On Quentin Tarantino

Last month director Quentin Tarantino started production here in France on his next film, Inglourious Basterds (incorrect spelling intentional). Last night I saw good ol Jackie Brown at the Cinémathèque Française, which I’ve probably seen only once since its 1997 release. Tarantino was rumored to be remaking Russ Meyer’s boobsploitation flick Faster, Pussycat Kill! Kill! starring Britney Spears before a change of heart, and I’m glad about it. For one, Death Proof (his half of last year’s Grindhouse) was pretty much already Faster, Pussycat; for two, I saw the Meyer film back in the day (after hearing Janet Jackson’s “You Want This” video was inspired by it), and it blows.

What I’d totally forgotten about Jackie Brown was the whole “nigger” controversy of the script (38 times and counting!), and how wince worthy it is for Tarantino to have directed the villainous Sam Jackson through that kind of dialogue. I don’t own any Tarantino DVDs (too easy), but I always give it up. His screenwriting totally changed the game in Hollywood for a minute; there were so many “bad guys spend two hours talking wittily” movies in the wake of Pulp Fiction. He found his voice and he stuck with it, he owns it. He makes cooking up a Tarantino movie look easy: insert gratuitous shots of women’s feet; play underrated, overlooked 70s soul on the soundtrack every few scenes; do the trunk-of-the-car shot; use actors past their prime (Pam Grier, John Travolta, etc.); take 70s cinema tropes like karate flicks or blaxploitation films or road movies and update them ironically; etc. He owns it, though. Mix and match these elements at your own risk; you’ll just be a copycat.

Inglourious Basterds stars Brad Pitt, Mike Myers, French actresses Mélanie Laurent and Léa Seydoux and others in a World War II flick set in German-occupied France. Escaped war prisoners are on a revenge mission against some Nazis, and in another storyline, a young woman seeks revenge for the death of her parents by the same Nazis. Tarantino’s on a timeline to release this at Cannes 2009.