The Basterds, Quentin and Me

Last Friday night, the New Beverly Cinema in West Los Angeles held a midnight screening of Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds. Having already seen and reviewed the film, I still wanted to go see the midnight show. The New Bev runs double features every day of the week and you can catch some really great movies there for seven bucks. But, they also have special events as well and being so close to Hollywood allows them to host special guests. I've seen Last Picture Show and What's Up Doc? with Peter Bogdanovich in attendance and last Halloween I saw Shaun of the Dead with Edgar Wright and John Landis judging the costume contest. Living about forty minutes away from Los Angeles has it's advantages, but it's not always easy to get someone to go with me, particularly since on an evening like Friday, we didn't get home until four in the morning.

So, I decided to tell a little, tiny white lie.

Mike (on the phone)

Hey man.

Friend (also on the phone)

Hey man, what's going on?

Mike

There's a midnight screening of the Basterds at the New Bev tonight.

Friend

That sounds cool.

Mike

Yea, and I heard Quentin is going to be there too.

Friend

Seriously?

Mike

That's what I heard, man.

Would anybody really be upset if he weren't there? Probably not, but as it turned out, it didn't matter. We bought our tickets, received a free copy of the soundtrack and sat in our seats. I decided to go and get a soda and as I walked back up towards the lobby, I saw Quentin Tarantino standing by the wall. He saw me headed towards him and in an attempt to remain incognito, turned to face the wall, then turned around again, made eye contact and said. "Hey." I smiled, stuck my hand out and as he shook it, I said, "Big fan, man." He nodded and said thanks. I turned around in the lobby and went back to my seat, telling my friends that not only was the line too long for a Coke, but Quentin was here and I think he was almost ready to intro the movie. Which he did and as we applauded for him, I told my friends I couldn't believe he was actually here. But, you knew he was coming, they replied. No, I said, I made that shit up so you would come along.

Kinda blurry, I know, but QT doesn't like to stand still.

Quentin thanked us for coming out and told us he had cut together some trailers from some WWII "guys on a mission" movies and would we mind checking them out before the Basterds? The audience clapped loudly in approval and then we sat through roughly twenty five minutes of trailers. Somewhere between Kelly's Heroes and Hornet's Nest, I leaned over to my friend and wondered aloud if anyone told Quentin that his movie was over three hours long since it was already twelve thirty in the morning. However, his movie held up extremely well for not having seen it in two months time and moves up on my list of top films of the year. Also, as we left, everyone got a free poster too.

Good times, good friends, good movies. What more can a guy ask for?

Tarantino, The Glourious Basterd Himself

Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds is truly Quentin Tarantino's movie. Not as self-indulgent as Death Proof, but utilizing all of his ability like he did in Kill Bill, it's certainly the biggest movie he's ever made and after being ten years in the making and starring the biggest movie star in the world, it will probably be the biggest hit of his career. But, is it his best film?

Like the boys in Swingers, I subscribe to the theory that Tarantino bites everything from Scorsese. And Hawks. And Leone, Bava, Kubrick and so many others. Which isn't to say I don't enjoy Tarantino's movies, I probably enjoy them more because I am aware of all the films that are being stolen, I mean, 'referenced'. When he is on his game, films like Jackie Brown are wonderful. He writes fantastically for his characters and his own world and the film is very darkly funny if you think Nazis were evil and killing them by any means necessary is a good thing. Twisting three story lines together from Jewish refugees to secret Allied operations and the Basterds themselves, the movie follows a typically QT non-linear structure that jumps back and forth between the three but gives equal time to all. You can tell he has spent almost a decade on the script and while it shows a lot of growth and development, he still relies on his older methods to make it through certain parts of the script. Basterds feels almost like he has tired of the criticisms and decides to steal mostly from himself. The film is mostly scenes of people sitting around, talking to each other with an occasional bloody killing to break them up. Divided in chapters a la, Kill Bill, each one involves at least one tension filled scene of terrific dialogue and great acting across drinks and a table. After strudel with the Jew Hunter in a Parisian cafe, you basically know how the rest of these are going to end up and they become redundant. The rest of the Tarantino hallmarks are here from close ups of Diane Kruger's feet, to voice over narration and other B-movies tricks.

Foot fetishes aside, what I enjoyed most about the movie was how much of it centered around cinema. For those moviegoers without a general knowledge of pre-WWII film, and specifically, early German cinema, there won't be anything that will be taken away from the enjoyment of the movie by missing these references, but for cinephiles like Tarantino himself, you can smile and nod at the discussions of Pabst, film nitrate stock and Riefenstahl, as well as Chaplin, King Kong and Dietrich.

The performances all around are terrific, particularly when one considers most of the movie is spoken in languages that Tarantino himself doesn't speak. He shows tremendous faith in his European actors and they do not disappoint. Christoph Waltz and Michael Fassbinder as German and British soldiers, respectively are terrific and shine in their scenes. But, Melanie Laurent, as a Jewish woman living in occupied France, is mesmerizing on screen. Her mere presence gives us a sense of tension and fear at her true identity being discovered, but Tarantino ratchets it up whenever he gets the chance. I would have liked to see more resolution between her character and Waltz' 'Jew Hunter', but that was not to be.

PS - Brad Pitt is awesome in the film. But he's also awesome in real life.