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A film by Quentin Tarantino
Cannes 2009 apparently more quiet than more most years, but getting an invitation to Inglorious Basterds was as difficult to snatch up as any of the other hotly anticipated films to ever play in the Lumier Theatre. Basterds and The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus were two of the biggest films on peoples lips this year at the festival.
Having seen Inglorious Basterds twice at Cannes now, it gave me an opportunity to cement my opinion after a first screening left me unsure one thing is for certain, this film is destined to divide audiences, even more than Tarantinos Grindhouse contribution - Deathproof.
The director and his leads at the premier
In its build up, Inglorious Basterds, had been hyped as a Dirty Dozen type exploitation film, where 8 Jewish soldiers called, The Basterds and their Lieutenant Aldo The Apache Rayne, played by Brad Pitt, are sent into Nazi occupied France during the second world war to each do the scalping of 100 Nazi soldiers. However in the actual film, very little time is spent on this actual mission. What we see instead for the most part of the film is planning, scheming and hell of a lot of talking.
If youre expecting a Robert Aldrich type army film ala The Dirty Dozen then dont you have been warned, no Lee Marvins to be found in this one, in fact, aside from a glorious scalping or two and a very brief under the table, testicle based-Mexican stand off, there is a very small amount of action. Im not saying that as a bad thing, just as a note to some fans of war films, who may have a pre-conceived idea of what kind of film theyre about to see.
Inglorious Basterds seems to be more in the tradition of European films which came out of the 50s and 60s. Most of the dialogue is in French or German, with a small amount in English, which is greatly appreciated after sitting through the filmed abortion called Valkrie where apparently all the Nazis talked in English with British accents. At the same time this is no Visconti film. Having had a brief peek at the script before I saw it at Cannes, I salivated over some bloody well written scenes, many of these had been taken out of the edit, leaving the characters feeling thinly drawn. Even at an overblown length of 2 hours and 40 minutes, the current edit of Inglorious Basterds felt truncated. I longed to know more about some of these character who were seriously lacking in screen time and instead what replaced them were dull, overly long diatribes which seemed to be down right pointless at the worst of times.
No cameras inside the main theatre please
What I suspect however and what makes this review difficult to do is that Im quite sure what the Cannes audience were seeing was meant to be a rough cut of the film. If you had been keeping track of the films history, youll know that there was a very small amount of self imposed editing time that was put on Inglorious Basterds so it could screen at Cannes in 2009. Im hoping that in the remaining two and a half months left of editing before the film opens theatrically, he irons out the serious kinks in the films editing.
Having said this, Inglorious Basterds looks absolutely incredible playing in all its gloriousness and somewhere in the edit I saw the potential for a really brilliant film, the prospect of this excites me to. The prospect that our dancing friend wont be changing any of these foreseeable flaws is also quite high as a large chunk of the audience responded favourably to it (I finally saw the dance everyone was talking about in all its coked out splendour on the red carpet). I hope he does work on the edit as the film in its current form is seriously uneven and feels like the director is trying to work out what type of film he wants to make as he films it. Ive enjoyed most of his films and I want so badly to like this one too.
Finally! Getting my hands on an invitation!
Finally, there are serious pacing issues. I felt like I was watching a story that had the main plot ripped out of it and all that remained was the sub-plot. Above all this though like I said, is a seriously great film lurking among the current edit. Inglorious Basterds has all the confidence of a masterpiece and only time will tell if the theatrical version plays differently.
Bullet Train - twenty years later it would be remade as 'Speed'. Stick with the original only.
Today I write to let you know about a shamefully ignored or at least ignored to my knowledge masterpiece.
Without a doubt Bullet Train has to be canonized as one of the great international films of the 1970s and as the hand of irony would have it the inspiration for one of the most crappy films of the 90s - Speed.
Hailing from Japan and made in 1975 by Junya Sato - Bullet Train is consistently brilliant from start to finish with no weak links to be found and unlike its remake - it has the convictions to live up to menace of its own premise; a terrorist has planted a bomb on one of Tokyos famous bullet trains, carrying 1500 passengers. When it reaches 80km p/h a bomb hidden in the train is activated if the train goes below 80 km p/h in speed after that the bomb goes off.
Sound familiar?
Having said that, why is Bullet Train so good then? Simply put - it takes an epic approach to the particular themes it choses to contemplate and is a great example of the subject matter being purely incidental. One of the things that struck me immediately about Bullet Train is how westernised the film feels. Its a good old fashioned which wire do I cut type thriller, what makes it special however, is that firstly, it takes all of that stuff and kicks it up to an intense level, slaps you in the face and doesnt let go and the film is long too its 2 ½ hours. Not one of its 153 minutes are wasted. The films starts in fifth gear and intelligently, maintains that fury for all the right reasons.
Secondly - the films story takes the time to focus on some truly interesting elements which a film like Speed choses to dully marginalize. The biggest joy in this department is how the terrorist who has planted the bomb is portrayed. He is no one dimensional bad guy. He is a man who doesnt know what to do any more. He is at such an extreme point of desperation that he doesnt care about what chaos hell cause, how many will die or what the repercussions will be all he knows is that he is hurting. Its almost as if he saw too many films with this type of story and thought it would go down exactly that way. It certainly doesnt. in fact, everything that can go wrong does go wrong, for his plans and for the police.
Ken Takakura who plays the terrorist does an amazing job of making you actually care about his misfortunes, while all the time you still want him to get caught. You feel like you understand him, which may be a challenging for others wholl insist on hating him and when they cant they will assume its a badly made film. For viewers like myself, this will be where the biggest thrill comes into the picture, since it stops the audience from taking sides so easily and really makes them ask some questions about society and what drives people in some cases. Its these traits which stop Bullet Train from being a black and white story of good and evil.
For the same token, there are no heroes in Bullet Train. Point in case, the train driver is played by Sonny Chiba (The Street Fighter series, Kill Bill, The Killing Machine) . For those of you who are not familiar with Chibas work he is an incredibly accomplished martial artist, possibly the most accomplished since Bruce Lee and a bad motherfucker too. Sonny kicked some serious ass back in the 70s but not in Bullet Train as the driver of this train we have to watch him sweat it out helplessly with everyone else.
Through out Bullet Train theres an intangible feeling suspended through the film as if everything in Japan will/could or/and has already swallowed it self up. The size of catastrophe in the story is certainly indicative of how fragile a country the size of Japan or America can become when it gets too large a size, socially, technologically, politically, it can crumble when all of its own sophistication is used against it.
There are many interesting facets of Bullet Train in addition to its social commentary . However at the end of the day, what makes it great is the fact that its simply a well told, bloody exciting, hard hitting action thriller.
Watch it!
The 2009 Cannes competition lineup!!!!
Cannes 2009 - this year we have the biggest heavyweight throw down in years!
Abrazos Rotos (Broken Embraces), directed by Pedro Almodovar
Antichrist, directed by Lars Von Trier
Bright Star, directed by Jane Campion
Enter The Void, directed by Gasper Noe
Faces, directed by Tsai Ming-liang
Fish Tank, directed by Andrea Arnold
Kinatay, directed by directed by Brillante Mendoza
Les Herbes folles, directed by Alain Resnais
In The Beginning, directed by Xavier Giannoli
Inglorious Basterds, directed by Quentin Tarantino
Looking For Eric, directed by Ken Loach
Map of the Sounds of Tokyo, directed by Isabel Coixet
A Prophet, directed by Jacques Audiard
Spring Fever, directed by Lou Ye
Taking Woodstock, directed by Ang Lee
The Time That Remains, directed by Elia Suleiman
Thirst, directed by directed by Park Chan Wook
Vengeance, directed by Johnny To
Vincere, directed by Marco Bellocchio
The White Ribbon, directed by Michael Haneke
Opening Film:
Up, directed by Peter Docter (out of competition)
Closing Film:
Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky, directed by Jan Kounen (out of competition)
Out of Competition:
Agora, directed by Alejandro Amenabar
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, directed by Terry Gilliam
LArmee du Crime, directed by Robert Guediguian
Midnight Screenings:
A Town Called Panic, directed by Stephane Aubier and Vincent Patar
Drag Me To Hell, directed by Sam Raimi
Ne Te Retourne Pas, directed by Marina de Van
Special Screenings :
My Neighbor, My Killer, directed by Anne Aghion
Martin Manila, directed by Adolfo Alix, Jr.
Min Ye, directed by Souleymane Cisse
LEpine Dans Le Coeur, directed by Michel Gondry
Petition, directed b Zhao Liang
Kalat Hayam (Jaffa), directed by Keren Yedaya
Un Certain Regard
Mother, directed by Bong Joon Ho
Irene, directed by Alain Cavalier
Precious, directed by Lee Daniels
Demain Des LAube, directed by Denis Dercourt
Adrift, directed by Heitor Dhalia
Nobody Knows About the Persian Cats, directed by Bahman Ghobadi
Los Viajes del Viento, directed by Ciro Guerra
Le Pere de mes Enfants, directed by Mia Hansen-Love
Tales from the Golden Age, directed by Hanno Hoefer, Ravan Marculescu, Cristian Mungiu, Constantin Popescu, Ioana Uricaru
Tale in the Darkness, directed by Nikolay Khomeriki
Air Doll, directed by Hirokazu Kore-Eda
Dogtooth, directed by Yorgos Lanthimos
Tzar, directed by Pavel Lounguine
Independence, directed by Raya Martin
Politist, Adjectiv, directed by Corneliu Porumboiu
Nymph, directed by Pen-Ek Ratanaruang
Morrer Como Un Homem, directed by Jao Pedro Rodgrigues
Eyes Wide Open, directed by Haim Tabakman
Samson and Delilah, directed by Warwick Thornton
The Silent Army, directed by Jean van de Velde
Not sure if anyone has posted this yet on here - but it's an amusing parody from slate.com
It contains interpretations of how several different directors may have handled The Watchmen if they were directing it
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Well - it's official - The Black Dog will be playing at the Cannes Film Festival during May. Details are currently up on their website, and I will recieve more info soon.
One of the many photos a film maker friend of mine took of last years proceedings
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DISCLAIMER: I have no interest in using this review to express my religious beliefs and ask that any comments left please remain objective.
The Last Temptation Of Christ
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Every now and then, not often, a film will hit you with every one of its elements. It will burn its images into your brain and as you sit watching it, it will not let you go. Each piece of it, being striking, in a absolutely refreshing way, an example of one of these films is, 4 months, 3 weeks and 2 days and in this case it is a masterpiece.
winner of the 2007 Palm D'Or
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In two words, absolutely beautiful. The Wrestler has arrived in Australia after its hot off the press rumours of Mickey Rourke giving a performance of towering proportion. It appears these rumours were not wrong.
Darren Aronofsky's The Wrestler
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For the last year I have been anticipating the release of Quantum Of Solace, ever since I discovered Marc Foster was at the helm of the latest Bond film.
Quantum Of Solace directed by Marc Foster
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Comment by ShaunK
on Missing the Bus. (My film gets accepted at Cannes)
Screen Adventure
I intend to do a few posts on the event when I get back along with photo's!
Plz send me a private message on what you are doing at Capital pictures?? (what country is that based in)
I myself have some exciting things in developement (features) and would love to hear more about what you do!