Cannes Diary – INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS
After the major disappointment that was DEATHPROOF, Tarantino’s bloody and unbowed war movie is a surprising success. Structured in chapters, the film is a gloriously OTT and irreverent revisiting of Enzo G. Castllari’s THE INGLORIOUS BASTARDS, that also takes in the war movies of Sam Fuller and Robert Aldrich.
Some of the set-pieces are brilliantly executed and unlike DEATH PROOF the film is not enslaved to its B-movie origins (but retains some lovely retro touches). Michael Fassbender, appearing in his second Competition outing after FISH TANK, plays a toffiish British colonel confirming his stature as one of Britain’s strongest acting talents, and the rest of the cast (including a number of genre stalwarts) are similarly well-marshalled.
The use of music is characteristically strong, including a revisit of Bowie and Moroder’s theme to Paul Schrader’s CAT PEOPLE. Definitely not for the squeamish, which is just how Tarantino’s fans (and after DEATH PROOF he is lucky to still have some) like it.
Quite looking forward to this, will have to take a look when it makes its way to Brighton. Hopefully it’ll be a little less self-indulgent than Death Proof, which felt like two hours of Tarantino frotting the camera.
Well, I’m quite curious meself. Deathproof was far from deathproof. I certainly lost the will to live 20mins in… And 25mins, and… Shall look forward to all the Ritzy delivers from that there Cannes.