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Tarantino does the Cannes-Cannes
Quentin Tarantino bounded into the Cannes pressroom Wednesday morning, looking exultant after the premiere screening of his new movie, “Inglourious Basterds.”
Proclaiming that Cannes is the “Cinema Olympics”, Tarantino brought along stars Brad Pitt, Diane Kruger, Michael Fassbender, Mike Myers, Christoph Waltz, Daniel Bruhl, Eli Roth and Melanie Laurent. All looked jubilant, although Tarantino said none of them had seen the film yet and that the red-carpet premiere tonight would be their big moment.
What they’ll see is a Jewish revenge fantasy version of World War II, where Hitler and his henchmen get their comeuppance in a French cinema. Talk about the power of movies. And the source of the comeuppance is highly flammable nitrate film.
Pitt stars as the leader of the “Basterds,” a Tennessean who’s part Apache and urges his Jewish troops to scalp the Nazis. They literally do.
But the movie opens with an extended scene featuring the excellent Christoph Waltz, who plays the brutal but brilliant Nazi Col. Landa. As part of the occupying forces of France, he’s known as the “Jew Hunter,” and he descends on a bucolic dairy farm where several Jewish people are hiding. The tension between the Nazi and the farm owner is one of those brilliant set pieces that distinguish a Tarantino film.
In fact, the movie is presented in “chapters,” and most of them turn out to be set pieces, leading to the ultimate showdown at the cinema.
“My characters change the outcome of the war,” Tarantino said. “That didn’t happen because my characters didn’t exist. I created them.”
Eli Roth, possibly best known as the director of the torture porn flick “Hostel,” said he regarded “Inglourious Basterds” as “kosher porn.” He said it was “something I’ve dreamed about doing since I was a child.” He plays the Jewish Bear, a Basterd who beats Nazis to death with a bat.
Of the big finale, Tarantino said he loved the idea that “the power of cinema” could bring down the Third Reich.
Pitt and Tarantino said they had been “sniffing around each other” for a long time, and that the character of the Basterd leader Lt. Aldo Raine was a perfect fit. Pitt said that Tarantino came to his home in Europe late last summer to pitch the role, and that he realized he had taken the job after he woke up and saw five empty wine bottles and “some sort of smoking apparatus.”
Tarantino added that he had been giving Pitt longing looks across the rooms of various venues for many years. Pitt responded, “He had me at hello.”
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