Cannes 2009: INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS
Brad Pitt in Inglourious Basterds
Richard Corliss/Mary Corliss in Time:
"… Inglourious Basterds — first word as in "glower," second as in "turds" — is an alternative history of World War II from the writer-director of Pulp Fiction, the Palme d’Or winner 15 years ago. As with all of his recent work — the two Kill Bill movies and Death Proof — Basterds draws portraits of strong women facing down evil men; and in Shoshanna (Mélanie Laurent) and Third Reich screen star Bridget von Hammersmark (Diane Kruger) he’s created two of his fullest female portraits. But Basterds is long and, for the hypercharged auteur, surprisingly wan. It has to be declared a misfire."
***
J. Hoberman in The Village Voice:
"So what is there to say about a movie that ends with the corniest character (Brad Pitt) proclaiming, ‘This might be my masterpiece.’ Lots actually. Inglourious Basterds might well be QT’s m.p. — if by that we mean the fullest expression of a particular artist’s worldview. Perhaps one should call Inglourious Basterds — a sort of World War II spaghetti western, even more drenched in film references than blood — quintessential Tarantino. A little long, a bit too pleased with itself, it’s a movie of enthusiastic performances, terrific dialogue, amoral, surprisingly crude, mayhem, and mind-boggling juvenile fantasy."
***
Jonathan Dean in Total Film:
"While the opening, gripping chapter – set in a French peasant house in 1941 – is excellent and a final cinema (where else?) foyer scene is epic in its grandeur with sweeping cameras and impeccable set design, much of Basterds felt flat, with a schizophrenic spaghetti western style that blasts Ennio Morricone at the start and then David Bowie later on."
***
Geoffrey Macnab in The Independent:
"Despite the wartime setting, we’re still in Tarantino’s universe. Many of the protagonists resemble characters found in earlier Tarantino movies. Mélanie Laurent’s vengeful young Jewish woman is not so different from Uma Thurman in the Kill Bill films. The Basterds have some of the same swagger as Reservoir Dogs.
"The way the Germans are drawn is so broad that it makes the characterisations in Allo, Allo! seem restrained. However, there is an intensity about the film-making and performances that stops even the more absurd elements here appearing risible. You can’t help but admire Tarantino’s chutzpah. No other director would have the gall to throw in a David Bowie song ("Putting Out Fire With Gasoline") in a 1940s war film or to cast Rod Taylor as Winston Churchill."
***
At Radio France Internationale, Fiachra Gibbons examines the reactions of French critics’:
“To say that the critics hate Inglourious Basterds is a little like saying the Pacific was a mite choppy on the morning of the tsumani. Eric Neuhoff of Le Figaro, in almost charitable mode, says that you ‘could cut Pitt’s hilarious accent with a hachet.’ Cliché piles upon cliché in his depictions of occupied France, he says, before rolling out his most brutal criticisms — Tarantino has simply become old and dull. ‘In Pulp Fiction, the dialogue went with the action. In Inglourious Basterds, it replaces it.’ Then he delivers the final coup de grace. ‘Tarantino is like a child left to play with a gun who then shoots himself in the foot. You feel sorry for him, because as one of the characters says in the film, “The French respect film directors.”‘”
Photos: Courtesy Festival de Cannes
Subscribe / Syndicate
Leave a Comment
Tags: Brad Pitt, Cannes 2009, Cannes Film Festival, David Bowie, Diane Kruger, Ennio Morricone, Film Festivals, Geoffrey Macnab, Inglourious Basterds, Kill Bill, Mélanie Laurent, Nazis, Pulp Fiction, Quentin Tarantino, Rod Taylor, The Independent, Total Film, Uma Thurman, Winston Churchill, World War II
Comments
Leave a Reply
NOTE:
All comments are moderated and may take some time before they are posted. Different views and opinions are welcome, but courtesy is imperative. Rude/crass/bigoted comments and name-calling of any sort will be immediately deleted.
Also, please be aware that the Alternative Film Guide has no contact information for the talent mentioned in this blog and no information pertaining to or access to distributors'/producers' film prints.
