Wednesday was a perfect Cannes day. Blues skies. Shimmering seas. Piercing sunlight as soon as dawn broke yet by 8am some 2,300 journalists had filled the Lumiere cinema eagerly anticipating the world’s first press screening of Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds. The demand to see the film was so intense that an extra screening was added at 9am to accommodate 400 more journalists. The film itself is…pretty entertaining and borderline offensive depending on your feelings about how seriously cinema should address the legacy of World War Two. In Tarantino’s case WW2 is the inspiration for a big cartoon of a movie fantasy in which an elite unit of vicious Jewish-American soldiers use the power of cinema (quite literally) to stop the Third Reich. It bears no resemblance to history as we know it and has more of a feel of a spaghetti war movie (lots of borrowed Morricone music on the soundtrack) or as Screen International colleague Mike Goodridge dubbed it Kill Adolf, Parts 1 & 2. It feels as if Tarantino has written some great individual scenes (or chapters as they are called in the film) but doesn’t necessarily stitch them together in an entirely satisfying manner. Great roles for Diane Kruger and Melanie Laurent. A ridiculous appearance from Mike Myers as a tally ho British officer who is much too Austin Powers to take seriously. A few brief moments from Aussie veteran Rod Taylor ( The Time Machine, The Birds etc) as Winston Churchill. Michael Fassbender as a terribly stiff upper lip British hero. Brad Pitt disappointingly dull as Lt Aldo Raine-although lighting up the evening premiere with Angelina. Not as much action as the trailer might make you think but lots and lots of Tarantino dialogue and good Saturday night fun but somehow you can’t see it winning any prizes.
Many of us thought that Michael Haneke’s latest The White Ribbon might be a strong Palme D’Or contender but after seeing it I’m not so sure. It is set in a small German village in 1913 and looks absolutely beautiful-gorgeous black and white images, snowy scenes straight from Ansell Adams. As with all Haneke films there is an unsettling atmosphere as the soul of the village appears to be contaminated. The children turn rebellious there are incidents and accidents, jealousy and malice. Everything is soured and yet nothing is explained. It could just be a reflection of human nature as the world lost it’s innocence in the last months before World War 1 or an indication of what was to come in the Germany of the 1930s. Everything is open to interpretation but after 150 minutes you really want more than ambiguity.
A few brief words on some other highlights from the competition titles-Ken Loach’s Looking For Eric is extremely funny and endearing as a despairing postie receives life lessons from the great Eric Cantona (“ I am not a man, I am Cantona” ). Well worth catching at the GFT next month as is the appearance from screenwriter Paul Laverty in early June. Pedro Almodovar and Penelope Cruz are reunited on the luscious melodrama Broken Embraces - a complex, assured slice of gornw-up filmmaking. I’ve tended to give Lars Von Trier the benefit of the doubt in the past but Anti-Christ convinces you it’s time for the padded cell and the pureed food. An intellectual’s idea of torture porn, it is extremely unpalatable complete with full frontal genital mutilation. Artificial Eye have bought it for the UK and we can only wish them the best of luck.
GFF Co-director Allan Hunter in Cannes
