I'm beginning to think I picked the wrong Quentin Tarantino film to include in my 30 films to watch before you die. "Inglourious Basterds" is a masterpiece that only gets better with repeated viewing. What amazes me most is the first scene in the French farmhouse. This gets my vote for the best filmed scene ever. Watch it carefully to see what I mean. The quiet and the calm barely conceals the slowly developing threat. This scene is Quentin Tarantino at his best, the crowning pinnacle of his achievements as a director. It also underlines Christoph Waltz's skill as an actor. He deserved his Oscar.
As everyone who has seen the film already knows, Christoph Waltz is the film's real star, not Brad Pitt. He's a veteran actor who had been making films in Germany and Austria for 30 years, but "Inglourious Basterds" was his Hollywood breakthrough. It was long overdue.
Here's an example of Christoph Waltz's charm with the ladies. Nobody can resist him, not even Diane Kruger.
This is a newspaper shown in the film with a report about Hugo Stiglitz betraying the fatherland by murdering 13 German officers. It might not be obvious to people who don't understand German, but the text in the left column is repeated in the right column. Click on the photo to enlarge it and compare the first line of the new paragraph to see what I mean. Sloppy.
Introduced me to the sublime David Bowie song "Cat People (Putting Out Fire)". The film is for me a typically uneven Tarantino effort, but still very memorable. If only Waltz could just replicate this character in Bond.
ReplyDeleteWhy do you think it's uneven? There's a contrast between the extended conversations -- Tarantino's trademark -- and the action scenes, but that's a mark of good film making.
DeleteAs for you comment on Christoph Waltz, I totally agree. Blofeld should have been more like SS Landa.
Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction are brilliant efforts, but most of his other stuff has had elements I felt that took away from the overall effect. Jackie Brown was a fun film but had a notably poor performance from Sam L Jackson. This film has Waltz and some other good performances, but I also immediately forgot half the characters. Brad Pitt may as well not have been in it, given how he gets overshadowed..
ReplyDeleteToo much emphasis was made on Brad Pitt because he was the film's biggest star. I can't call him the film's "leading actor", though. The combination of actors was more important than what any one of them did, much the same as in "Pulp Fiction". If I were forced to call anyone in "Inglourious Basterds" the lead actor it would be Christoph Waltz.
DeleteAs for Samuel L. Jackson giving a poor performance in "Jackie Brown"... I can't believe you think that. For me it's one of the films that first made me appreciate him as an actor.
I do admit I saw Jackie brown only on original release. I still think Jackson has done much better elsewhere. If he impressed you and got you into more films he did his job. I just didn't care for the character or the performance that time.
ReplyDeleteTastes are different, of course. I didn't see "Jackie Brown" until quite late, about 2005, but I loved it immediately.
DeleteI already knew Samuel L. Jackson as an actor, but two films that I saw at approximately the same time made him one of my favourite actors. One film was "The Red Violin". The other was "Jackie Brown". Totally different roles, but both were played convincingly.