As the above poster testifies, this is Tarantino’s most personal film yet – you don’t even need the title, just his name! (Okay, that decision was probably made for this tube poster due to the possibly offensive actual title but still, it’s pretty telling of the film itself.) The film is a virtual stand in for the man himself and his pre-occupations (which might put off some) what with the conversations about obscure movies, the dismantling of macho mythology, the assent of the empowered female and more than anything else the depiction of how films are made and exhibited.

But let’s be clear. Inglourious Basterds. If you don’t love this film, you don’t love film. It’s that simple. This is pure cinematic heroin of the highest order. I came out of the cinema reeling from so pure a hit. I found it a very disorientating experience. I haven’t reacted like this since seeing ‘There Will Be Blood’. And although the films are thematically and stylistically opposed, they both share some fundamental essence. Time and space as we know it (especially as we know it in film terms) get thrown out the window. Both films are massive, immersive epics that at the same time deal in microscopics, scenes play out in overwhelming length and detail, a dream like stasis is achieved only to be periodically blown apart by geysers of kineticism. I found it most apt to hear in this interview Tarantino talking of his admiration for TWBB and that he considers PT Anderson the peer to beat.

(more…)