Regrettably I was the only one on the oil futures desk who knew why Catholic parts of Europe had a holiday on 15th August; the Feast of the Assumption. In our increasingly secular society this year this Holy Day assumes significance for cineastes too.
Recently we took a look at Stanley Kubrick’s oeuvre recognising the different genres his films encapsulate. It’s a key to his brilliance; other directors stick to what they are good at; not least Quentin Tarantino. The first film he directed, Reservoir Dogs, sets the tone: “violent crime, pop culture references, profanity, and non-linear storytelling” (Wiki). It worked and his next seven films are in the same mould and, indeed, have a lot of the same actors. To refresh your memory: Pulp Fiction, Jackie Brown, Kill Bill I, Kill Bill II, Death Proof , Inglourious Basterds, The Hateful Eight. Some may superficially be martial arts, World War II and a Western but they all carry Tarantino’s hallmark violence, homage to other films and soundtracks that evoke the 1960s and 70s.
Tarantino’s 9th was shown at Cannes this month and it breaks the mould. It’s a film about films and people in films though, inevitably, a little violence creeps in and many of the cast are Tarantino regulars. If I may digress, a friend’s son was one of the camera crew shooting a Clint Eastwood film in France; actually where my friend lives with his wife for part of the year. So they all met up for dinner and I was agog to hear how he got on with Clint. “Well, y’know he just behaved like a movie star.” I got the impression that he didn’t think much of Clint but I might be wrong. Anyway, the critics like Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.
Probably the biggest film of the festival, Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood, was met with almost unanimous praise. “Quite simply, I just defy anyone with red blood in their veins not to respond to the crazy bravura of Tarantino’s film-making, not to be bounced around the auditorium at the moment-by-moment enjoyment that this movie delivers – and conversely, of course, to shudder at the horror and cruelty and its hallucinatory aftermath,” wrote Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian, awarding the film full marks. Variety was slightly more damning, with Owen Gleiberman writing: “By the end, Tarantino has done something that’s quintessentially Tarantino, but that no longer feels even vaguely revolutionary. He has reduced the story he’s telling to pulp.” (The Independent)
Maybe Owen Gleiberman is referencing Pulp Fiction? One name missing when the credits roll is Harvey Weinstein who hitherto backed every one of his films. QT dropped him like a hot potato when he was exposed but surely he must have known his proclivities ever since Weinstein produced Reservoir Dogs back in 1992? I will be going to see it when it’s released in the UK on 15th August.
https://youtu.be/t4N5-OALObk