Tarantino's film takes Cannes by storm

DH at Cannes: Inglourious Basterds hogs the limelight

Inglourious Basterds, with a multi-national cast led by superstar Brad Pitt that speaks in their own mother tongues (English/German/French), was described as a modern masterpiece by the great director who had won the top Palme d’Or for his cult film Pulp Fiction.

The director, who did not agree with the suggestion that it is a “Jewish revenge fantasy”, said while it was just a fantasy, it suggests how the power of cinema could be a weapon to end horrors like the Third Reich.

Highly-anticipated, the film was completed at a furious pace by Tarantino so that he could get it screened at the Cannes festival, and the wild reception to it — even if that has got to do with the presence of Tarantino and Pitt — would surely make it one of the highpoints of this year’s Competition along with Lars von Trier shocking Antichrist and Jacques Audiard’s A Prophet.

With a powerhouse cast, comprising Christoph Waltz who outshines everyone with his portrayal of a multi-lingual and crafty Gestapo intelligence officer, Melanie Laurent as a young Jewish cinema owner in Paris seeking revenge of the Germans for the massacre of her family, Diane Kruger as a German actress who wants the Third Reich to come down, and Daniel Bruhl as a cinema-loving German soldier, the film is divided into fast-paced chapters.

Tarantino’s expertise in showing gore without making it seem repellent is expected to make this film a worldwide box office favourite, putting it at par with his earlier films like Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs and Kill Bill.