The Inglourious Basterds publicity blitz is coming fast and fierce, and I’m not even gonna pretend to analyze all of the delicious madness, but here a few of my favourite highlights of late:
Poor Eli Roth has been doing the “phoner” interview rounds with various movie blogs, but, to capture the whole, Movieweb has two-part video interview that goes into great detail about the film and Roth’s character, Donny “Bear Jew” Donowitz, as well as the general subject of film production and, more specifically, the fact and fiction of Roth’s rumoured future plans. To attempt to adequately summarize the interview would do a disservice, so go watch it. Also, in a tidbit from Cinematical, Roth says that a feature-length film for Thanksgiving is definitely a go: “That movie, the financing, the money is in a bank account.” Apparently, it’s not a question of if but when because, you know, dude has a busy agenda or some shit.
Now, onto Basterds‘ primary baddie (other than Hitler, duh), the Jew-hunting Nazi Col. Hans Landa, played by Christoph Waltz. Although he won the award for Best Actor at Cannes, Waltz is largely an unknown quantity to American audiences, but he seems to be a rather fascinating creature, as revealed to THR:
“I never played a Nazi until ‘Basterds,’ ” he says. “I’d been offered Nazi roles before, but I never wanted to do them because I don’t like to play cliched roles. I don’t care what uniform a character wears, but if the role is just that Nazi beast, serving the cliche out of lack of fantasy, why would I want to do that?”
Still, Waltz admits to initial skepticism upon initial receipt of the Basterds script:
“After my very first reading, I thought they have lost their minds because how can you make a movie like that?” he says. “And then my German agent said, ‘Yes, yes, I know. But read it again and imagine that it is a Tarantino movie.’ So I went out and bought a box (set) with all of them and watched them again. And when I did, I understood something that had escaped my attention — that Quentin’s movies aren’t just entertainment. They are pieces of art. They use film to its full potential as a medium. With these things in mind, I read the script again. And this time, I was jubilant.”
Col. Landa certainly isn’t your typical movie Nazi. Cold-blooded certainly, but also eloquent and charming, especially alongside Pitt’s trash-talking, scalp-taking Lt. Aldo Raine. Almost every critic has mentioned Waltz’s dazzling language skills; the Cannes audience in particular was won over by his beautiful French. In person, Waltz downplays his linguistic talent. When he drops a German or French word into conversation, it’s not to show off — it’s to be precise. There are things, you see, that can’t be translated.
On a much less serious note, a Michael Fassbender interview reveals some on-set naughtiness:
I was pinching myself being on set with these people . . . . Tarantino likes to have a fun atmosphere and has music playing between takes. If anybody was found asleep, they had their photo taken with Big Gerry, a big purple dildo. People found asleep on set would have their photo taken with the dildo pointing to their mouth, etc. If you were caught three times you were out. I was never caught but there was a wall of shame with lots of people’s photos on it.”
Hey, I wanna know exactly who appeared on this wall of shame! For now, however, there is just one more poster of Brad Pitt (standing atop a pile of dead Nazis, no less) and, if you’ve read the rumours that Quentin Tarantino has been forced to cut 40 minutes of the film, here is the “official” word from Harvey Weinstein to GQ:
There’s not even a question of that. Whatever you’re reading, it’s like some insane blogger… There’s no truth to any of this. He’s not gonna cut. What he’s doing is just reorganizing some scenes. I mean, the guy had six weeks to cut his movie [for Cannes]; most guys take six months. Most guys take a year. When I worked with Martin [Scorsese], we’d do eighteen months in post-production. Quentin Tarantino cuts a movie in six weeks? Come on, there’s shit on that cutting-room floor that’ll blow your brains out. I was telling Quentin the opposite–”You should put that shit back in the movie.” There’s scenes with Brad Pitt and the Basterds, and I’m praying he puts that shit back in, ’cause it’s un-fucking-believably great. Listen — this movie will be between two hours and twenty minutes and two hours and twenty-seven minutes.
Damn, Harvey. Your language is a bit, well, scatological. Clean that shit up, will you?
