And What About Quentin’s New Nemesis, The Jury Head, Isabelle Huppert?
Ok, so unless you’re living under a rock, you read this morning that the line-up for the 62 Annual Cannes Film Festival was revealed and, to no one’s shock, Quentin Tarantino’s “Inglourious Basterds” was announced as part of the festival.
And let it be known: we’re not afraid of calling ourselves out on our silly proclamations. We once said that there was no way Tarantino would ever have ‘Basterds’ ready for this year’s Cannes when he first announced his intentions for the film to debut there at the last Croisette in May 2008.
To make matters worse, we predicted that the film would play out of competition, assuming it was too campy for the good-tastes aesthetes and film snobs at Cannes (see, the exclusion of most American films).
Hopefully the fact that ‘Basterds’ is playing within regular festival competition means its better and less self-conscious and affected than we presume. Who knows though, the French are known for their odd fascination with seemingly innocuous elements of American culture. And Cannes and devotees adore him so who knows…
Perhaps another hurdle that many are forgetting is Cannes Jury head, Isabelle Huppert who, depending on who you believe, her or Quentin, was quit/fired from the film before she even began.
She was supposed to be play the role of cinema doyenne Madame Mimieux which would have been awesome and then Catherine Deneuve apparently turned him down too and so then… Maggie Cheung scored the role?? (we love her, but…)
But back to urgent matters. Huppert and Tarantino allegedly had a spat in the French tabloids. Will this effect ‘Basterds’ chances? Does it even matter? Is the jury leader biased? I’m Ron Burgundy?
It doesn’t mean that at all. Tarantino is a fixture at Cannes, the film’s quality hardly has anything to do with the fact that it is chosen for the competition. It is chosen simply because Tarantino has made it. It’s the same as with other big name directors, a good case in point is Wim Wenders’ unbearable Palermo Shooting which was in competition last year.
Sorry, I was referring to this bit:
” Hopefully the fact that ‘Basterds’ is playing within regular festival competition means its better and less self-conscious and affected than we presume.”
“Who knows though, the French are known for their odd fascination with seemingly innocuous elements of American culture. And Cannes and devotees adore him so who knows…”
Yes, I know. I was just trying to have fun in this conversational post.
And it’s part wishful thinking that Cannes accepting it in-competition means it’ll be good, but i’m not banking on it.
Don’t get me wrong: I hope it will be good too. 🙂