On a film roll now, seen two unremarkable (Ang Lee and Johnny To) and two good (Loach and Almodovár) and a few in between, but still looking for a film to really blow me away or fall in love with, maybe it just won’t happen this year. Tarantino’s Inglorious Basterds is screening later and you can already feel the anticipation on the Crosisitte. I haven’t been holding out huge hopes for it based on the trailer, but the dailies have been hyping it up and at the press call Quentin announced “This might be my masterpiece“.
I try to ignore any online reviews (I want to see it with untainted eyes) and spend the rest of the afternoon having lunch on a yacht anchored in the waters just off the Hotel Du Cap seeing if we can spot Quentin, Brad or Angelina having their lunch – seriously the number of paps hanging off the side of the rocks trying to get a photo is crazy, from the boat they look like little insects.
So nice to be away from the hustle bustle of the Crositte and floating in the sea for a few hours, can sort of understand why billionaires buy these things now.
Get back and hear a rumour that an extra screening of Inglorious Basterds has just been added and will be shown 30 minutes after the main premiere starts in the Lumiere at the Bazin next door and sure enough when we get their a reasonable short queue is forming, no one knows for certain if the rumour is true, least the attendants on the door, but as the rumour spreads the queue starts to grow exponentially and then it starts moving, we get in and grab out seats and almost immediately the film starts, huge whoops as “A BAND APART” and the Weinstien’s logo appears on the screen, yes the rumour is true and even bigger cheer when Quentin’s name appears.
Unfortunately the cheering was more subdued at the end, with pockets of clapping from the audience, but on the whole a sense of disappointment seemed to have filled the air, not that it had been a painful 2 hours and 40 minutes, more that once again Tarrintino hadn’t lived up to the possibly overly high expectations. Will write up my thoughts on this in full over the weekend when I have a bit more time.
Will be interesting to see how much the version screened at Cannes will differ from the final theatrical released version.
In short I enjoyed it, but also had some serious problems with it, it’s certainly a long way from being Tarintino’s “Masterpiece” – for now I’m giving in a fence sitting (3 out of 5)