You know these Hindu characters have a strange custom (just one among their million weird practices).
After an inauspicious ceremony, like returning home from the funeral ground, the first thing they do is take a purificatory shower.
Well, we did attend a funeral of sorts last night – we watched Vikram’s Kanthaswamy.
So as a nod to our Indian heritage we made the appropriate purificatory gestures today – we went and watched Quentin Tarantino’s new film Inglourious Basterds.
Folks, now that is a movie.
A real one, not the sham flashing images brought to you by our Bollywood kamineys and Kollywood schmucks.
Now, all ye Tarantino acolytes, pay heed.
The best thing about Inglourious Basterds is not Tarantino as it usually is with the director’s other movies.
For us, the marvellous revelation and discovery with Inglourious Basterds is above all Christoph Waltz.
An Austrian actor, Waltz is drop-dead brilliant (any less a word would be an insult, folks) in his portrayal of the Nazi officer and “Jew Hunter” Col. Hans Landa.
By turns endearingly smiling, casually witty, unfailingly polite and menacingly violent, Waltz as Col Landa turns in one of the finest performances we’ve seen on the big screen in a long time.
In one of the memorable scenes, with a smile that you know portends grave danger to come anon, Col. Landa tells the French dairy farmer LaPadite:
I love rumors. Facts could be misleading. Rumor, true or false, could be revealing.
Or as he makes the distinction between himself and other German soldiers:
I can think like a Jew. They can think only like a German or more precisely like a German soldier.
Any surprise then that Waltz walked off with the Best Actor award at the Cannes festival in May.
Those familiar with Tarantino (remember Pulp Fiction?) shouldn’t be surprised by the frequent bursts of violence in a furious orgy, the strong, insensitive language (the Nigger of Pulp Fiction makes way for the Jewish Rats in Inglourious Basterds), the crisp non pareil dialogs, multiple plots, unpredictability of events and the arrestingly compelling visual imagery.
Nazi Setting
In Inglourious Basterds, Tarantino takes us back to the early 1940s.
To Nazi occupied France where Col Landa and his men are on a mission to hunt down the last of the remaining Jews in the area.
Also arriving in France in search of Nazi scalps are the basterds, a bunch of cruel Jewish American soldiers led by Brad Pitt, who quickly strike terror in the Nazi soldiers and visceral anger in the Nazi high command including the Fuehrer himself.
Good as Brad Pitt is, he’s no match for Christoph Waltz. Not unlike the Joker eclipsing Batman in Dark Knight or Pasupati eating Kamal Haasan’s lunch in the Tamil film Virumandi).
Then there’s the sub-plot of Shosanna (Mélanie Laurent), her small movie theatre in Paris and her plot to avenge the killing of her family a few years earlier by the Nazis.
Punctuated by episodic bursts of violence, the film marches on toward the denouement – the premiere of Joseph Goebbel’s German propaganda film A Nation’s Pride at Shoshanna’s theatre.
And what a denouement it turns out to be for all – the Nazi high command, Shosanna and her Black lover, the Basterds and Col Landa.
Sure, as you may have already heard, there are some loose ends in the story – you never know what happens to the dairy farmer and his family or how Shosanna escapes when Col. Landa could have easily captured her.
But those failings are misdemeanors, folks. Not high crimes.
Fellas, the high crime would be for y’all not to watch this fine film.
Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds – Now, This is a Movie added by SearchIndia.com on
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watching Kandasamy the previous day may have enhanced your appreciation of IB?
kinda like the Vaaranam Aayiram/Quantum of Solace effect.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
Possible.
In any case, well worth the $7.50 we paid for the matinee show.
Even someone just getting down a staircase is filmed so nicely.
Our Indian movie biz is a gazillion years behind.
You have spent $7.50 for a hollywood movie and $15 for a kollywood movie,sounds strange.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
Yes, Tamil movies are more expensive in the U.S. compared to Hollywood or Bollywood films.
woah liked the review..I have heard from other ppl itsa really a good movie but I still dont know why guradian gave a such negative review 1 out of 5 stars :O http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2009/aug/19/inglourious-basterds-review-brad-pitt-quentin-tarantino
..anyway will definitely chk this out..
OFFTOPIC: btw did u see the episode of daily show by john stewart which featured shahrukh khan issue its hilarious
http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/wed-august-19-2009/shah-rukh-khan-detained-at-newark
SearchIndia.com Responds:
Thanks for the Jon Stewart link about SRK.
Just watched it.
Funny.
Any idea of when it is releasing in India?
Read your review on VA. http://indiablogs.searchindia.com/2008/11/14/vaaranam-aayiram-review-cooum-dump
Thoroughly enjoyed the comments!!!
SearchIndia.com Responds:
1. You write: Any idea of when it is releasing in India?
No idea but sometime back didn’t a SI reader comment that these days Hollywood movies come pretty quickly to India.
2. SI readers had strong views on VA … received 100+ comments,
It seems the money u pay is inversely proportional to the rate u enjoy.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
Not always.
We pay around $7.50-$8 for most Bollywood films. And they are usually trash too.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D09-8pSsJYc
SearchIndia.com Responds:
Fu**ing Lovely. 🙂
As a token of our gratitude, please accept this Video.
@gnair91,
The above video is fabulous. I laughed like a monkey with tears in my eyes pouring down my cheek. Thank you. One my cousin too enjoyed listening to it. Boy we had a Fu**ing time.
IB is only hitting our theaters in Oct, will have to wait for the pirated DVD copies which is usually sooner 🙂
SearchIndia.com Responds:
Wow, two months for the movie to travel from America to Asia.
Wonder if Columbus took that long to land in the Americas.
Worse still, the movie would be heavily censored so most people might opt for DVD. Speaking of Columbus, wondered what he did to pass the time on the boat, not that there were malls, ipod, video games or fooseball!
SearchIndia.com Responds:
1. Seems like the censor police is hyperactive in your country.
Well, not surprising given they whip young models for daring to drink beer in public.
The good thing about America is anything goes. 😉
2. Just read the Bon Appetit piece on your blog. The appetizer (Bull’s rectum testicles soup et al) has done such wonders for our appetite that we’ll forego the main course. 🙁
OMG!!!!You actually remember where i come from??? Impressive! I’m so absent minded i even forget what i had for dinner the night before 🙁
Speaking of censorship, yup its quite bad here. They sometimes censor the word pig, fuck is usually silenced (mind you this is even after rating the movie already) At one point they didnt want the word Morphin from Mighty Morphin Power Rangers cuz it reminded kids of Morphine. Not sure where their cow sense are, as though a 6 year old kid would know the drug and order it online!
Considering now the case is in CNN’s Top Ten, the govt is trying to keep it quiet so that we don’t get negative publicity.
Honestly I’m not sure why they singled her out considering there’s a lot of it going on in Hard Rock Cafe’s and Planet H’woods and pubs here.
Oh man, hope your appetite comes back again, else where do we get funny reviews on restaurants. Think pizza with yummy cheese, olives, aubergines toppings, pesto pasta and yummy thosai with sambar 🙂
SearchIndia.com Responds:
We’ve been to HardRock many years back (in Singapore, we think) but not to Planet Hollywood.
One of these days, we want to go to Hooters, famous for the tight T Shirt and large ummm and orange shorts of their waitresses.
Right now, craving some Chettinad cuisine.
Yeah Hooters are so well known for their ‘big and friendly’ service….*grin*
SearchIndia.com Responds:
We’ll do a review of Hooters one of these days. We doubt they are in India yet.
catch it as soon as possible.,as per tarantino,he worked on this script for more than 10 years, but i dont think it’ll beat “pulp fiction” or “reservoir dogs”.
BTW, whats ur taste in horror flicks?, recently i saw one french movie “Martyrs” , got disturbed so much.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
Horror flicks?
Seen no more than half-a-dozen.
Just read the Wiki piece on Martyrs – Ughhh
just as i thought.., not better than pulp fiction or reservoir dogs but its QT all the way, the construction of each chapters towards gory third act with some funny yet dark dialogues interspersed – typical QT.
As i read somewhere, i want QT to direct one bond movie, bcos, you havent seen bond until you see him thru the eyes of quentin tarantino.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
Among the scores of movies we watched in 2009, Inglourious Basterds was easily one of the better movies.
Did you watch it in a theater or DVD?
I wish this movie bags the Best Picture Oscar and also fetch a Best Director Award to Tarantino. I’m sure that it will win Best Screenplay and Best Supporting Actor Award (For Waltz.). 🙂
I find it to be much better than Avatar (The latter was indeed great,a visual treat,but IB is more bolder and absurdly imaginative.)
My respect for this crazy Genius Tarantino has increased with this film. 😉
SearchIndia.com Responds:
You write: I’m sure that it will win Best Screenplay and Best Supporting Actor Award (For Waltz.
We’ll know in a few hours whether you’ll have to eat crow. ;).
// We’ll know in a few hours whether you’ll have to eat crow.//
And if my predictions come true,you must watch a Crowe film(Insider),I recommended to you immediately. 😛
And what about your favorites ?(For each category.)
SearchIndia.com Responds:
1. You write: And if my predictions come true,you must watch a Crowe film(Insider),I recommended to you immediately. 😛
If all your predictions come true, Yes.
In any case The Insider is available on Netflix Instant Play. So not a problem.
2. You write: And what about your favorites ?(For each category.)
The problem is this – we have not seen all of the picks even in a single category. So we’re not getting into the prediction game.
Among the ones we’ve watched, we loved the following (in no particular order):
Movies (English and Foreign)
1. Das weisse Band – Eine deutsche Kindergeschichte
2. Avatar
3. Up in the Air
4. Inglorious Basterds
5. District 9
Actors
1. George Clooney
2. Christoph Waltz
3. Vera Farmiga
4. Anna Kendrick
Directors
1. Quentin Tarantino
2. James Cameron
3. Jason Reitman
Cinematography
1. Avatar (2009): Mauro Fiore
2. Das weisse Band – Eine deutsche Kindergeschichte (2009): Christian Berger
3. Inglourious Basterds (2009): Robert Richardson
Like sanewar said, not as good as Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs.. probably because of the difficulty in reading the subtitles.. Waltz was the hero.. not only was his role vastly more powerful than Pitt’s, but also had more screen-time.. the Oscar logic for categorizing actors as “supporting” seems faulty.. but he probably was lucky not to have been nominated for Best Actor.. because he may have lost to sentimental favorite “The Dude”.
Watched Pudhupettai.. much better than the regular Tamil movies, but loses steam after the first half. Selvaraghavan tries some unconventional stuff.. that makes the movie stay in your mind for a while.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
1. You write: Waltz was the hero..
Without doubt.
2. Netflix doesn’t carry Pudhupettai.
BTW, Sonia mami is single now. 😉
Seen her in Madhurey.