Inglourious Basterds

Warning: Some Spoilers Ahead
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Quentin Tarantino Q&A

Quentin Tarantino shot and edited his WWII drama “Inglourious Basterds” in just eight months, so he could make a May premiere at the Cannes Film Festival. Whether it's because his backers at The Weinstein Co. and Universal are hit-hungry, or because summer loves shorter movies, or because the film didn't win top prize on the Croisette, speculation had Tarantino under pressure to shorten his film. Fresh from locking his final cut, Tarantino refutes that rumor and makes it clear to BFD that the only inglourious basterds he encountered in the cutting room are the characters he'll introduce to the world when the film opens August 21.

BFD: What is the final running time on Inglourious Basterds?

Tarantino: I’ve heard these rumors that the studios told me to cut out 40 minutes. These are complete lies. The movie is actually a minute longer, in running time, than it was in Cannes. It was 2:28, without end credits, and now it’s 2:29, or 2:32 with end credits.

BFD: You told me in Cannes that you had final cut at 2:48, if you'd chosen to make the film that long. Still, rumors inferred you were sent to the editing room with orders to cut. Reaction?

Tarantino: I’m offended at the idea that these guys would be bossing me around. On the other hand, I’ve no right to complain. It’s a great situation. You don’t have to do anything under duress. It’s your movie, you’re the one who has to live with it, and you know you can’t make rash judgments you’ll regret later. But you’re more inclined to listen, because nothing’s being forced on you. Harvey Weinstein’s a nice guy, David Linde was wonderful to work with. They had worthwhile things to say. Some I agreed with, some I did not. I always tried their suggestions, because they have a lot of money invested. They’re not in the room when I try, and half the time they were wrong. But sometimes I’d find myself saying, “Goddammit, Harvey’s right. It’s better this way.”

BFD: What extended the running time?

Tarantino: I added a sequence between where Mike Myers and Michael Fassbender discuss Operation Kino [the plot to blow up a theater as Joseph Goebbels and other Nazi brass watch a film], and the shootout scene in the basement tavern La Louisiane. In Cannes, we went from one to the other. I’d shot another scene, right before that, where Fassbender meets The Basterds, before they go to La Louisiane. That’s back.

BFD: What about that laugh-out-loud funny moment that introduces Goebbels’s French translator, and cuts to a scene where she and Hitler's minister of propaganda are having raucous sex?

Tarantino: Oh, yeah, I put that back, and it sure got a big laugh when I screened it.

BFD: There were other worthy scenes in the script missing from the Cannes cut, like one that humanizes Sgt. Donny Donowitz (Eli Roth), the “Bear Jew” who beats Nazis to death with a baseball bat. A scripted scene that preceded the violence showed him buying a bat in his Jewish Boston neighborhood, and getting an elderly neighbor to sign it with the names of her Jewish relatives in Europe who were in peril.

Tarantino: We shot that, it was a cool sequence, but it got in the way of the big musical cue where we bring Donny out, with the bat. This and other scenes I shot, I’ll put in reserve. If I were to do a prequel, I can just use that stuff, it’s ready to go.

BFD: Do you have enough enthusiasm left for a prequel?

Tarantino: Oh, yeah, I definitely do. I’ve written the first half already. I’d have to finish it, get the Basterds back together, and insert a whole other group of characters, these black troops that come across the Basterds.

BFD: Are the Basterds game?

Tarantino: All through the movie, Brad Pitt and Eli Roth just kept saying, “Prequel. Prequel.” Brad would say, “Let’s talk him into doing a prequel.” The guys love the idea. I’ve got the storyline. Then again, I was going to do all these animated prequels to Kill Bill. I didn’t end up doing any of those.

BFD: Both The Weinstein Co. and Universal need hits. How much pressure did you feel to maximize your film's commercial potential?

Tarantino: Yeah, the guys are anxious about it, and I can see where that is coming from. But the movie is the movie. They read the script, they knew what they were getting into. From time to time, we’d be talking and I’d say, I hear what you’re saying, but I’m not going to make the movie any differently than I wrote it. It might sound weird that I added a minute, but you can add little things and actually quicken the pace, and we were very aware of keeping the pace up. To add the one scene, I reduced a couple scenes by a line here, a line there. I’d talk to the Weinsteins, and Universal, and they’d say, “This sequence is running a little long.” I’d say, I don’t think I can take more than maybe one line out of there, and they’d say, that’s fine. Then you have to find that one line. It’s cosmetic surgery. Harvey wanted me to add more music, he asked me to go through my music collection again and just find a couple more pieces. So, I found four cues, and one of them is the main theme from the Jack Cardiff movie "Dark of the Sun," which I'd always wanted to use.

BFD: You’ve never relied on stars in your movies. Now you have one of the biggest, at a time when studios seem to be questioning star value, especially after Todd Phillips did what you usually do, creating stars in "The Hangover"...

Tarantino: Even to the degree where those guys were so perfectly cast.

BFD: Is the star system still reliable?

Tarantino: There has been a kind of selective choice of evidence to decide whether stars are reliable or not. If you are pointing to that Russell Crowe newspaper movie, which I didn’t see, well maybe it just didn’t work out for that particular movie. Brad had a big hit with "Benjamin Button" and I think he was a big reason. Early in my career, I would get suggestions about using this or that actor, and I’d ask, why do you want these people? Do they really put asses in seats? I could look at a number of their movies and the answer would be no. I learned it wasn’t as much about asses in seats as it was marketing. This guy is famous, so we can get him on Leno, Conan, Letterman, get a magazine cover. I’m casting for what works best in the film. Rosario Dawson was the most famous girl I used in "Deathproof," and she was on all the talk shows. But she was also one of the best in the movie. There’s a reason why Leno wants to talk to her. She’s a terrific actress, she’s got tons of charisma. I’m not going to hire somebody just for the poster, and the integrity of my movies speaks for itself, as far as that is concerned.

BFD: How do your commercial hopes escalate, having Pitt?

Tarantino: I’ve normally relied on my name for the most part. The hope is, I’ll bring my fans and he’ll bring his. Overseas, Brad’s following is intense, just crazy, but so is mine. The hope is, us working together, that’ll be a draw. I can honestly say though that if Brad Pitt wasn’t a star and I’d found him in the casting process, I would have lobbied for him to get this role.

BFD: The adult drama is on shaky ground. What must be done to keep the genre viable?

Tarantino: I went to see "Public Enemies" on a Friday at The Vista, the 6:30 show, and the theater filled up and I thought, hmm, people turning out on a weekend to see a movie with a big star...I think I’m going to be okay. I was very encouraged. I would say "Public Enemies" is an example that showed the adult drama is alive and well. Universal marketed the hell out of it, and while it was risky to open summertime against "Ice Age 3," I think it did terrific for that kind of film. In a different month, "Public Enemies" would have opened number one. I remember several years ago, being in Austin while making "Deathproof," and seeing "American Gangster," this movie with two stars and a terrific director. It struck me, this audience that was equal parts black and white, and how you could tell they couldn’t wait to see the movie. If you’re going to make one of these, make sure your canvas matches the commercial potential, and be sure it is something people want to see. The tricky thing about commercial concerns is, it becomes easy to only think about the opening weekend, and forget that a movie is going to have a long life, like, until the end of time.

BFD: What's the fun part of opening in the summer under pressure?

Tarantino: As an artist, you can bemoan the whole roll of the dice that is opening weekend, but it is exciting, too. Your movie is seen by everybody in this one big `go,' and it becomes an event where everybody is heading out on opening weekend and filling up the multiplexes all over America. It is one of the things that makes movies vital.

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'Basterds' opens San Sebastian sidebar

By JOHN HOPEWELL

MADRID -- Quentin Tarantino's "Inglourious Basterds" will open the San Sebastian Film Festival's Zabaltegi-Pearls sidebar, the Spanish event's panorama of recent fest faves.
Selection is a sign of Tarantino's popularity in Spain: Zabaltegi-Pearls opened last year with "Vicky Cristina Barcelona," helmed by another of the country's favorite auteurs, Woody Allen, who this year will be represented by Tribeca opener "Whatever Works."

Zabaltegi-Pearls will feature many Cannes competition players, including Jacques Audiard's Grand Prix winner "A Prophet," Ang Lee's "Woodstock," Johnnie To's "Vengeance" and Bong Joon-ho's "Mother."

Iran's Bahman Ghobadi, a two-time winner of San Sebastian's Golden Shell award for film, will play Zabaltegi-Pearls with Iran underground music scene tale "No One Knows About Persian Cats," a standout in a strong Cannes Un Certain Regard this year, where it shared the special jury prize.

Zabaltegi-Pearls also features "Yuki and Nina," from Nobuhiro Suwa and Hippolyte Girardot, which played in Directors' Fortnight.

Other sidebar pics include Jim Jarmusch's "The Limits of Control"; Lee Daniels' Sundance grand jury and audience award winner "Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire"; and Oliver Hirschbiegel's "Five Minutes of Heaven," which took directing and screenwriting plaudits at Sundance in its World Cinema section.

The 57th San Sebastian fest runs Sept. 18-26.

Variety

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Inglourious Basterds Soundtrack Cover
Quentin Tarantino's next famous soundtrack is on the way... and we have an exclusive look at the cover.

Since coming onto the scene with Reservoir Dogs, Quentin Tarantino has established himself not only as a brilliant director, but as an artist with an ear for music. Any Tarantino soundtrack is an event unto itself, whether for the soulful Jackie Brown, uber-cool Pulp Fiction or frenetic Kill Bill.

Following in that tradition, Warner Bros. is poised to release the soundtrack to QT's latest, the war/revenge tale Inglourious Basterds. The soundtrack will feature rare and previously unreleased tracks and is scheduled to hit stores on August 18th.

IGN

not really my type of movie but he's looking mighty fine in the promos I have to see it

I am lookin' forward for this film because I love QT. I hope it has the same dynamic as the previous QT films I've seen.

I like QT but all his movies are so uggh ....the only one I watched and really liked was Pulp Fiction

I know. He's too much sometimes. But I would rather see this than Moneyball.

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Brad Pitt interview "With six kids each morning it is about surviving!"

Superstar Brad Pitt is on his way to Berlin for the premiere of Tarantino’s Hitler action comedy ‘Inglourious Basterd’.

BILD caught up with him in a tucked-away Hotel bar in southern France guarded by two bodyguards in Hawaiian shirts. Brad Pitt was dressed all in black wearing sunglasses, suede shoes, unshaven and smiling.

We both wanted a beer but the bodyguards had scared off the waiter.

Brad Pitt: “You brew good beer in Germany.” He laughs. “My sunglasses are good for hiding puffy eyes after drinking.” They are from the 80s.

BILD: How would you rate your film if you were a critic?

Brad Pitt: “Lots of fun! I’m happy with it, because all the actors are great. Each one is a mini star!”

BILD: What does your wife Angelina Jolie think?

Brad Pitt: “She really likes it. She laughed a lot.”

BILD: You play an American soldier who scalps Nazi’s in a hit team and finally kills Hitler.

Brad Pitt: “Yes there’s a lot going on in the movie, we had lots of fun. You have some great actors in Germany.”

Til Schweiger, Daniel Brühl, Christoph Walz, Diane Kruger and Gedeon Burkhard all starred in the film. For a world famous actor Brad is surprisingly normal. He is relaxed, has a friendly voice and is almost humble about his fame.

BILD: Who is the real Brad Pitt?

Brad Pitt: He is sitting right in front of you. There’s nothing else.

BILD: Are you still a big kid?

Brad Pitt: “No I’m not a kid anymore – I have six children.” Maddox (7), Pax (5), Zahara (4), Shiloh (3), and the twins Vivien & Knox (1).

BILD: Have you found happiness in life?

Brad Pitt (nodding): Hm – yes. I am on the path I want to be on.”

BILD: Do you believe in God?
Brad Pitt (smiling): “No, no, no!”

BILD: Is your soul spiritual?
Brad Pitt: “No, no, no! I’m probably 20 per cent atheist and 80 per cent agnostic. I don’t think anyone really knows. You’ll either find out or not when you get there, until then there’s no point thinking about it.

BILD: Are you scared of ageing?

Brad Pitt (smirking): The grey hairs on his beard glisten: “No I like it. I think it’s good.”

BILD: What is your typical day as a dad?

Brad Pitt: “I get going early, make breakfast, get the kids dressed, brush their teeth and take them to school. Angelina is working at the moment. We take turns.”

BILD: Angelina told me once about your giant bed where all eight of you snuggle up?

Brad Pitt: “Yes we have a 3 metre wide bed, but even that isn’t big enough. They all come crawling in in the morning. It’s just about surviving! We all have sleep deprivation."

BILD: Do you find the time to make love?

Brad Pitt (looks puzzled): What?

BILD: Is it sometimes just the two of you?

Brad Pitt: “Yes we make time for ourselves. It’s very important for every relationship.”

BILD: How? Do you fly off somewhere?

Brad Pitt: “That’s a trade secret!”

BILD: Your answers are very short and quick.

Brad Pitt (beaming): “Ha! I’m a father of six. You have to be quick and focused.”

BILD: What car do you drive?

Brad Pitt: I’m not a car person. I like motorbikes.”

BILD: You are driving from Berlinto Prague?
Brad Pitt: “Yes for fun! 2 ½ hours just straight on the whole way.“

BILD: How many motorbikes do you have?
Brad Pitt: “Sorry, but I’ve got a problem with that one”. He smiles sheepishly.

BILD: Why? Too many?
Brad Pitt: “Yeah! To be honest I don’t know how many I have.“

BILD: Has money changed you?
Brad Pitt: “It makes everything easier, but money can also be a burden.“

BILD: Do your rings have a story?
Brad Pitt: “No I just like them.“

BILD: And your watch?
Brad Pitt (checks): “Yes, a Rolex.“

BILD: Your necklace?
Brad Pitt: “From my girl.“

BILD: What is your most important possession?
Brad Pitt: “My family - and yes a couple of my motorbikes.“

His laugh fills the bar.

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Track List: Inglorious Basterd Eli Roth’s Smackdown Soundtrack

In Quentin Tarantino’s latest WWII rampage, Inglourious Basterds, Eli Roth kicks some major Nazi ass alongside Brad Pitt. Here, the Splat Pack sergeant and Hostel director exercises killer taste by revealing the soundtrack to his Third Reich smackdown.

In my big scene, I beat a Nazi soldier to death. I wanted the audience to feel the pain and anger of every Jew that was killed in the Holocaust. I had to look like an animal filled with pure rage and violence. So, we’re out at this 200-year-old fort in the middle of the woods in Berlin, and I’m in this disgusting, dirty room in the back. A pull-up bar is set up for me, along with a makeshift punching bag and a bench so that I can do triceps dips and lift weights. I’m back there, in this cave, for four days, waiting to come out. By the time Quentin is ready to shoot my scene, I’m sweating, heaving and ready to kill.

“Paper Planes,” by M.I.A. Jesse Novak, the brother of B.J. Novak, one of the actors in Inglourious Basterds, plays the guitar on this song. We’d blare it during van rides to the fort, while B.J. screamed, “That’s my brother, that’s my brother!” For whatever reason, this became the song of the shoot, with everybody bouncing along to it, thinking about killing people.

AC/DC’s “It’s a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock ’n’ Roll).” It’s all about the climb and working your ass off to get to the top. And there I am, in this cave, thinking, I’m 36 and I’ve worked so hard to get here and this is my moment.

Iron Maiden’s “Drifter.” Pretty much every Maiden song is about going into battle. But this one, in particular, is about killing.

“Bullet,” by Misfits. This song is so intense. It’s about JFK getting shot and brains splattering. I’m psychotic at this point, worked into a lather to pound this guy. Keep in mind—Quentin made me wait for four days in this state.

Hannah Montana’s “Nobody’s Perfect.” Before I left home to shoot this movie, my girlfriend loaded songs onto my iPod. She put Hannah Montana on there as a joke. I’m bouncing around to it—it’s got a good beat—when I think, What if Brad Pitt comes back here and catches me listening to Hannah Montana? It’s near the beginning of shooting and I want him to think that I’m cool and I’m worried that he’d tell Quentin, and Quentin would be like, “You’re supposed to be killing guys and you’re listening to Hannah Montana—what’s wrong with you?” And then Brad would be like, “Jesus Christ, my kids don’t even listen to that crap!” I’d be ruined! Then I realize, Jesus, this stuff makes so much money—what if I was Hannah Montana? But this is fucking nuts! I’m supposed to be thinking about the Holocaust and killing Nazis, and instead, I’m imagining what it would be like to be a secret pop star. This is when Quentin comes in screaming, “Now!” And I come out and crush that guy: killing. And killing. And killing.

“Deny Everything,” by Circle Jerks. The scene is over and Quentin says, “Okay, good—we’re going to do it once more.” But where the hell am I going to find that energy again? That’s when I put on the Circle Jerks. This song is like the musical equivalent of that scene in Pulp Fiction, when Uma gets an adrenaline shot to the heart.

Crazy Frog’s “We Like To Party.” Now we’ve got to film the other guys who have been cheering me on, while I’m beating this guy to death. So I put on this song by DJ Crazy Frog—it’s always played between innings at Dodgers games. Anyway, I put it on for the cheering scene, and instead of killing the guy off-camera, which is what I’m supposed to be doing, I start having sex with a dummy. I was wondering how I was going to entertain everyone when it came to me: What if I played DJ Crazy Frog while balls-out skull-fucking a Nazi corpse?

“Everything She Wants,” by Wham! Quentin always plays music over the loudspeakers between takes and, at the end of one very long Friday, after filming in a theater with 300 extras dressed like Nazis, the sound guy puts on Wham! Everyone starts dancing. Then I start stripping. I do a full striptease—the full monty—in front of an audience of 300 Nazis.

The Who’s “The Seeker.” I’m now driving back to Berlin, in a van with all of the guys, after a full day spent killing Nazis. It’s the right beat at the right time—really relaxing.

“Grey Clouds,” by Franz Liszt. Right before bed, I put on the Eyes Wide Shut soundtrack. Even though I’m not sophisticated enough for classical music, there is something really dark and ominous about that song, like a storm is coming. It puts me in a creepy mood so, even though the day ended on this light, relaxing note, I fall asleep thinking that something very bad is going to happen.

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I can't wait to see IB!

Jackie Brown is my favorite QT movie.

Tarantino's final reel?
Director Quentin Tarantino talks to Helen Barlow about the film which comes at a make-or-break point in his colourful career

By Helen Barlow


Tuesday July 28 2009

Doing a Quentin Tarantino interview is like hearing a sermon from the mount. In the allotted 20 minutes, he delivers five or six raves, where you wonder if the fast-talking 46-year-old ever did underwater swimming, as he rarely comes up for air.

The prime thing he wants to get across today is how important his new World War II adventure film, Inglourious Basterds is to him. Initially he demonstrates uncharacteristic humility, when I ask if this is his magnum opus.

"I'm not trying to be cagey, but it's not really for the chicken to speak of his own soup," he replies in his highly entertaining vernacular. "That's more for you to decide."

The writer-director of films including Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill Volume 1 and Volume 2, says the most important thing for him is maintaining a high standard in his filmography.

"I've studied directors' careers and most of them do not get better as they get older. I don't want some kid coming into a video store and picking the movie I did for hire, or the one I did to pay for my pool. I want all of my movies to be strong, but I also want them to have the youthful energy that Reservoir Dogs had. It can have maturity inside but I don't need to prove that any more. I've done that already with Jackie Brown. My third movie already had a maturity to it, all right? It's not something I have to grow into. Basically I don't like those old man movies."

Of course Jackie Brown, possibly Tarantino's most straightforward venture, was based on a novel by Elmore Leonard, so doesn't naturally sit happily among Tarantino's other works.

"The maturity of Jackie Brown doesn't make it better than the comic book pyrotechnics of Kill Bill: Volume 1," he argues, "it makes it different. Oddly enough Kill Bill was more personal to me because I wrote it. Part of my thing is to parallel my real life somehow and to disguise it inside a genre. It's not my job to tell you the details, though," he sniggers.

Knowing that his head was on the chopping block following the failure of Grindhouse, an intriguing concept combining the old drive-in experience and a modern movie (only the first half, Death Proof, was released here, while Robert Rodriguez's Planet Terror went straight to DVD), Tarantino was aware he had to come up with the goods in Inglourious Basterds.


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"I wanted to work with a big actor because I needed a big opening," he concedes of casting Brad Pitt. Yet he insists he wouldn't have cast Pitt if he wasn't the right actor for the role.

"Literally it was one of those situations where as I was writing the script I was thinking, 'Brad could be good in this'. I wrote a little bit more, 'Hey, Brad could be [expletive] awesome in this! Right, now I need Brad, but I'm [expletive] because he's a little hard to get hold of because he's in the south of France. I'd met him a few times but I didn't really know him."

Tarantino managed to contact Pitt as he had the same agent as his good friend Uma Thurman. Still, he was worried.

"I know that when Brad makes a movie Angelina doesn't make a a movie so he may not have been available. Not only was I trying to get the most sought after movie star in the world, I was saying, 'I've gotta go now!' I couldn't wait for him. Sometimes the movie gods smile on you," Tarantino grins.

Since Inglourious premiered in Cannes in May, Tarantino has re-edited the film. Its success or failure could make or break the film's beleaguered financiers, The Weinstein Company, who have long supported Tarantino's talent. Still, for some, the film's subtitling may also be a problem as 70pc of the film is in French and German. But Tarantino wasn't going to budge on that.

Certainly the one-time wunderkind has many more films to make. However, he has said in previous interviews he wants to retire at 60, to write and be a kind of Mark Twain.

"I do intend to stop directing at 60 -- unless my last film is a fiasco. I may have to go to 62 to redeem myself," he laughs. "I feel like I can be a novelist and that's a gift I intend to give myself. I don't want to have to be worrying about schedules and timing when I'm older."

Inglourious Basterds opens in cinemas on August 21

http://www.herald.ie/entertainment/film-cinema/tarantinos-final-reel-1843996.html

I am so excited about this film. I love QT. I missed the opportunity to see him in person when he went here. I'm so jealous that my rockin' Madd got to watch a movie with him. Lucky kid.

Inglorious Basterds photocall Berlin July 28, 2009














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