Thursday, September 3, 2009

G.W. Pabst, Emil Jannings, Louise Brooks ... And Quentin Tarantino

Katie-Bar-The-Door and I just got back from a Thursday afternoon matinee (which somehow sounds dirty, but isn't)—Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds. I won't say too much about it here since I'll no doubt be writing about it at length ten years from now when we get to 2009 ("Isn't it already 2009?" Katie asked reasonably), but I will say Inglourious Basterds is my favorite kind of movie, one where you can use the words "Fun-Stupid" and "Cinematic Masterpiece" in the same sentence. If you're a fan of Rio Bravo, The Good, The Bad and The Ugly or North by Northwest, you know what I mean.

I mention Inglourious Basterds here because as Katie said after the show, "Quentin Tarantino has been reading your blog." Which is to say that the movie is chock full of references to G.W. Pabst, Emil Jannings, German Expressionism and an allusion to Louise Brooks ("There is no Dietrich, there is no Riefenstahl, there is only von Hammersmark!").

Great stuff, an afternoon well spent.