With drama flying around like crazy last night on “Hell’s Kitchen” on FOX, it would be fitting that Gordon Ramsay threw a curve at the end of the episode and eliminated someone we may not have expected.
The show began with a recap of last week when Ramsay eliminated Tek, but not before giving Amanda an earful about why she looks like she’s done. So then he pulled her aside and told her that she needs to get her head back in the game, saying “I’m counting on you.” Well, I’m not so sure any of us are counting on her to go much further, but he wouldn’t pull Amanda aside if he didn’t see something in her.
The week of Tarantino continues with some left over material from last night. First, I implore you to watch the terrific video below from cinephile critic turned cinephile critic/filmmaker Matt Zoeller Seitz on the verbiage of Tarantino. (You can read more about his thinking at his link above.) (H/t Jeffrey Wells.)
Actually, there’s even more because Matt and the very cool Keith Uhlich of the very cool blog, The House Next Door, had a very lengthy and in-depth discussion about Tarantino back in 2007 that’s well worth your time if you care about the state of this sort of movie making. It’s funny that I agree more with Keith on Tarantino (well, I’m not at all sure about the spirituality), but I certainly wouldn’t choose the same list of favorite critics, which makes it even more intriguing to me. I guess I should finish reading it, then?
On a somewhat related topic, Anne Thompson considers this moment in the career of Tarantino’s mogul benefactor, Harvey W.
Quentin Tarantino has eaten my day! And there’s no guarantee it won’t also be Tarantino Wednesday-Sunday!
Nothing to do but share a few links you may have missed and I’ve failed to include here prior.
I tend to fight the temptation vigorously, but we film geeks love our lists, and Tarantino has participated in two this week. The first is his twenty favorite films that have come out since he began directing in 1992. It’s been on every blog on town, so I don’t see why we should be any different. (H/t Anne Thompson and every other blog in town.)
Do I agree with his choices? Nah, not very many. Some are downright baffling, including his favorite, “Battle Royale.” It’s an entertaining/disturbing little movie but, though it was a huge film for many, it wouldn’t come close for me to something like, say, the vastly less well known “A Dirty Carnival” — it might make my top twenty for the year it came out. On the other hand, agreeing is never the point of this film criticism game; that’s a mistake too many make. Also, my list covering the same period would have at least two, maybe three, but no more than four, Tarantino movies, so there’s that.
And that other list. In this case, Tarantino collaborated with the critics of England’s Time Out on a catalogue of what they see as the “The 50 Greatest World War II Movies.” It’s a genuinely interesting group of movies, and there isn’t a single film that I don’t think should be seen on it (including a few I need to get caught up on myself). Actually, there is one exception. I was essentially praying for death through of all “The Thin Red Line,” so bored was I with the intense beauty of Terence Malick’s imagery, so I can’t really recommend that one. Some people think it’s great. Also, thanks to my WWII movie-loving buddy, Randy Reynaldo, for sending me the link. And we both agree: Where’s “Stalag 17” Where???
The invaluable David Hudson has tons more, some of which may still end up here, too. More to come, for sure, in any case.
The cool thing about Quentin Tarantino movies is that they give you two things to look forward to: the movie, and the soundtrack. For his latest film, the long-gestating “Inglourious Basterds” (we’ve owned this movie on HSX since 2000), Tarantino digs deep to create a soundtrack of typically obscure pop songs and choice bits from other movie scores. Bullz-Eye has an exclusive clip of Tarantino talking with Elvis Mitchell about the use of David Bowie’s “Cat People” for a pivotal scene.
The soundtrack is now in stores, but if you feel like whacking some Nazis before the movie hits theaters this Friday, may we suggest heading over to the soundtrack’s web site, where you play the part of baseball bat-wielding Sgt. Donny Donowitz (played in the movie by “Hostel” director Eli Roth). Be warned, the game starts off easy, but gets hard very quickly. Enjoy!
It wouldn’t be the week of a new Quentin Tarantino movie without a little controversy. Now esteemed critic, film historian, and occasional hair-up-his-keister provocateur (not that there’s anything wrong with that!) Jonathan Rosenbaum helpfully supplies it in discussing a Newsweek piece, comparing good ol’ QT to both Holocaust deniers and Sarah Palin in one short blog post. (H/t David Hudson.)
Unlike Rosenbaum, I haven’t seen the movie yet so I’ll withhold comment. However, my bias is obviously pretty pro-Tarantino and pro- not seeing it as some kind of dangerous revisionism. What’s one boldly ahistoric movie against thousands made before it? It’s not like Tarantino’s deleting them from Netflix. I also fail to see how Rosenbaum can even begin to speak for the reaction to the film of real-life Holocaust victims. It’s putting an awful lot of power on the movie to imagine it’s causing any real distress to them without some evidence.
I’m a pretty proud secular Jew myself, so I take the Holocaust seriously. At the same time, I take the sort of ownership some Jewish thinkers take over the history of what happened at the time, and how filmmakers deal with it, with a huge lack of seriousness. Some years back, Roberto Benigni’s Holocaust tearjerker, “Life is Beautiful,” started a different sort of controversy and I felt many took excessive offense. I was moved by the movie, almost despite myself, but I could certainly understand why a lot of people disliked it. However, the level of vituperation still puzzles me. I once listened to two well known Jewish critics verbally bludgeon a well-known Los Angeles rabbi for daring to speak well of the film on a local public radio station. What gave them to right to decide how the rabbi was allowed to react?
Many years before that, Mel Brooks took some heat for daring to make fun of Hitler in the original film of “The Producers.” Even the deadly serious, extremely well received, riveting and thought provoking historical drama “Downfall” worried some because it presenting the monstrous dictator as a human being. That was, I thought, deeply wrong. It’s crucial that we remember, always, that Hitler was as human as any of us lest we start to act as if we are beyond evil, a popular belief among the actually evil.
Of course, adding comedy to anything touching on the Holocaust is really asking for trouble from some quarters. I haven’t been able to dig up a review of “Downfall” by Rosenbaum online, but I wonder what Rosenbaum thinks of the “Downfall” subtitle Internet meme? Would he agree with the take offered below?
