Another one Bites the Dust

Miramax is done and gone. As the current CEO Daniel Battsek announced that he will step down in 2010, Disney announced that the New York office will shut down and 'some' of the remaining employees will be relocated to Burbank, CA. Sad news. Miramax became famous for being the indie label that launched Quentin Tarantino and Steven Soderbergh into superstardom. That all ended when the Weinstein Brothers left to create their own company, but the company still had some solid hits in the past few years like No Country for Old Men, which not only was successful financially but also won several Oscars including Best Picture. 

This is for sure a big blow for the indie producers out there. I'm glad that Fox Searchlight and a few others continue to believe, but of course Fox Atomic, Paramount Vantage and a few others are also gone. If we learned something these past weeks is that indie films have power. Paranormal Activity is now the most profitable film of all time, having cost only $13,000 and in route to generate over $100 million in Box Office. 

As I said, sad news for the indie film industry, but hopefully someone else will pick up where Miramax left off. I'm sure it will not be the Weinstein Bros. again, but who knows. 

Glourious Basterds

(beware of Inglourious Basterds spoilers below)

Let me start this post by stating that I have never been the biggest Quentin Tarantino fan. I think Pulp Fiction is a great film, I admire his work in Reservoir Dogs, and the rest is just good and creative enough. After reading parts of the script and reading about Inglourious Basterds for many years, I did not know what to expect. 

It was more than a pleasant surprise. This is by far my favorite Tarantino film, and it may be his best. The more than two and a half hour running time felt like an hour. The dialogues, the characters, the music, the pace, everything was pretty much perfect. Tarantino is still Tarantino. You know he has a style, and that is style is inspired by a combination of wonderful and classic films, and bad and tacky films as well. He knows when to use his influences in the way they work for the film. 

Most people I talked about this loved it, except for a couple of exceptions. One of the exceptions was angry because the film is not historically correct, and the Holocaust and the Nazis are not something to take lightly into Tarantino's fantasy. Americans killing Nazis, shooting Hitler in the face and saving the world sounds like a beautiful American fantasy. It's not accurate. I personally do not care about how accurate this is. I was watching a Tarantino film. I wasn't expecting that, and even the most tragic of events can be looked at differently and mix them up with fantasy. We all would shoot Hitler in the face if the could, and we would all burn down a theatre full of Nazis. There is nothing wrong in putting that fantasy into action with such a well done film and wonderful performances.

The best one, by far, was Christoph Waltz. I think he deserves an Oscar nomination for his portrayal of Col. Hans Landa. The first scene of the film (Once upon a time in Nazi occupied France...), and the strudel scene are both classic and someday legendary. The french girl, Shoshana (Melanie Laurent) was my second favorite. Brad Pitt played the ideal Tarantino character and was hilarious. He had some great lines and perfect accent. I could keep going because most of them were great in their roles. 

The credit for that of course has to go to Tarantino. As much as I doubted him, the dialogues made this film what it is. Each scene, from the first one at Monsieur LaPadite's house, the scene at the bar, even the scene when we see "the Bear Jew" in action. The entire film is only 6 or 7 really long scenes that keep you interested and at the edge of your seat constantly. All of them escalate in an unpredictable way that you may think you see coming but you really do not. When you look back at the film you start thinking about how well the story is built and the characters are developed even though there is not much of a backstory. These scenes reveal everything you need to know about them. I don't know how many people can make a film like that and get away with it. 

So in conclusion: Wunderbar! This will become a classic film. Tarantino put himself back in the radar as a brilliant writer and director, someone who really has his own style and who believes in his own way. The fact that commercially is a hit is also impressive, considering the subject, the running time and the fact that his last movie flopped. It's exciting to see that he will have the freedom to do whatever he desires next. This was a huge challenge and I give him all the credit for making the best out of it.