inglourious basterds
Inglourious Basterds premiere
The movie will premiere at the Cannes Film Festival on May 20th. Prior to that there will be a photocall and pressconference. Brad is expected to attend. Thanks Rita and Gina.
Tarantino’s new film: ‘Bunch of guys on a mission movie’
PARIS — “This ain’t your daddy’s World War II movie,” Quentin Tarantino said with a grin, standing on a street corner here that had been scrubbed of 21st-century signposts to become the set of Inglourious Basterds, his new film about a band of Jewish-American soldiers on a scalp-hunting revenge quest against the Nazis.
Although it was mostly shot at Studio Babelsberg in Potsdam, Germany, the movie’s subtitle is Once Upon a Time in Nazi-Occupied France. So on a three-day sojourn in Paris in December, Tarantino and his bi-continental moviemaking coalition commandeered a 1904 bistro with peeling paint, Art Deco stained glass and a wall of windows overlooking an intersection of identifiably Parisian streets.
“We had to have a scene to sell the audience that we’re in France,” Tarantino said. “This is it.”
Inglourious Basterds, which is to have its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival on May 20, is Tarantino’s first movie since Death Proof, half of Grindhouse, a double feature and box-office flop that he directed with Robert Rodriguez, and his first solo feature since Kill Bill Vol. 2 in 2004.
Tarantino calls Inglourious Basterds his “bunch of guys on a mission movie.” Judging by the script, it should have the crackling dialogue, irreverent humor and stylized violence that are hallmarks of his work.
“You’ve got to make a movie about something, and I’m a film guy, so I think in terms of genres,” he said. “So you get a good idea, and it just moves forward and then usually by the time you’re finished, it doesn’t resemble anything of what might have been the inspiration. It’s simply the spark that starts the fire.” Read more.
Quentin Tarantino’s ‘Inglourious Basterds’ on a mission
When Quentin Tarantino was just a video store clerk filled with filmmaking dreams, he and his pals shared a shorthand for the against-all-odds mission movie they would someday make: “This will be our ‘Inglorious Bastards!’ ” Tarantino and his friends would say.
Other aspiring filmmakers might have cited “The Dirty Dozen” or “The Magnificent Seven” for reference, but Tarantino — who always has been drawn to and has an encyclopedic knowledge of obscure B movies — preferred director Enzo Castellari’s 1978 Italian World War II film “Inglorious Bastards,” a sometimes campy drama about renegade soldiers shooting and blowing up Nazis in World War II France.
Tarantino’s new film — starring Brad Pitt, a mix of American and European character actors and some fish-out-of-water casting picks such as comedian Mike Myers and torture-porn director Eli Roth — borrows hardly anything from its Italian predecessor, and even the title of Tarantino’s Cannes Film Festival competition movie is a bit different: “Inglourious Basterds.”
But there is still a difficult mission in the film that opens Aug. 21; it is still World War II, and there are still guns and bombs.
Pitt’s Lt. Aldo Raine heads a group of eight Jewish soldiers (two of whom are German-born) spreading terror among the enemy in Nazi-occupied France. Their tactics, given the filmmaker’s soft spot for sadism, aren’t exactly subtle. Read more. Thanks Gabriella.
Inglourious Basterds to Cannes
The official selection for the 2009 Cannes Film Festival was announced Thursday morning in Paris, and while it will be hard to beat last year’s excitement of a whip-cracking Indiana Jones on the Croisette, Quentin Tarantino’s take-no-prisoners personality may just be big enough to give old Indy a run for his money.
As was widely anticipated — especially given that the director last year declared he would have his film ready in time for this year’s Cannes — Tarantino’s World War II action movie, “Inglourious Basterds,” starring Brad Pitt, is one of 20 films that will vie for the coveted Palme d’Or at the 62nd running of the event.
Cannes’ general manager and artistic director, Thierry Frémaux, said that despite media reports claiming the film was a lock, it wasn’t until the last few days that it secured its spot. Tarantino, the only U.S. director with a film in competition this year, has maintained a strong connection to the festival since his “Pulp Fiction” won the Palme d’Or in 1994. Read more.
New scans
Added scans of the latest Entertainment Weekly featuring never-before-seen pictures of both Benjamin Button as Inglourious Basterds. A huge thanks to Kimber!
• Entertainment Weekly (09).
