Inglourious Basterds

[somnambulating]

the first screenings are today.

and three lackluster clips are available online.

[bigP]

The Guardian's Peter Bradshaw is less than impressed with Inglourious Basterds

[aox]

Brilliant return to form

ugh, I still think it looks terrible.

[rs98762001]

The Brits will literally lap up any single thing Tarantino offers them, hence the ridiculous quote from James Christopher: "In this sense it is Tarantino's most sophisticated film since part one of Kill Bill" - um, you mean compared to the two terrible, determinedly non-sophisticated films he's made since then? Variety gives the film a more measured positive review, but Bradshaw's slam is damning. EDIT: The Reporter's review also dismisses it.

It's actually a brilliant idea for Tarantino to rewrite WW2 history through his own movie - but it seems that yet again it's been done with an unnecessarily overlong running time, "hilarious" dialogue exchanges that run ten minutes too long, and a sense of bloated egotism that dwarfs anything more serious the film is trying to achieve. In other words, a neat encapsulation of QT's career to date.

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

Screen Daily's Cannes blog contains this little surprise:

It's an audacious, and, when it comes to timing, indulgent work - some sequences (the prologue, a lengthy interlude in a cellar) run to more than 20 minutes; this comes after what must have been drastic cutting, as Maggie Cheung does not appear at all in the finished product shown in Cannes today, Mike Myers only has one scene and even Michael Fassbender comes and goes with alarming alacrity.

[Barmy]

2.5 frickin' hours? WTF?

Hollywood Reporter gives it a meh.

When will this grotesquely overrated director be put in his place?

[The Elegant Dandy Fop]

When will this grotesquely overrated director be put in his place?

If this movie bombs (like Grindhouse), then soon.

Then again, he will probably come up with a bullshit reason why it wasn't his fault.

[kupo]

Blech. If Maggie Cheung is out I don't really care.

[tenia]

When will this grotesquely overrated director be put in his place?

If this movie bombs (like Grindhouse), then soon.

Then again, he will probably come up with a bullshit reason why it wasn't his fault.

He will probably just say something like : "it's cause people have shitty tastes".

[numediaman2]

This is starting to seem like piling on. I haven't enjoyed a Tarantino film in quite some time, admittedly -- but I am glad he is out there making films, nonetheless.

[Barmy]

Part of the problem is we have been hearing about this damn thing for, like, forever. The script has already been "analyzed" to death etc. It's the hype that is the main turn-off. IB is actually getting some raves so I will see it. But the trailer is shite and I just hope Pitt isn't actually in much of the film because his perf is extremely grating.

[Vic Pardo]

Anyone notice anything familiar about some of the character names in the cast list? Try these:

Ed Fenech
Hugo Stiglitz
Madame Mimieux
Frederick Zoller
Sgt. Wicki
PFC Ulmer
Major Hellstrom

Not to mention Aldo Raine's obvious similarity to Aldo Ray.

And there are probably a few other in-jokes that even I don't get.

Here's the IMDB cast list for the film.

[somnambulating]

.

[bigP]

Anyone notice anything familiar about some of the character names in the cast list? Try these:

Ed Fenech
Hugo Stiglitz
Madame Mimieux
Frederick Zoller
Sgt. Wicki
PFC Ulmer
Major Hellstrom

Are they all referring to cult / classic actors, directors, writers etc? I'm only hazarding a guess from PFC Ulmer translating to Edgar G. Ulmer (perhaps), Major Hellstrom to maybe Lasse Hallström and Frederick Zoller to writer Émile Zola - though I don't know enough about him as a writer to guess why he may be influential on Tarantino other than his work has been adapted into film since the early 1900's, from several adaptations of Thérèse Raquin (with a Glenn Close vehicle in production at the moment) to Marcel L'Herbier's L'Argent. I have little else to go on with the other names or even if i'm following Vic Pardo's train of thought.

EDIT. Perhaps Hugo Stiglitz refers to (if anything) the influential and innovative still photographer Alfred Stieglitz, leading member of the Photo-Secession and Pictorialist Movements. Having never heard Tarantino make reference to Stieglitz, it is certainly a haphazard guess in spirit of the join-the-dots name game, but perhaps its merely Stieglitz impassioned attitude toward his art and how he saw photography as an art in it's own right (at a time when the "kodakers" were rife) to be judged by photographers and to be viewed as an entity in its own right. This may be an attitude Tarantino appreciates toward film. Or, maybe not.

[Stefan Andersson]

Ed Fenech = Edwige Fenech, Algerian-born star of 70s Italian thrillers and sex comedies
Hugo Stiglitz = Hugo Stiglitz, the actor in TINTORERA
Madame Mimieux = Yvette Mimieux - to be played by Maggie Cheung, cut from the Cannes print according to Variety review
Frederick Zoller = ?
Sgt. Wicki = Bernhard Wicki, famous German director (DIE BRUCKE, 1958), plays Dr. Ulmer in PARIS, TEXAS
PFC Ulmer = Edgar G. Ulmer
Major Hellstrom = Swedish actor-director Gunnar Hellström, played a Nazi in a COMBAT episode; director of DALLAS and GUNSMOKE episodes
Re: COMBAT episode, go to http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0544541/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Aldo Raine = Aldo Ray, I agree

[Vic Pardo]

Ed Fenech = Edwige Fenech, Algerian-born star of 70s Italian thrillers and sex comedies
Hugo Stiglitz = Hugo Stiglitz, the actor in TINTORERA
Madame Mimieux = Yvette Mimieux - to be played by Maggie Cheung, cut from the Cannes print according to Variety review
Frederick Zoller = ?
Sgt. Wicki = Bernhard Wicki, famous German director (DIE BRUCKE, 1958), plays Dr. Ulmer in PARIS, TEXAS
PFC Ulmer = Edgar G. Ulmer
Major Hellstrom = Swedish actor-director Gunnar Hellström, played a Nazi in a MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE episode I think; director of DALLAS and GUNSMOKE episodes
Aldo Raine = Aldo Ray, I agree

Bingo on most of them.
For Hellstrom, I was thinking of the character of Dr. Hellstrom played by Lawrence Pressman in the sci-fi insect documentary, THE HELLSTROM CHRONICLE (1971), although your suggestion of Gunnar Hellstrom may be more apt, given Tarantino's cultural references.

For Frederick Zoller, I was thinking of maverick producer Fred Zoller, but when I checked this name on IMDB, all I got was a Fred Zoller whose only credit was as art director on a film called SATAN'S CHILDREN (1975). So who the hell was I thinking of? Damned if I know--and a Google search doesn't help. So scratch that one.

Plus I thought there was more of a Eurocult following on this board who'd know who the likes of Hugo Stiglitz were.

[bigP]

I guess I was well outside the box and somewhat in the wrong field #-o

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

Barmy will be delighted to hear that Tarantino may add additional scenes to the final cut.

[Antoine Doinel]

Buy a replica of Lt. Aldo Raine's jacket. No word yet if Louisville Slugger has a replica bat on the way.

[skuhn8]

Major Hellstrom = Swedish actor-director Gunnar Hellström, played a Nazi in a MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE episode I think; director of DALLAS and GUNSMOKE episodes

huh. For this I just thought it was a funny play on words: Major Hell Storm...since Major Shitstrom would be tough for even QT to push through.

[Stefan Andersson]

Sorry all! Gunnar Hellström played a German officer in a COMBAT episode, not a Nazi in MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE. More info here: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0544541/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Edited my original post.

[Antoine Doinel]

The domestic video rights have been sold to Universal by the financially ailing Weinstein Company, while rumors abound that the studio is pressuring Tarantino to chop 40 minutes from the film.

[John Cope]

Why cutting Basterds is unlikely.

[Antoine Doinel]

It's a very eloquent argument, but Hollywood has never let coherence or wholeness of a concept stand in the way of an editor's scissors.

[Antoine Doinel]

New trailer.