather pleased Lt. Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt) as "he looks on at his carving of the Nazi sign on Col. Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz) forehead", into the camera and at the audience in the theater in real life], it is undoubtedly Quentin Tarantino’s send-off to the world, with this tasteful & wonderfully delivered, directed and scripted film.

[Inglorious Basterds] commands Brilliance, Sharpness, Wit to the fullest. Its ability to intrigue and leave you wanting more till the very end… Quentin’s trademark sense of humor, his unmistakable style. GREAT cinematography. Smart f.a.n.t.a.s.t.i.c. Script. A movie of Age & class. Entertaining beyond words.

I actually enjoyed this movie even more than Quentin’s other artistic pieces, [Pulp Fiction], [Kill Bill] & [Fight Club] even though, they were and are and will be, classic pieces.

It’s crazy how he’s (well, Quentin & Christoph, actually…so, “they are”) able to make drinking milk so attractive. Or adding A Dollop of Cream to your apple strudel could look entirely enticing despite the fact that you hate cream. Or how he makes gruesomeness and gore so enjoyable, entertaining, fun & funny. Oh, the irony of how the one person you let free could be the one person who kills you. Gotta love the satirical way Quentin painted Hitler, with cowardice and stupidity. And the characters he created, Lt. Aldo Raine & Col. Hans Landa. Quentin’s like a Hollywood “Expert” of Satire.

I watched this movie for my first time in the theaters with a couple of great guys, who had kindly paid for my ticket as a treat (Kudos to them!), last year in September and I’d swear if i could, that the only thing I could think of as I walked out the cinema, was,“Christoph Waltz…oh my Goodness…if it’s possible at all, he’s going to get nominated for an Oscar for his role, for Best Supporting Actor”. And i vaguely remember my heart jumping about in excitement at the thought of it! There is no way anyone could walk of the theater or just from the movie and not l.o.v.e. his portrayal of the obnoxious, side-tracking-mind, FUNNY, self-loving Col. Hans Landa. Brad Pitt deserves an Award of some sort in the near future for his talents and acting gift too. I couldn’t imagine someone else as the p’urty (pretty) , Southern-sounding, Practical, DEE-stroying, Drug-sniffing Lt. Aldo Raine. Perfect timing, perfect tone of voice, perfect acting. The actors in the movie were (almost)perfectly cast, in my opinion, from Mr. Pitt to Eli Roth to Christoph Waltz, to Melanie Laurent, to Dianne Kruger… Michael Fassbender looks quite the fresh yet familiar face. Looks quite the possible next thing, and the narration that Samuel L. Jackson gives for certain parts of the film adds character to the movie.

I still feel like Quentin Tarantino did deserve at least a part of the Oscar award for “Best Screenplay, Original”…(Even though I AM thrilled still for Mark Boal’s win)

A movie for any and every Tom-Dick-Harry, Sally-Jane-Mary!

p.s. By The Way, Christoph Waltz went on to win The Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for this role this year.
Lines such as:

Col. Hans Landa: Monsieur, to both your family and your cows, I say, “bravo.”

————————-

Monsieur LaPadite: Only rumors.

Col. Hans Landa: I LOVE RUMORS. Well, facts can be so misleading, but rumors , “true or false?”, so often revealing.

————————–

Lt. Aldo Raine: But i got a word of warning for all you would-be warriors. When you join my command, you take on debit. Debit you owe me personally. Each and every man under my command owes me 100 Nazi scalps. And Iwant my scalps.

————————–

Lt. Aldo Raine: Another one up there, you might be familiar with. Sarg. Hugo Stiglitz. Heard of him?

German soldier: Everybody in the German Army has heard of, Hugo SCHtiglitz.

—————————-

Lt. Aldo Raine: Sargent Hugo Stiglitz? Lt. Aldo Raine. We’re the Basterds. Ever heard of us?…Just wanna say, we’re a big fan of your work, when it comes to killing Nazis.

—————————–

German soldier: F*** you. And your ew dogs!

Lt. Aldo Raine: Actually we’re all tickled to hear you say that. Frankly watching Donny beat Nazis to death is the closest we ever gonna get to going to the movies. DONNY!

Donny: Yeah!

Lt. Aldo Raine: Got us a German here who wants to die for his country!

——————————

Lt. Aldo Raine: … …You know, fightin’ in the basement offers lots of difficulties. Number one being, you’re fightin’ in the basement!

——————————-

Sgt. Donny Donowitz: Speaking of VROU(?!) VON HAMMERSMARK, whose idea was it for the deathtrap rendezvous?

Lt. Archie Hicox: She chose the spot.

Sgt. Donny Donowitz: Oh! Isn’t that just…dandy?

———————————

Donny: F***, A, Duck!

… … … …

Lt. Aldo Raine: Doggy Doc’s gonna dig that slug out ya campy. He’s gonna wrap it up in a cast. And you got a good “how i broke my leg” mountain-climbing story. That’s German, ain’t it? Y’all like climbing mountains, don’t you?

… …

Hammersmark: I know this is a silly question before I ask it. But, can you Americans speak any other language than English?

Donny: We could speak a little Italian.

Hammersmark: Atrocious accent, no doubt.

… …

Hammersmark: That sounds good.

Aldo: Sounds like s$#!. What else we gonna do? Go home?

… …

Aldo: Well! I speak the most EYE-tai-lian (Italian), so. I’ll be your escort. Donny speaks second most and he’ll be your EYE-tai-lian camera man. Omar third most, he’ll be Donny’s assistant.

Omar: I don’t speak Italian.

Aldo: Like I said. Third best. Just keep your f***ing mouth shut. In fact, why don’t you start practicing right now.

————————————-

Aldo: Bonj-jer-know. (Bonjourno) (in his extremely distinctive Americano accent)



Col. Hans Landa: (In Italian) Gentlemen, it’s a pleasure…the friends of our cherished star, admired by all of us, this outright jewel of our culture are naturally going to be under my personal protection for the duration of their stay.

(long pause, bewildered faces)

Aldo: Gracias. (again, totally un-Italian)

Col. Hans Landa: (In Italian) Gorlomee? Am I saying it correctly?

Aldo: Si. Yeah, correcto.

Col.: Say it for me once.

Aldo: Gore-Lar-me.

… … … …

Hans: (In Italian) Arrivederci.

Donny: (Italian) Arrivederci. (looks at Aldo & Hammersmark) Arrivederci (Sing-song manner)

Aldo: ARR-Rivi-DER-CI.

————————————

Col. Hans Landa: I’ve been waiting a long time to touch you. (Pokes Aldo on his forehead) (Chuckles) Caught you flinching.

————————–

Col. Hans Landa: So you’re Aldo, the Apache.

Lt. Aldo Raine: So you’re the jew hunter.

Col. Hans Landa: I’m a detective. Damn good detective. Finding people is my specialty so naturally I work for the Nazis finding people and yes, them all jews but Jew Hunter?! (snorts) Just a name that’s stuck.

Utivich: Well, you do have to admit. it is catchy.

Col. Hans Landa: Do you control the enemies’ nicknames based on you? Aldo, the Apache & The Little Man?

Utivich: What do you mean, the little man?

Col. Hans Landa: Germans’ nickname for you.

Utivich: The Germans’ nickname for me, is the little man?

Col. Hans Landa: And as if it didn’t make my point, I’m a little surprised at how tall you were in real life. I mean, you’re a little fella, but you’re not circus midget as your reputation suggests.

… … … …

Col. Hans Landa: Well let’s just say she got what she deserved. And when you purchase friends like Bridget Von Hammersmark, you get what you pay for.

… … … …

Col. Hans Landa: Well. Back to the whereabouts of your 2 Italian Saboteurs… … …And you need all four, to end the war. But if i don’t pick this phone right here, you may very well get all four. And if you get all four, you end..the war…tonight. So! Gentlemen! (pulls out wine glasses and a bottle of I’m-assuming-to-be-wine) let’s discuss the prospect of ending the war tonight. (Pops the bottle)

… … … … …

Col. Hans Landa: (Smiles like a fool, sitting perched up on his chair) OOOOOOO! THAT’s A BEENGO (Bingo)! (leans forward) Is that the way you say it? “That’s a Bingo”?

Lt. Aldo Raine: You just say, “Bingo”.

Col. Hans Landa: BEENGO!! HOHO How Fun! But I digress. Where were we? Ah. Make a deal………………….

… … …

Lt. Aldo Raine: (While trying to make a point) You know, where I’m from,

Col. Hans Landa: Yeah, where is that exactly?

Lt. Aldo Raine: Maynardville, Tennessee..

… … …

Lt. Aldo Raine: …Long story short, we hear a story too good to be true, it ain’t.

Col. Hans Landa: …Every once in a while, Fate reaches out and extends its hand…(throws his hands up, mid air) What shall the history books read?

———————————-

Lt. Aldo Raine: …End the war tonight? I’d make that deal. How about you, Utivich, you’d make that deal?

Utivich: I’d make that deal (Carving out the scalp of the soldier shot to death)

Lt. Aldo Raine: I don’t blame ya! Damn Good Deal! And the p’urty little nest you feathered for yourself… … …But I do have one question. When you get to your little place on Nantucket island, I’m askin’ you’re gonna take off that handsome-looking SS uniform of yours, ain’t ya? (silence) That’s what I thought. Now that I can’t buy.

… …

Lt. Aldo Raine: You know something, Utivich? I think this just might be My Masterpiece.
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Post by Pilar Sun May 23, 2010 6:36 pm

Saw it again last night. Fassy's performance mesmirizes me. It's not so much the language that captivates me, although his voice sexy as all get out....it's his MANNERISMS. The way he lights Diane's cigarette....his subtle movements....the look in his eyes....

That scene in the Tavern is flawless...I still get tense when I watch it.
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Post by Admin Sun May 23, 2010 11:10 pm

I was just thinking about all those intense moments and how slick his character was. And the fact that I still don't have the dvd back from my sister.
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Post by Pilar Mon May 24, 2010 6:23 pm

I should just send you a new one, lol! It's a must for your library.

I think the other night was my tenth time watching it. Still not tired of any of it. (Pitt was hilarious.).
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Post by Admin Tue Jul 13, 2010 2:17 am

http://porkhead.blogspot.com/2010/07/inglourious-basterds-featuring-celeb.html?zx=4e0453868c3609be


Inglourious Basterds (featuring a CELEB GUEST REVIEWER)

Director: Quentin Tarantino (2009)
Starring: Brad Pitt, Melanie Laurent, Christoph Waltz, Eli Roth
Find it online: IMDB, Amazon UK, Amazon US

Quentin Tarantino's feature-length remake/adaptation of Allo Allo certainly takes some liberties with the source material and even history itself. The titular Basterds are a team of Nazi-hunting Jews and allies, working like a band of old fashioned outlaws to bring down Hitler and his Nazis. You've all seen the bit in the trailer where Brad Pitt demands him some scalps. Well, there's a little less of that than one might imagine and a lot of talking. Inglourious Basterds is even talkier than the thoroughly talky Death Proof (of which I'm actually a fan). And at around 3 hours runtime, that's a helluva lot of talking. But it turns out that talking is a lot more interesting when the orator is someone worth listening to. Whiny Stuntman Mike in Death Proof? Not really interesting. Hans Landa in Inglourious Basterds? Compelling. I'd listen to him read the phonebook. Over to the Review Hole's guest reviewer and resident scholar of Nazi:

Mel: Man, there's only one reason to watch Inglorious Bastards, and that sure as s$#! ain't for the Jews. I mean, fighting Jews? Who's gonna believe a thing like that? No, the only reason to watch Inglorious Bastards is for the Nazi Jew Hunter fella, Hans Landa. I really dug that cat and wanted to see him get all those Jews shot real dead.

Porkhead: Thanks Mel. Gotta agree to disagree though, there's plenty of fun in watching the Basterds do their stuff. My only complaint would be that they don't do it nearly enough. I particularly would've liked to see more of Michael Fassbender and Sgt. Stiglitz. In fact, one could argue that this isn't even their movie. This film truly belongs to Landa and French cinema owner Emmanuelle (Laurent)

Mel: She sure has got herself some sugar t**s

Porkhead: Indeed. Laurent is all kinds of adorable and great as Emmanuelle. It's to hers and Tarantino's credit that none of the scenes really drag as one might expect them to. Even more so when you consider that Inglourious Basterds is little more than a set of lengthy dialogues, one after the other. Stupid people will probably hate this movie, thanks to its extensive use of subtitles.

Mel: Subtitles are cool.

Porkhead: That said, the movie could definitely have done with a little trimming here and there. Get rid of Eli Roth, for example (not just in this movie - in general, please). And did we really need a cameo from Mike Myers? His scenes serve as little more than a lecture on the joys of German propaganda. Inglourious Basterds is a love-letter to both cinema and Diane Kruger's feet. Diane's feet get nearly as much screentime as her face.

Mel: Those feet look like they're gonna get raped by a pack of -

Porkhead: Not the time or place, Mel. Like much of Tarantino's recent output, Inglourious Basterds is a divisive piece. Some will think it overly talky and self-indulgent, whilst others will enjoy its well-written dialogues, fun characters and clever reworking of WWII cinema tropes. Me, I enjoyed it and I hope others did too. It's been a long time coming, but Inglourious Basterds was worth the wait. Special thanks to Mel Gibson for his insightful views. Cheers, Mel.

Mel: Heil Hitler.
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Post by Admin Thu Aug 12, 2010 5:20 pm

http://flixchatter.wordpress.com/2010/08/12/31-days-movie-meme-movie-i-ended-up-loving/

31 Days Movie Meme Day #10: Movie I ended up loving

August 12, 2010 by rtm
A movie you thought you wouldn’t like but ended up loving:
Inglourious Basterds

The marvelous IB opening sequence

When the buzz for this movie started even months before it opened, I had no interest whatsoever in seeing it. I’ve never been a Tarantino fan and though I enjoyed Pulp Fiction, I’m not familiar with his work. Plus, Brad Pitt’s mug all over the poster isn’t what I’d consider enticing. But then a girlfriend—whom I thought are more into chick flicks—said how much she enjoyed this movie. My guest blogger and loyal FC reader Mike also raved about it, I mean rave with a capital ‘R,’ marveling about QT’s masterful filming style and how spectacular the opening sequence was.

Needless to say I was intrigued and you know what, they were right. I loved the movie! If you read my glowing review in five parts, clearly I was pleasantly surprised by it. Despite some of the violence and highly suspenseful scenes, I was blown away by the story and the distinctive way it’s presented.

The lethal beauty Shosanna Dreyfus

Though Pitt got top billing, the movie really belongs to Christoph Waltz! He deserved all the kudos for his bravura performance, a perfect mix of menace and whimsy. I just wish French actress Mélanie Laurent had gotten her share of nods as well as her performance was equally amazing. The always-watchable Michael Fassbender also delivered a memorable performance as Lt. Hicox, an English soldier who goes undercover as a German Captain.

In any case, I’m glad I gave the movie a chance. In fact, I was rooting for it to win Best Picture, alas, another movie that didn’t blow me away walked away with the Oscar. Oh well, I stand by this one and out of the 10 Oscar nominees last year, Inglourious Basterds is definitely one I wouldn’t mind watching again.
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Post by Pilar Fri Aug 13, 2010 9:31 pm

And I'm watching it YET AGAIN tonight. LOL! I think this makes twenty times now.
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Post by Admin Sat Aug 14, 2010 8:27 pm

Laughing

Maybe if I get my tv finally hooked up to all the other gadgets this weekend, I'll pop the dvd in.
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Post by Admin Mon Aug 23, 2010 10:08 pm

http://cinemacaffeine.blogspot.com/2010/08/pop-culture-pick-me-ups-2-inglourious.html

Monday, August 23, 2010
Pop Culture Pick-Me-Ups #2: Inglourious Basterds
(Warning: If you’re one of the few people who hasn’t seen this film yet, then I warn you, spoilers abound. Do yourself a favor and watch it. Now. Go.)

You might be wondering, “Why is a World War II movie capable of making her feel so damn good?” Well, how can it not, when it’s an epic Jewish revenge fantasy like this one? Indeed, even the first chapter title, “Once upon a time…in Nazi occupied France,” sets it up as being nowhere near as realistic as Schindler’s List, Saving Private Ryan, or the rest of your father’s World War II movies. It’s a fairy-tale storybook with pages splattered with blood and gore and the music of Ennio Morricone and David Bowie, and written by the so-crazy-he’s-cool auteur Quentin Tarantino, who has previously brought us the equally engrossing (and lacking in realism) ensemble features Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs, amongst others.

Like I said previously, this is no Spielberg war epic. This is a Tarantino movie; therefore, the reality of the movie abides by his rules. And his rules allow for a lot of bending of history for the insertion of a hilarious American named Lieutenant Aldo Raine, voiced by Brad Pitt as sassy redneck from some Appalachian province I sure as hell never heard of, since I’ve never heard anyone speak in such an outrageous voice before (he says Maynardville, Tennessee, but I’m disinclined to take his word for it). It allows for his band of merry Jewish misfits, the Basterds, who run amok in France scalping any Nazis that they find. It allows for the most charismatic and evil Nazi in film history, Colonel Hans Landa, who is played by Christoph Waltz as a dangerously charming scumbag, fluent in many languages and talented at tracking down the enemies of the National Socialist Party. It allows for the usual powerful Tarantino female protagonists, all too rare in mainstream Hollywood cinema—the glamorous movie star-turned-double-agent Bridget von Hammersmark and the vengeful Jewish cinema owner Shosanna Dreyfus.

The cast is colorful and full of characters so diverse and well drawn that one wouldn’t mind watching a spin-off or prequel film starring any of them. We don’t really know a lot of background information about any of them, but because their dialogue and actions define them all so well and so uniquely we don’t need a lot of exposition in order to care about them. We’re allowed to let our imaginations run wild as to why Aldo Raine has a lynching scar on his neck, and who all these apparent conquests of Hans Landa’s are. Too bad that nearly the entire cast is killed off by the final frame. Yet this is not depressing, though when characters like Bridget and Shosanna die you can’t help but be upset. How is it truly depressing, however, when they’re all giving their lives to destroy the most evil man history? Not a single hero dies in vain; they all play a small part in bringing about the final showdown in Shosanna’s theatre, when Hitler and his cronies are blasted full of holes and then blown up in a fiery, cataclysmic explosion started by films strips, of all things. Who really doesn’t watch this movie wishing that this was indeed how the ultimate war actually ended? Any tears one sheds for Shosanna or Bridget or Michael Fassbender’s sexy British officer Archie Hickox are quickly dried at the sight of Eli Roth hammering away at a machine gun at a theatre full of Nazis.

It might sound morbid, to get such a thrill out of such a violent scene, but that is one of the great things about Nazis in movies—they are the ultimate antagonist. Why is this, you ask? Because they are so damn evil that you don’t care about what happens to them; in fact, in the case of leaders like Hitler and Goebbels, you genuinely want them to die. Any film featuring Nazis is guaranteed to feature villains that make your skin crawl and have next-to-no redeeming values. Yet most of those movies end tragically, with said villains triumphing over our heroes in the end. Not this one!

Tarantino litters the film with his trademark longwinded yet fascinating dialogue sequences, inspiring music choices, and enough references to the history of cinema to make a film buff squee with joy. And blood. Lots of blood. It’s also long, like his best movies, clocking in at over two and a half hours; yet those minutes fly by almost too quickly for the viewer, the film is so entertaining. The cinematography is lush and richly lit, harkening back to color films actually shot in the 1940s, and the costumes, like the plot itself, take a few liberties with historical accuracy to create some real stylish beauties. For me, watching Inglourious Basterds is like chowing down on a bowl of candy but without any calories or sugary bits stuck in my teeth. I feel my endorphins lift every time Brad Pitt delivers his first line, the way they do after I eat a chocolate bar or drink a soda. Maybe this does make me a bit of a twisted person, but I don’t care when it feels this good.

Inglourious Basterds had previously acquired almost a mythical quality for Tarantino fans; the script had been in the making for over a decade. No one ever thought it would actually get produced, let alone into something this amazing. I’m glad it was worth the wait.
Posted by Lee at 2:09 PM
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Post by Admin Sun Dec 19, 2010 12:23 am

http://scorethefilm.blogspot.com/2010/12/inglourious-basterds-2009.html?zx=a2f4754a1e265d9b

Saturday, December 18, 2010
Inglourious Basterds (2009)

Director: Quentin Tarantino

Starring: Christoph Waltz, Brad Pitt, Melanie Laurent, Eli Roth, Michael Fassbender, Diane Kruger, B.J. Novak, Mike Myers, Julie Dreyfus, Rod Taylor

More info: IMDb

Tagline: Once upon a time in Nazi occupied France...

Plot: In Nazi occupied France, young Jewish refugee Shosanna Dreyfus witnesses the slaughter of her family by Colonel Hans Landa. Narrowly escaping with her life, she plots her revenge several years later when German war hero Fredrick Zoller takes a rapid interest in her and arranges an illustrious movie premiere at the theater she now runs. With the promise of every major Nazi officer in attendance, the event catches the attention of the "Basterds", a group of Jewish-American guerilla soldiers led by the ruthless Lt. Aldo Raine. As the relentless executioners advance and the conspiring young girl's plans are set in motion, their paths will cross for a fateful evening that will shake the very annals of history.


My rating: 9/10

Will I watch it again? Most certainly.

I love QT's movies, pure and simple. KILL BILL (2003) is probably my favorite (both parts as a whole, mind you). With every announcement of a new QT flick, I get all kinds of excited. When the trailers come out I'm a mess of anticipation but when I saw the trailers for INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS I was completely unimpressed. Nothing about them did gave me that "he's still got it" feeling I'd always had previously. Brad Pitt looked horribly miscast. Nothing worked...until I saw it opening weekend.

I couldn't have been more wrong. Christoph Waltz's performance is magnificent and that he was unknown to everyone here in the States makes it even better. I'm anxiously awaiting anything this guy puts out. Pitt was a great bit of casting. He's fucking hilarious. The shit that comes out of his mouth and the way he delivers it is priceless. Like all QT flicks, the performances and dialogue are top notch. His music choices are a lot of fun. The only issue I had, musically, was the David Bowie song stuck in a pivotal moment in the film. It completely took me out of it and that bugs me. I'm going along have a wonderful time then BAM! What the hell, dude? Other than that, it's tops.

Oh, and the ending is fantastic. Methinks he watched HITLER - DEAD OR ALIVE (1942) a few times before writing it. But that's OK 'cause the man sure does know how to make a highly entertaining movie. It's not the action-loaded flick everyone expected (myself included) but it is a helluva lot of fun. I still want to see a QT WWII balls out action movie but that's probably not going to happen but one thing is certain...he's still got it!

Posted by scorethefilm at 2:17 PM
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Post by Admin Sun Dec 19, 2010 4:04 pm

http://mylastoscar.wordpress.com/2010/12/19/best-picture-profile-inglourious-basterds/

Best Picture Profile: Inglourious Basterds
December 19, 2010 — mylastoscar

Directed by: Quentin Tarantino

Company: The Weinstein Company

Runtime: 153 minutes

The film tells two parallel stories set during the World War II in Europe.

The first story is about Shoshanna Dreyfus, a naive Jewish girl who, after escaping a massive murder that killed all of her family, runs a cinema house in France. She is being persuaded by a German actor who she despises. But circumstances play in her life and she meets the one that ordered to kill her family, the charming but totally evil Colonel Hans Landa. She realizes that, using her humble cinema house, she could have her revenge to the Germans that have maltreated the Jews and, especially, to kill Hitler himself.

The second story is about the Basterds, a group of trained Jewish-American soldiers led by the suave Colonel Aldo Raine. His command per soldier is to get him 100 Nazi scalps. Because of the notoriety that the group had been claiming in the whole French and German people, Hitler becomes wary of their presence. During one drinking night, actress and spy Bridget von Hammersmark, film critic Archie Hilcox, and German killer Hugo Stiglitz, among others, encountered a German officer and had caused a Mexican stand-off.

The two story eventually meets when the movie “Nation’s Pride”, a German propaganda film, premiered in Shoshanna’s cinema house. Here, Shoshanna’s plan and the Basterds’ plan of revenge eventually come together, unexpectedly, causing an explosive climax for the film.

I would say that this film had just reached the height of epic filmmaking.

The direction is an overwhelming work of brilliance. From the first time the music plays with the opening credits, it already speaks in a very epic way. The way Tarantino manipulates the whole film is amazing because you just experience the whole thing. He grabs you and never lets you go, and to do that in its whole running time is just great.

Maybe I’m just singing praises, but I can’t explain it. It’s in the way Tarantino captures the life in this story is what I think is its biggest achievement. It is a big story to start, and it’s really hard to absorb, especially if the director doesn’t even try to give something for us to really care to, but the direction makes us involved in the movie. It’s larger than life, and the direction brings life to it.

I’d say it’s in how the director made decisions in the process. He could have done an other way in showing this scenes, but he restricts us to just go with this one, because even if you may view a scene from a different perspective if you are the director, it sorts of intimidates us in a good way because we know that we couldn’t have done that better. The movie possesses a lot of great scenes, but one doesn’t seem detached from the other one. And it’s because of the power of the direction that can do the pacing of the story.

So, I have just sung praises for the direction, which is undoubtedly great.

The screenplay is top-notch. Of course, it is a Tarantino movie, but the good thing about this screenplay is that it was able to apply his style without seeming to be out-of-place or disoriented. Nothing much to say here, as everyone already sang their praises for its screenplay. But just in three words, I could say that the screenplay was: witty, thrilling, smart.

Another thing with the screenplay is that it is not self-absorbed. Big movies like this tend to be isolating and inaccessible (say Romeo and Juliet) because such focuses on the scope it tries to cover than to really bring the audience to a story that we can relate to. Fortunately, Basterds didn’t do that. Instead, it had a personal story to tell us and it is insightful to what it tries to tell. It doesn’t just throw details to it and inserts WWII themes in it. It digs deeper in the relationship of Shosanna’s story to the Basterds’ story without making it really obvious.

It’s pointless to present two stories in a film without a relationship established between those. Only a great screenwriter like Tarantino could make the film equipped with stories that are weirdly related to each other without putting those to exploit. Each character that passes in the story is with something, none are empty. From the small character of Monsieur LaPadite to the larger-than-life Hans Landa, they are all with substance. The screenplay utilizes all of those characters ingeniously that in the end, you will feel that the film would be very different if any of the cast would be changed.

The cinematography is very good, too. The cinematography was handled so well because it gave you a sense of having an another real world in the movie. It didn’t try to limit the possible vastness the film could reach. And it knows that the scope of the film is big. And each camera angle is in perfect rhythm in the movement of the film. In each shot, you know that there was intelligence devoted to it. It’s admirable, for it never lets go of the style since the film was already full of substance and to make this beautiful, we need the style. And the cinematography never lets the expectation be down.

The editing juices out the best the movie had already achieved. It makes the whole experience of being in the particular setting a thrilling one. As I have said a while ago, the movie is already full, and the editing is the only step next to greatness. Truth be told, the editing is the riskiest part of this movie, if we are talking about its importance in the making of it.

What we have here is a massively epic story that has tendency to go on and be loose. For me, it’s better to have a short and somewhat rushed movie than to have an overlong story that is as exciting as seeing a turkey being cooked in an oven even if you can actually compress it. Luckily, the intelligent editing it has made it all tight, and for two and a half hours, it’s all full-packed greatness. Every minute in the film adds to its effect, not lessens it.

The sound is all-around terrific. You can’t get better sound from any other movies in 2009 other that this, with the exception of The Hurt Locker, Avatar, among a very few others. The sound brings a certain feeling of excitement because it blends with reality. Maybe it’s not really proper for me to talk about the sound since I am not a pro, but I can say that the two nominations deserve it.

The musical score is, well, exhilarating and inventive. Come on! Only Tarantino could have thought of such placing of music. It’s a movie that only fits to one kind of music, and the music in the film makes this film totally unique from other WWII movies. The film is a historical fantasy, and the music just gives that. There should be a Best Adapted Score again!

The costumes in the film serve this colossal film in a great way. Each piece seen in this film is impeccably designed. The red dress by Shosanna kills the competition for the year’s best costume piece. The production design is in a large scale and deservedly so. It gives us a world, not sets.

The film was an all-around intensely class exercise in the mastery of the technicality in filmmaking. It’s a remarkable film in terms of what it achieved in filmmaking. And, of course . . . . .

. . . . . who could forget the acting?

The film possessed the best ensemble of the year and had the best performance by an ensemble. The screenplay gave challenging characters with different challenges, and all of the actors were great.

Melanie Laurent is gives a great performance that could fit to the term “magical”. Brad Pitt is very different here, albeit giving a tremendously effective performance. Christoph Waltz is is charmingly and deliciously villainous as the sumptuously over-the-top Hans Landa. Diane Kruger shines as an actress/double spy. Michael Fassbender is intensely suave as Hilcox. Eli Roth is hilariously over-the top as Donowitz (notice that I already changed my opinion about his performance). Daniel Bruhl is perfectly fluffy as Zoller. Til Schweiger is suitably tough and rough as Stiglitz. The rest adds up to the film’s over-all impact.

Lastly, I should say this, but what makes this a delicious experience in movie watching, aside from the intelligently written thing is its violence. It made me turn away at times, but it made it go to a higher level. It’s Tarantino’s trademark, the violence, and here, it’s no different. I know a lot of people hated the violence, but I kinda liked it.

What else could I say?

For this, the movie gets:

What are your thoughts, dear reader?

Note: Whoah! I have been writing this post since December 1 but cannot finish it because of those two busy weeks in school. Now, being totally free, I have decided to finish all nominees of 2009 before 2010 ends. I’ll make it up to you.

About the other blog, it may take a longer time for me to update it.
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Post by Admin Wed Dec 22, 2010 2:18 am

http://abortionsforall.wordpress.com/2010/12/21/inglourious-basterds/

Inglourious Basterds
Posted on 2010/12/21 by Foucault Peck-Malchiodi|

Quentin Tarantino’s 2009 World War II fairytale Inglourious Basterds is an interesting piece of cinema. It deviates drastically from historical events while still sauntering around in historically accurate waters. Essentially it uses reality as a launching point, rewriting history. The film is probably his most accomplished to date and the world Tarantino creates is fascinating. The sets are marvelous, the acting is excellent, the cinematography is stellar, and the dialogue contains Tarantino’s trademark monologues but is far more advanced than in his previous films. It’s also probably his most sadistic film, which is saying a great deal considering Tarantino’s films are rife with violence. Although I really enjoy Inglorious Basterds, there’s something almost vulgar about Tarantino’s use of bloodshed, coming across as needlessly vicious and outright cruel – even though Nazi’s are the predominant focus of the violence.

I feel an exploration of Nazi sadism is unwarranted since just about everybody is familiar with their barbaric exploits. Unless you’re living in a cave and unfamiliar with 20th century world history you’ve heard of the Holocaust; their actions will live in infamy for centuries. Their endeavors were malicious, their schemes grand and thankfully the Allies thwarted their imperialist desires. Their propaganda was extraordinary; films by Leni Riefenstahl such as Triumph of the Will are beautifully shot and it’s a shame such a talent made propaganda films for Hitler. Films comparing Jews to rats, especially in a severely depressed economy, rallied a nation against Hitler’s others, responsible for genocide with very few competitors. However, only limited thinking would assume everybody in Nazi Germany believed the propaganda or supported Hitler’s warped politics. Just like any nationalist cause – America’s post-9/11 actions are a good example – not everybody unites behind a singular cause.

I’m fairly certain the Basterds (the covert Nazi killing team in Tarantino’s film) weren’t interested in civilians, but regardless of this it’s doubtful the entire Nazi army fought voluntarily. Of course in wartime astutely determining which enemy soldiers are unwillingly fighting isn’t possible, yet the soldiers in Tarantino’s World War II film possess a singular objective: killing as many Nazi’s as possible. The film’s male protagonist, First Lieutenant Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt), even states to his team prior to deployment:

“When you join my command, you take on debit. A debit you owe me, personally. Every man under my command owes me one hundred Nazi scalps. And I want my scalps. And all y’all will git me one hundred Nazi scalps taken from the heads of one hundred Nazi’s…or you will die trying.”

Naturally their objective isn’t benevolent; their goal is mass murder, potentially outside the rules of engagement or the Geneva Convention (which happened after World War II anyways). This is where I find potential fault with Tarantino’s film.

Of course it’s expected that Tarantino’s films will contain excessive bloodshed; his track record speaks for itself. However, the level of sadism depicted in Inglourious Basterds is outside of Tarantino’s normal range. The film is incredibly aggressive and the violence isn’t fantasy like Kill Bill or Pulp Fiction; the violence is ferocious. The Nazi’s Aldo and the Basterds engage many times seem more complex, more human, than the recipients of brutality in his other films. For instance, in Kill Bill Volume I the Crazy 88’s foot soldiers are nameless automatons, like disposable enemies in a video game. Uma Thurman’s the focal point of the film, where the audience places their empathy, their desires, and so forth; in Inglorious Basterds this isn’t the case. The first group of soldiers the Basterds execute are normal people, placed in extreme circumstances by a power hungry dictator. They have families (one even says he’ll hug his mother when he comes home from war), making them empathetic characters. Sure they’re Nazi’s, but beyond their national affiliation they’re people. Here’s where I find fault with the film.

I feel Tarantino uses Nazi’s as the focus of his film’s violence because they’re an acceptable target. The countless horrors the Nazi’s inflicted upon the world are without question horrific, but the level of violence Tarantino injects into his film would receive less fanfare if the beneficiaries weren’t Nazi’s. Scalping people wouldn’t receive critical praise if the victims weren’t Nazi’s; carving Swastika’s into people’s foreheads wouldn’t meet applause if it wasn’t a Nazi being disfigured; beating a man’s head in with a baseball bat while screaming with joy wouldn’t garner Academy Award nominations if it was American soldiers being executed. Tarantino takes a generally despised historical group and makes them the target of excessive cruelty, using them for his own sadistic cinematic aims. It makes me believe he doesn’t really despise Nazi’s but rather likes depicting unforgivable acts of brutality. The victim isn’t necessarily set in stone, but since Nazi’s are still so reviled it makes mainstream acceptance of these acts simpler.

The way Tarantino plays with violence is another reason for my assertion. He doesn’t depict it as a negative act, instead celebrating it. When Aldo carves swastikas into Nazi soldiers’ heads the act’s portrayed as comedic instead of horrific. He toys with sadism, blurring the line between abhorrent and acceptable acts. To him violence is acceptable if framed in a comedic fashion, regardless of the sadism involved. There are truly cringe-worthy moments in Inglourious Basterds, yet Tarantino presents them as light hearted. Regardless of my criticism of Tarantino’s hyper-violent World War II fantasy, I still think the film is great and probably his best film to date.

Tarantino’s films are always derivative of previous works: Reservoir Dogs is a Scorsese infused version of Ringo Lam’s 1987 Hong Kong film City on Fire starring Chow Yun-fat; there are moments in Kill Bill Volume 1 where he pays homage to Akira Kurosawa’s samurai films; Kill Bill Volume 2 borrows heavily from Sergio Leone’s spaghetti westerns (even using Ennio Morricone on the soundtrack). However, I feel Inglorious Basterds draws influence from more subtle sources instead of lifting directly from the same medium he works in. For instance, a shot of the film’s female protagonist Shosanna (Melanie Laurent) looks just like an Edward Hopper’s 1939 painting New York Movie. Tarantino reverses the pose and changes the dress color, but the mood, the intention, and even the setting is the same. Of course Tarantino lifts from war films like The Dirty Dozen, infusing much of Robert Aldrich’s sentiment into Inglorious Basterds, but he takes this inspiration and makes it his own. Overall Tarantino’s influences have matured; he’s not lifting shot for shot like he did with Reservoir Dogs or mimicking another film’s aesthetic so literally. Instead he’s culling ideas from the past and making them his own.

Below is a shot of Shosanna and Edward Hopper’s painting.

Accompanying what I consider Tarantino’s best film is a great cast, especially Christoph Waltz, who won a best supporting actor Oscar for his portrayal of SS Colonel Hans Landa. Amidst all the excessive violence, Waltz’s performance as the infamous “Jew Hunter” is both chilling and hilarious. He mixes a lighthearted playfulness with terror, playing both off each other and making laughter possible during anxious moments. Waltz is really the glue holding the film together and without his tremendous performance it’s possible the film would descend into mediocrity. The rest of the cast, featuring Eli Roth as the Bear Jew, The Office’s B.J. Novak as the Little Man, Mike Myers as a high ranking British officer, and many others round out the film. Also delivering great showings are Michael Fassbender as British Lieutenant Archie Hicox, German actress Diane Kruger as the actress turned covert agent Bridget von Hammersmark, and Daniel Bruhl as Fredrick Zoller, a notorious German soldier who stars in the Goebbels propaganda film Nation’s Pride (and is also smitten with Shosanna).
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Post by Admin Mon Dec 27, 2010 2:41 am

http://ashiesayz.blogspot.com/2010/12/movie-review-inglourious-basterds.html

Sunday, December 26, 2010
IB is no exception to Tarantino's exquisite work
Movie Review
Inglourious Basterds

Director : Quentin Tarantino
Cast : Brad Pitt, Christoph Waltz, Michael Fassbender, Eli Roth, Til Schweiger, Daniel Bruhl, Diane Kruger, Melanie Laurent & August Diehl.

Quentin Tarantino is accliamed for bringing the stories on paper, alive at the silver screen. Inglourious Basterds is simply no exception to his exquisite work. This period drama mentions the story of a bunch of Jewish-American soldiers, referred to as 'Basterds' who intend to kill as many Adolf Hiler's Nazi enlisted men as possible. The Bastards under the command of Lt. Aldo Raine enacted by Brad Pitt are dropped in France with a motive to finish the German soldiers during the Second World War, making sure they leave behind the dismantled and disfigured dead bodies of the Nazis so as to spread the word of fear within the Germans, and they quite make it possible by smashing the brains of German soldiers with baseball bat and leaving their dead bodies of scalp-less. Incidents like these are presented to the audience in a very raw manner, appearing extremely violent and painful. But then this can be easily expected out of a Tarantino's picture.

Tarantino displays great talent by showing two plots running simultaneously in the story, and excels in blending them together. The film begins with the introduction of Col.Hans Landa played by Christoph Waltz who is nicknamed as 'the Jew-Hunter' due to his specialty of killing Jews in Nazi occupied France. He assassinates the Drefuses, a Jewish family, however a girl named Shoshanna played by Melanie Laurent manages to escape.

The Bastards indulge in killing Nazi soldiers with cruelty, bringing fear within the German Army. Meanwhile Shoshanna changes her identity to Emanuele, a cinema owner who works with a negro employee named Marcel. One night she meets Frederick Zoller played by Daniel Bruhl, a German sniper, who fells for Emanuele and in order to develop a sense of friendship with her, convinces Dr.Goebbels, a German director played by Sylvester Groth, to change the venue of the premiere of a German film based on the exploits of Zoller during war time, to Emanuele's cinema. Emanuele realises this as an opportunity to avenge hereslf of her family's massacre from the Nazi soldiers, as she plans to burn all the German soldiers at the premiere.

On the other side the Bastards, unaware of Emanuele and her revenge, devise Operation Kino, which involves killing of German soldiers during the same film screening with the help of a German actress Bridget Von Hammersmark played by Diane Kruger who has a secret identity of a British spy and this action being her Brain child. The development of the plan requires a secret rendezvous between Von Hammersmark and Lt. Archie Hicox played by Michael Fassbender along with two German born Bastards. However things go wrong when Major Dieter Hellstorm played by August Diehl notices the odd accent of Hicox, resulting into a fire fight, leaving everyone dead except Von Hammersmark.

However after learning from Von Hammersmark about the presence of Hitler at the premiere Raine formulates a plan to explode the theatre. Meanwhile Landa obtains an evidence against Von Hammersmark and kills her at the premiere night and takes Raine into custody. On the other side Emanuele gears up for her ultimate revenge but before she could do anything, Zoller comes to see her in projection room where they both exchange fire and die. Landa while interrogating Raine proposes a deal wherein he would let the Operation Kino a success and let Hitler and all Nazi soldiers die only if the American High-command gives him a sign off on his unusual terms including American citizenship for himself post the war. Landa is given the word of agreement by the American General.
Diane Kruger, Michael Fassbender & August Diehl

In the meantime Marcel, Emanuele's lover burns the theatre which is followed by an explosion by the Bastards killing the Germans attending the premiere including Hitler. Landa takes Raine to American borders as per the deal. To his surprise Raine with his knife engraves a Swastika on Landa's forehead so that he cannot conceal being a Nazi even after attaining American citizenship.

Brad Pitt delivers another stunning performance as Raine, but the actor who steals the show is unquestionably Christoph Waltz as Col. Hans Landa. In better words the movie belongs to Waltz as he makes almost his every scene memorable. Be it his introduction scene where he persuades a French Nationale in the most cunning way, or be it a scene where he starts talking in Italian after the Bastards are introduced to him as Italians. His witty lines and spontaneous body language are just flawless. Melaine Laurent plays her part of Shoshanna/ Emanuele brilliantly. Watch her dissolve in tears after she meets Landa the officer who brutally killed her family. August Diehl as Major Dieter Hellstorm is impressive. Eli Roth as Donny Donowitz aka "The Bear Jew" and Til Schweiger as Hugo Stiglitz shines.

 The visuals displaying the no mercy characters surprise you to a great extent. What adds to the flavour is the riveting sound design which supports the story extremely. The variety in the background score ranging from a smooth mouth organ music to a bugle sound to a rock number, gives enough strength to the story. The movie also involves a lot of cameo appearances by several American German actors. The scenes of the film are relatively less in number but involve lengthy conversations, mostly in foreign languages displaying subtitles almost all the time and this tests viewer's patience. IB is a combination of historical and fictional characters, since Hitler was not killed in a cinema tragedy. The Original Screenplay by Tarantino himself is another strength of the movie. Full marks to the writers for the clever one liners used in the film. My rating for IB is a handsome 4/5. For cinema lovers its a delight and for Tarantino fans its a must watch.

Posted by AS at 6:12 PM
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Post by Admin Fri Jan 14, 2011 4:08 pm

http://www.opinioncraft.com/2011/01/inglourious-basterds-review/

Inglourious Basterds Review

Inglourious Basterds

Movie Details:

Release: 2009

Length: 153 Minutes

Rated: R

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Your rating:
0 votes

Cast: Brad Pitt, Christoph Waltz, Mélanie Laurent, Eli Roth, Michael Fassbender, Diane Kruger, Daniel Brühl, Til Schweiger, B.J. Novak, Samm Levine, Paul Rust, Mike Myers

Director: Quentin Tarantino

Genres: Action & Adventure, Military & War Action, Military & War Dramas, Action Thrillers, Universal Studios Home Entertainment, Blu-ray

This movie is: Violent, Exciting, Gritty

My Description:

This movie has a lot of real life events, very informative but at the same time it’s very entertaining. I loved how they were able to mix in thrillers with drama and a lot of violence and action and at the same time still have enough time for some teaching. I’ve always found history very fascinating, but I’ve never experienced something like this, usually history videos make me really tired, this one didn’t because it was meant to be like that. I must tell you though, when they force you to read the little subtitles, it gets really boring, I’ve never enjoyed reading subtitles on a movie, but it’s not like that throughout the whole movie, just on some parts.

If you want to see some Nazis get killed and want to see Hitler get shot with an MP40, I highly recommend this movie. That was a joke, if you find history very fascinating though, specially the Nazi era, this movie won’t fail you. Plenty of action to keep you awake throughout the movie.

Official Description:

A Jewish cinema owner (Mélanie Laurent) in occupied Paris is forced to host a Nazi movie premiere, where a radical group of American Jewish soldiers called the Basterds, led by Lt. Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt), plans to roll out a score-settling scheme. The face-off is about to go down — that’s if Col. Hans Landa aka “The Jew Hunter” (Christoph Waltz, in an Oscar-winning role) doesn’t get in the way. Quentin Tarantino directs this World War II-set spaghetti Western.
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Post by Admin Sun Jan 23, 2011 1:59 am

http://boardwalkcinema.blogspot.com/2011/01/week-of-films-quentin-tarantino_22.html

Saturday, January 22, 2011
A Week of Films: Quentin Tarantino-Inglourious Basterds
A Week of Films with Quentin Tarantino is coming to an end with the man's latest film, Inglourious Basterds. Looking at it, it's easy to say that the old Tarantino that we love so much is officially back after the much-misunderstood Death Proof. But this isn't directly the darling that it's described as on first viewing. No way, this film takes at least three or four viewings for you to appreciate it.

The first time I saw Inglourious Basterds was at an early screening held in Orange County, and I didn't like it one bit. At first, it seemed as mind-dumbing as the Coen Brothers' A Serious Man or Burn After Reading. Brad Pitt and his so-called 'Basterds' just ruined a film that could have been so ambitious and masterful (it is Tarantino's own interpretation of how World War II was ended, after all!). But it was months later that I viewed it for the second time, and I'm glad to say that it was a much better experience to me, and I learned how to appreciate it. Then, I view it for fourth, fifth, then sixth time, and it easily became one of my favorite films of 2009.

With the undeniably powerful opening scene with Colonel Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz), or better known as the Jew Hunter, and Monsieur La Pedite, is classic Tarantino. Just like with the opening of Kill Bill Vol. 2, the tension and excitement just keeps building up more and more. You know something bad is going to happen, it's a question of when it's going to happen. The beautiful cinematography and camerawork is just simply impossible to ignore in this 16 minutes-long scene.

Just as Colonel Landa is done killing the Jewish Dreyfuss family, with only the daughter, Shosanna (Melanie Laurent) alive, we move from the ''Once Upon A Time in Nazi-Occupied France'' prologue, and on to the spring of 1944, where Lieutenant Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt) is putting together a team of Jewish-American soldiers to do only one thing: kill Nazis.

The Basterds were painted as a bunch of morons to me on the first viewing, but it's only later that the qualities that Tarantino gives them are reminiscent to the ones that are with in The Wild Bunch.

Meanwhile, Shosanna, who managed to escape from the evil nazi that Hans Landa is, is now living in Paris with a different identity and owning a cinema. One night,she meets Private Fredrick Zoller, who is quite a celebrity among the Nazis, and Joseph Goebbels new movie that is based on Zoller's accounts is going to have its premiere soon. And this is exactly where Shosanna enters..

Zoller very soon becomes smitten by her, but she loathes every German Kraut, and neither will she ever forgive one. Her plans? Burn down the whole cinema, but what's the real beauty? It's going to be filled with tons of Nazis, including Hitler...

If I have any flaws with Inglourious Basterds, it would have to be with the overlong basement scene that seems to drag on forever, and remember, I thought that ''girl-talk'' in Death Proof that drags on for 45 minutes wasn't boring. Now, the scen isn't exactly boring, but it's Diane Kruger's movie star Bridget Von Hammersmark that is the problem. She's just too uninteresting, and the whole plot of her being a secret spy for both allies just sounds like some plot of one of those terrible cop shows like Wallander or Beck. The only two things that save this scene from me actually deducting the actual grade of the movie are Tarantino's witty and fun dialogue, and Michael Fassbender.

Tarantino's script that flows and unravels at such an exquisite pace is marvelous, and we can easily declare that any script that is penned by Quentin Tarantino is going to be great. Tarantino manages to give us a point-of-view from not only the German soldiers, but also from the Brittish and the American soldiers and civilians, and by doing that, paints an entire picture of how the Second World War was ended. There might be some errors in facts and such, but it's not supposed to be a documentary, now is it? Just as usual, he wanted to make a fun and entertaining film, which is exactly what he does.

But when talking about the level autheticity in dialogue, the man takes it all to another level. He proves that he can make dialogue in French and German sound as witty and sharp as his dialogue in English.

The musical score by Ennio Morricone is superb as always; and the acting, just like with every Tarantino film, is top-notch. Melanie Laurent's overlooked performance as Shosanna is absolutely outstanding, and so are Pitt's and Fassbender's performances. But the real gem here has to be Christoph Waltz. In Inglourious Basterds, not only has Tarantino created his greatest villian, but he's also created the greatest villain of all time with his Colonel Hans Landa, that is so marvellously played by Christoph Waltz, and I don't think there's ever been a more meaner Nazi than Colonel Landa.

Inglourious Basterds isn't Tarantino's best to me; that's either Pulp Fiction or Jackie Brown for me, but that doesn't take away how ambitious and grand Basterds actually is. Maybe if I view it another ten more times, I'll consider it to be ranked alongside Pulp Fiction, and that's the beauty with Tarantino's movies: you discover something new in them with every viewing..
Upplagd av Ken Adams kl. 11:52 AM
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Post by Admin Tue Feb 08, 2011 9:55 pm

http://adaheartsfulms.blogspot.com/2011/02/happy-holidays-you-basterds.html

Monday, 7 February 2011
Happy Holidays, You Basterds

There is truly no greater joy than sharing a film you love with someone who has never seen it before- or at least there isn't for a rampant cinephile like me. Much debate has gone on over the merits of Quentin Tarantino in class (I've resigned myself to the fact that Andy and I are at a stalemate, and that one time he referred to him as 'a great director' will forever remain the most thrilling of small victories). Even I reckon that his contribution to the Grindhouse double bill was the weaker of the two, and I wasn't as huge a fan of Kill Bill in retrospect as I was at the time. Still, this is the man who gave us Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, (the criminally overlooked) Jackie Brown and, of course, wrote the story for my favourite film of all time. As well as having a hand in Sin City, From Dusk Til Dawn and True Romance. He's, like, untouchable.

When I found out about Inglourious Basterds, alot of things were running through my mind. Like, will it be good old fashioned Tarantino on form? Will it be another self-indulgent, "I really don't need the money" effort? Is it supposed to be spelled like that? Watching and re-watching the film since getting it on DVD last year.. the year before... 2009?... has only served to confirm my belief that this film is NOT Tarantino back on form, but on a compeltely new form altogether. The opening scene, in which Col. Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz) interrogates French dairy farmer Msr. LaPadite (Denis Menochet) about the Jewish family hiding under his floorboards is a gripping and unbearably tense start to what quickly chops and changes straight into Lt. Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt), aka Aldo the Apache, and his merciless band of Jewish-American soldiers known as 'the Basterds'. The difference between the two chapters is quite unreal, as is the story of Shoshanna Dreyfuss (Melanie Laurent), a cinema owner who was part of the family under Msr. LaPadite's floor- and the only survivor. Then there's the story of British officer Archie Willcox (Michael Fassbender) and his dangerous liason with German double agent Bridget Von Hammersmark (Diane Kruger)- who happens to be not only a spy for the Allied side, but the biggest movie star in Germany.

Every story, every facet of it, involves characters plotting their own form of revenge in some way. It's alot to get your head around but the culminative chapter in the cinema ties it all together and the result is a glorious mess of rewritten history. That it is divided into chapters is typically QT and helps the running time fly by, as we trangress from one story into the next and see how they all fit together. The actual scenes themselves are notably long- while they may feature fast cuts when we get to action sequences, the actual locations themselves are very few. It allows the film and its ambition to feel a bit more 'contained'.

One thing which struck me the most was the way the film looked... It shows a progression in Tarantino's work, in that it doesn't look like a Tarantino film. Shot by long-time Olver Stone collaborator and all-round genius Robert Richardson (who also shot Kill Bill 1 & 2), it looks gloriously cinematic... as obvious as that may sound... and looks fitting of its time but with a subtle hint of modernity. According to Richardson, “It’s at times playful, at times brutal, at times wildly humorous". What appealed to me is that there is nothing CG about the film- AT ALL. Given my snobbish disdain for 'fixing things in post', Inglourious Basterds was developed as a 'purely chemical film', with 'no digital intermediate'. Tarantino's insistence that nothing of the film would rely on new technology was a gamble that paid off in dividends. The scalping scenes, even the *SPOILER ALERT* huge explosion at the end, were all to be done on camera. Sadly, Richardson and Tarantino found that the digital era had seen an erosion in chemical labs sympathetic to old school styles of film making.

Still, there are instances in which the black and white footage- which had been intended to take up a much larger proportion of the film- work well. Nation's Pride, the film-within-a-film, was supposed to have been shot in the early 1940s and the stock looking footage fits its period well. The film wears its influences on its sleeve in terms of stylistic reference. Each chapter has its own unique look, which might make it sound somewhat disjointed but actually works well as its subtle enough to only enhance what we're watching, rather than distract/detract from it. The opening chapter was to have a Sergio Leone, 'once upon a time in the west' look to it. The 'French' section of the film reflects the French New Wave and mixes pulp with propaganda. Tarantino-esque nuances still find their way in too, like our introduction to German-enlisted Basterd Hugo Stiglitz.



The sound is terrible, and it cuts a few seconds off of the end, but you get the gist- it's pure Tarantino, complete with badass voiceover by Samuel L Jackson in full Jackie Brown blaxploitation mode. It's this mixture of recognisable director's traits, bold mixing of technology and things being seen through a different (and more mature) eye than his earlier works that make this film what it is. The fact that QT also used his long-time editor Sally Menke helps maintain much of his own idiosyncracies with regards to pacing and cuts etc, as well as moving his work out of the 1990s.

Of course, given our last few weeks working with actors, the performances are crucial too. Christoph Waltz is, for me, the undeniable standout of the whole thing- a smarmy, self-righteous, interminably clever, charming creep; he is frightening in that we always know that he knows something... we just don't know what. Waltz'z Oscar for Best Supporting Actor saw a triumphant air-punch from me when I watched the ceremony, and it's even more amazing given the company that he is in.
Denis Minochet as Msr. LaPadite is not someone I've seen before but he is outstanding as he breaks down in front of Landa the 'Jew Hunter' and sacrifices his old neighbours to sprae his own family. Brad Pitt is CLEARLY having a blast as Aldo the Apache, and his over the top performance never seems to far-reaching or out of place. He's the natural leader of the Basterds, and is ably supported by surprise choice Eli Roth. Control of the scene ably flits from one character to the next and, depsite feeling a little dense at times, we'd feel short-changed if it were the opposite.

This film is Tarantino all over, but not at the same time... It's as focused as Death Proof was a glorious B-movie mess; the titular characters are barely introduced singularly; the opening sequence is a 20-minute conversation... every time we think the film is going in one direction it jerks into the other. Which is pretty much typical from a director who gave us a heist movie in which we don't actually see any of the heist itself, yes? The final line, for me, summed up how I felt about the film, especially after watching it repeatedly- and it's also sneakily how I suspect Tarantino feels about the film himself. When Lt Raine is craving a Swastika into Hans Landa's forehead- his favourite punishment for those he decides to let live- he comments confidently:
"You know somethin', Utivich? I think this just might be my masterpiece"
I can't disagree with that.
Posted by Ada Calgie at 06:59
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