Quentin Tarantino Q&A at the Inglourious Basterds private screening!
by Chris and Kris
August 21, 2009
Heyas! Here are some highlights from Tarantino’s’ gracious Q&A after the Inglourious Basterds private screening at the Castro Theatre in San Francisco on Wednesday night that Chris and I were very excited to be invited to. We thought we spotted Adam Savage from the Discovery Channel’s Mythbusters in the crowd, but he was hardcore noshing on a sammich, so that would be rude if we gawked. Sorry the photo is so dark; I was trying to be “stealthy” with the flash off and I guess the usual Castro spotlight was MIA.
** WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS **
- Those are Tarantino’s hands strangling Diane Kruger in the close-ups. And he admits to actually strangling her “to some degree” to ensure realism such as bulging veins and eyes, flushed face.
- If he could make another film out of his usual genre, it would be a balls-out horror movie or a western.
- It’s only a bloated internet rumor that he’s doing a remake of Faster, Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!.
- It wasn’t a rumor that he was asked to direct Speed. He actually considers it one of his favorite movies.
- A possible return to crime films may be on the way.
- He began writing the script for Inglourious Basterds in 1998, right after Jackie Brown. He just finished writing it in 2008.
- On casting Mike Myers: Tarantino believes Myers is the Peter Sellers of our generation.
- Tarantino was so impressed by Martin Wuttke’s performance as Hitler in a Bertold Brecht play, that he wanted him in the cast. When the actor refused, saying he would never play Hitler ever again, Tarantino kept bugging him until he caved.
- He goes through his music collection and let’s the songs inspire him, choosing appropriate artists for the themes he is after, and then building a scene around that vibe. For example, for Pulp Fiction it was “beachy California”, and Jackie Brown was funky soul. His approach is much like Jim Jarmusch’s in that way.
- Casting Landa was strictly luck of auditions.
- He didn’t plan on rewriting history, i.e.: killing Hitler. His defense: “my characters don’t know their part in history”, so that made it okay.
- He refers to The History Channel as “The Hitler Channel.” Its logo is like a blaring “H for Hitler” reminder, he joked.
- Regarding the comparison to Transformers 2, as far as bankable Summer flicks, Tarantino is happy to help lead a resurgence to “story-based stuff”.
- He loved District 9 and Funny People.
- Although many believe the marketing for Inglourious Basterds was far off-base, including one miffed man in the audience, Tarantino begged to differ, retorting, “well, you’re here aren’t you? They must be doing something right!”
- His original draft of the film features Shosanna as a badass sniper assassin. He ended up giving most of her choice traits and lines to The Bride in Kill Bill, so he decided to go back and tweak her character a bit. As a result, she became more of a Jackie Brown persona; being in control was her greatest strength.
- Regarding film critic claims of unoriginality, he strongly disagrees. He concedes criticisms of Kill Bill may in fact be valid, but everything else was the fruit of his loins. (just for you, Fernando)
- One of his favorite Inglourious Basterds scenes was when Shosanna is in the balcony, looking down upon a lobby filled with high-ranking Nazi officers, smirking to herself at the events about to unfold.
- SPOILER ALERT: The scene where Shosanna and Frederich Zoller get “close” in the film booth is considered romantic as hell by Tarantino. He likened the scene to Romeo and Juliet, the bullet penetration consummating their relationship.
- If he does do a Kill Bill vol. 3, it will have to wait until ten years have passed, in order to give himself, Uma Thurman, and the story a big breather.
