Inglourious Basterds (5 Stars)

Netflix Thursday #14

I warned you that I'd be watching Netflix more often while I'm on holiday. That includes films like "Inglourious Basterds", which I have on Blu-ray at home.

In a recent interview Quentin Tarantino named six films which he considers to be perfect. The films, in the order he named them, are:

• "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" (1974)
• "Jaws" (1975)
• "The Exorcist" (1973)
• "Annie Hall" (1977)
• "Young Frankenstein" (1974)
• "Back to the Future" (1985)

That's an interesting list. I've seen all the films except for "Annie Hall", but I've only reviewed "Jaws" and "Young Frankenstein" in my blog. I ought to watch all of the films in a row to see what he means. He claims the films are technically perfect, regardless of a person's personal tastes. That's difficult for me. My reviews are subjective, and I don't think I'm able to make an objective decision whether a film is perfect. I'll do my best.

Quentin should have added one more film to the list: "Inglourious Basterds". Maybe he was too modest to name one of his own films. The film's chapters are a series of vignettes, each of which can be judged on its own merits. Each vignette is perfect. If anything is imperfect, I'd like to hear Quentin himself tell me what's wrong with it.

Success Rate:  + 2.6

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Inglourious Basterds (5 Stars)

Dancer's Top Films #24

This film should be called "How the War should have been won". It's the first film in which Quentin Tarantino rewrote history. It's a fictional film, but it features authentic historical characters, such as Adolf Hitler. The film shows Hitler dying in France in 1944, a year before his real world death. Tarantino's most recent film, "Once upon a time in Hollywood", also rewrites history by showing Sharon Tate survive the attack by the Manson Family.

So who kills Hitler? It's a joint effort. There are two plots running in parallel. One is the fighting group called the Bastards, eight Jewish soldiers led by Aldo the Apache (Brad Pitt). It's Aldo's right hand man Donny Donowitz (Eli Roth) who fires the bullets that kill Hitler. When you look at his face it seems like he isn't just acting, he's really enjoying killing Hitler. But Hitler wouldn't have survived anyway. He's locked in a cinema that's being burnt down by Emmanuelle Mimieux, the cinema's owner who's secretly Jewish. Aldo's Bastards and Emmanuelle don't meet, and they aren't even aware of one another's existence.

As I've mentioned many times before, I consider the opening scene in a French farmhouse to be the best scene ever filmed. It's perfect. It's slow and intense with seemingly harmless conversation between the French dairy farmer and the SS officer Hans Landa. In fact, the whole film moves slowly, and there are only occasional short bursts of action.

This is a film I can watch again and again and never get bored. The same is true of all of Quentin Tarantino's films. If you haven't watched it yet, what are you waiting for? Please don't shy away from it with excuses like "I don't like war films". This isn't a normal war film, which should be obvious as soon as the background music begins. The music sounds like it comes directly from a spaghetti western.

Success Rate:  + 2.6

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Death Proof (5 Stars)

Dancer's Top Films #53

Quentin Tarantino calls "Death Proof" his worst film. I disagree. Out of the nine films he's made so far, seven of them have made it into my best films list. "Death Proof" has been included while two others have been omitted. I might have put it even higher in my list if it weren't for one small detail that bothers me. The film has a lot of fake scratches to make it look like an old film from the 1970's. I don't like this. I'm sure it was filmed perfectly and the scratches added later, so the Blu-ray could have offered both versions by including two video tracks. The Angle button on the remote control could switch between them.

That's a terrific T-shirt. I'd love to have it myself, although I admit it wouldn't look as good on me. However, I don't think that its use in the film is random. After making "Kill Bill" Quentin Tarantino said he was considering doing a remake of "Faster Pussycat Kill Kill". This never happened, but "Death Proof" borrows a lot of ideas from "Faster Pussycat Kill Kill", especially in the last 20 minutes. The T-shirt is a subtle hint that most viewers would never notice.

The film is split into two parts. It's like a play in two acts. The second part is incredible. The conversation between the four girls in the car is some of the best dialogue ever written for a film.

Quentin Tarantino has scenes like this in several of his films, in which characters look down into a car. Usually it's the car's trunk, but here the girls are looking under the hood.

In my previous reviews I've written a lot about the naked feet in the film, so much that I promised not to mention feet in my next review. I'll stick to my promise. In this review I shan't mention naked feet, however beautiful they may be and however much I want to suck the girls' toes.

See! I've kept my promise!

Success Rate:  - 1.0

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Death Proof (5 Stars)

By watching "Death Proof" today I'm one step closer to my promise to watch at least one film by all four of my favourite directors this month. You don't know who they are? Shame on you! Go back and check my review of "Shadow" to find the list.

I also promised that when I rewatch Quentin Tarantino's films (not necessarily in the order they were released) I'll pay added attention to his foot fetish. "Death Proof" shows more naked female feet than any of his other films. I've already pointed this out in my previous reviews, but this time I'll make an attempt to be complete, showing photos from all the major foot scenes.

These feet belong to Arlene, played by Vanessa Ferlito. I don't recognise her from any other films.

When she relaxes on the couch we see double. Or is it quadruple?

And there's a bare foot film poster on her wall!

In the car, the feet on the back seat belong to DJ Jungle Julia, played by Sydney Poitier. another actress I don't know.

There are posters of Jungle Julia scattered around Austin, Texas. Barefoot, of course.

This poster is even better.

Julia is relaxing on a table.

Now she's stretching her feet over a chair, and Eli Roth stops to stare.

Here are Arlene's wet feet in the rain.

Arlene gives Kurt Russell a lap dance. Ulp! At least her feet are dry by now.

He's enjoying the dance a lot.

I'd be enjoying it as well, even if I couldn't see her feet from that angle. Too much hair in my face.

Now Arlene sits in the back of the car while Julia puts her feet out of the front window.

On to the second half of the film. Abernathy stretches her feet out of the car window while they're parked at a strip mall in Lebanon, Tennessee.

Kurt Russell is fascinated.

He has to stare closely at the feet.

He has to touch the feet. That's creepy.

He even has to lick the toes. That's taking it too far. Can you be arrested for that? If not, you ought to be.

Here we see all of Abernathy, and wow! It's none other than Rosario Dawson, one of the sexiest women in America.

And what do the girls talk about in the back of the car? Boyfriends and foot massages. Naturally.

I think that's at least one photo from all of the foot scenes. If I've forgotten any, please let me know.

After bingeing on feet in this review I'll drop the topic the next time I watch the film. Yes, I'm sure to watch it again.

I emphasise strongly that it's Quentin Tarantino who has a foot fetish, not me. I have many, many fetishes, but feet aren't one of them. There are, however, two examples of my fetishes in the film.

I love short shorts...

... and I love looking up cheerleaders' skirts. Or any short skirts.

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Inglourious Basterds (5 Stars)

The world according to Quentin Tarantino is better than the real world. In Tarantino's world the last thing Hitler saw was the face of a laughing Jewish woman. In the real world he died in or just outside a cold bunker. Tarantino gave him a sexier death. I'd like the last thing I see to be a laughing woman, Jewish or not.

It's a fairy tale, not meant to represent the truth. It opens with the words "Once upon a time in Nazi-occupied France". Fairy tales have happy endings. The big bad monster dies, and they don't come bigger or badder than Adolf Hitler.

The film shows two unconnected plots to kill Hitler. The one is a big operation ordered by Winston Churchill, carried out by the Jewish American squadron called the Basterds. The other is a solo effort by a Jewess who wants revenge for the death of her family. I know that Hitler killed six million Jews, but that's just a number. A number on a piece of paper is abstract, it means nothing. What makes it personal is if Hitler and his followers kill just one person that you know, a family member or a friend. That's what spurs revenge. That's what makes Shosanna Dreyfus aka Emanuelle Mimieux laugh.

Hitler's death takes place in a cinema. This is no coincidence. For Quentin Tarantino films are important, and cinemas are important as the place where films are shown. He loves films, and he openly displays his nostalgia for old films.

This was the film that helped Daniel Brühl make his breakthrough into Hollywood. He'd already been a successful German actor for ten years, but this is the film that made him well known internationally.

Martin Wuttke was primarily a stage actor in Germany, but since appearing as Adolf Hitler in "Inglourious Basterds" he's been cast in a string of American films.

Brad Pitt is the film's anti-hero. He's one of the good guys, but he's so mean in carrying out justice that he makes the audience shudder. His aim isn't primarily to win the war, it's to kill Nazis. For him, anybody wearing a German uniform isn't a human being, he's a Nazi, and he has to die. Obviously, this attitude is completely wrong. The vast majority of the German soldiers didn't put on uniforms because they were Nazis, they put on uniforms because they were conscripted. But it's just a film. The characters aren't meant to be perfect.

Christoph Waltz won an Academy Award as Best Supporting Actor, but anyone who's seen the film knows that he was really the Leading Actor. Despite having less screen time, Brad Pitt was named as the Leading Actor for two reasons:

1. He's more famous than Christoph Waltz.

2. Bad guys aren't usually the Leading Actor.

But look... isn't that a foot rising up Christoph Waltz's jacket towards his medals?

Yes, it's Diane Kruger's foot. I promised you that I would point out the bare feet in Quentin Tarantino's films.

Christoph Waltz gets to put a shoe on Diane Kruger's foot. Most actors work for 50 years and never get a chance like that.

Here are both of her feet, one of them in a plaster cast.

Before anyone accuses me of having a foot fetish, no, it isn't true. All I'm doing is acknowledging Quentin Tarantino's foot fetish. I have many fetishes, too many to list, but a foot fetish isn't one of them. I would rather look at Diane Kruger's face than her feet. She's beautiful, isn't she?

I definitely have a Sitting-In-The-Cinema-Watching-A-Laughing-Woman-Telling-Me-I'm-Going-To-Die fetish. That's a good idea for my blog. I should have a Fetish Of The Day feature. All year long!

This is probably Quentin Tarantino's best film. It's difficult to say. Every time I watch it I'm stunned, like I'm watching it for the first time. My definition of a good film is that I want to watch it at least three times. Today I watched "Inglourious Basterds" for the seventh time, and I still want to watch it again. That makes it better than good.

Success Rate:  + 2.6

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Death Proof (5 Stars)

This is the Ugly Duckling among Quentin Tarantino's movies. It has never had the acclaim it deserves. At the moment of writing it isn't even available in England on Blu-ray, it has to be purchased on DVD. Or imported, of course. Its popularity hasn't been improved by Tarantino himself claiming it's his worst movie, which it isn't. "The Hateful Eight" is a weaker film, despite its exotic cinematography. Having said that, don't forget who we're talking about. Quentin Tarantino's worst film is better than most directors' best film.

For the last two years I've been intending to watch all of Tarantino's films in quick succession, in their order of release. "Reservoir Dogs" should have been the first, but I skipped a few, so I'll be watching "Death Proof" again soon. Soon-ish. Be patient, readers, I'll get round to it eventually. I don't break my promises, I just need years to get round to them.

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Inglourious Basterds (5 Stars)

Yesterday I went to see "Loving Vincent" in the cinema with the Stuttgart Cinema Meetup. I asked one of the other members what his favourite film was, and he answered "Inglourious Basterds" without hesitation. I'm always glad when someone has an answer ready for that question. It shows that they've sat down and seriously thought about films. I know it's not an easy question to answer. I've changed my mind a few times in the last 20 years, but however often I might change my mind I can always tell you with certainty what my favourite film is today.

This was the reason why I decided to watch "Inglourious Basterds" again this evening. I sat watching it while asking myself "Is this the world's best film?" After the film came to an end I didn't think it was quite good enough to knock my current favourite off the number one spot, but I do have to say that it's technically one of the best films ever made. I already consider the film's first scene, the farmhouse scene, to be the best scene ever filmed. These 20 minutes are perfection. I can't think of any other scene that comes close. However, several other scenes in the film are also of incredibly high merit. They're all scenes in which Christoph Waltz appears. That's probably not a coincidence.

Today I watched the film with my son Benjamin. It was his first time seeing the film. He was shocked to see that Adolf Hitler was killed. That was also my reaction the first time I saw the film in the cinema in 2009. It's something I didn't expect to happen. What I mean is, there have been dozens, maybe even hundreds of films about Hitler, and he never dies, unless it's in his bunker in 1945. After the initial shock I laughed about it and said "Why not?" If a film is a piece of fiction there's no need for it to agree with historical facts. Quentin Tarantino, who both wrote and directed the film, decided to rewrite history. For that I thank him. Tarantino's version of history is better than what really happened.

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