|
Quentin Tarantino on Inglourious Basterds
By Fred Topel | Image property of TWC
Inglourious Basterds
Inglourious Basterds' Tarantino
“That’s one of the things that cracked me up when I started writing it,” Tarantino said. “When I had the first scene between Zoller and Shoshanna and they’re debating Linder vs. Chaplin, or he’s debating it and she’s listening. When that scene was over, I finished it and I was like, ‘Okay, great. I go to make my World War II movie and it becomes a love letter to cinema.’ I guess I cannot not.”
It is another Tarantino epic, running nearly two and a half hours, but trust him. It works better that way. “I think that my movie is exactly the right length to tell my story and as far as it being entertaining is my opinion, all right. I could cut 20 minutes out of it and I could make the movie seem longer because it’s disjointed, it doesn’t have a rhythm, it’s abrupt, you’re not enveloped in it, all right? Then if you add those 20 minutes back, wow, that kinda flew by. Actually the case in point of that was when I went to Cannes with the film, I wasn’t really 100% finished. We hadn’t done our last little thing that me and my editor Sally do is just watch it with an audience. So we watched it with an audience and for two days we just did a little nipping and tucking and pruning and boom, it was done. All right, it was a minute longer. It’s a minute longer than the Cannes cut but it feels like 12 minutes shorter. I mean, it just has a rhythm that it didn’t have I Cannes.”
Basterds may include Tarantino’s best work yet. There may be no “quarter pounder in France” talk, but wait until you see Col. Landa.
“When I wrote him, I was aware enough to know that not only is he one of the best characters I’ve ever written, he’s one of the best characters I will ever write, all right. One of the things I felt really happy about with that sequence is I’ve always felt that as far as my writing was concerned, as far as a given scene, because there is this weird aspect of, there’s an aspect that’s my scenes a lot of times are meant to stand alone the way you would listen to a Greatest Hits album, say. In that self-aggrandizing analogy, I would definitely say my greatest hit was The Sicilian speech in True Romance. That was my best scene. I’m not saying it’s the best scene the way it works in the movie, but as far as just a standalone scene, that was probably my best work. And I knew I’d never talk that. I’d come close, but I never went mm. When I wrote the opening scene in this movie with the Jew Hunter and the French Farmer, I go, ‘I think I’ve finally topped it.’ That’s up for you to decide. I think I finally kinda kicked it up.”
Writing is one thing. Finding the actor to say it is another. “It was very tough and also I was very precious about the casting. Well, I wasn’t precious about the casting. I was precious about my characters so I really wanted to make sure that whoever I cast, they were the perfect person to play this and can play the different facets that are involved in the character. But also, I needed a certain type of actor. I almost always have great situations but every once in a while I’ll cast an actor and realize they’re not my type. Hopefully you don’t notice that, all right, but I notice that. And somebody’d say, ‘Well, what’s your type?’ Well, theater goes a long way to helping it out, all right? You have to be both physical and you have to be verbal. It should go without saying but it doesn’t go without saying that obviously you need to have a facility with dialogue if you’re gonna do my movies. But you’ve got to be hungry for it. It’s not like, ‘Oh man, I’ve gotta learn this three page thing.’ It’s gotta be, ‘Oh man, I get three pages, all right, of Quentin’s stuff!’ All right, you know. And it’s not this mountain you’re trying to climb. You’re dominating and I’m gonna own this, this is mine. And you take it and you make it your own but also there’s something else, you’ve gotta be smart to do my stuff. Harvey Keitel told me, ‘You need smart actors.’”
Inglourious Basterds is out in theaters now.
For the posters, trailer, photos, review and more movie info, go to the Inglourious Basterds Movie Page.
Fred Topel
Sources: Image property of TWC
Contact
© 2004 Minds Eye One, All Rights Reserved
The Can Magazine™ is a trademark of Minds Eye One
All movie titles, movie icons, movie stills/clips/trailers/other media... are registered trademarks and/or copyrights of stated holders
CanMag.Com banners contain movie/gaming icons that were created by individual holders
Home > Movies > Quentin Tarantino on Inglourious Basterds
|
|
|
Add to Heffee!
