Quentin Tarantino I’ve missed you.

I’ve missed your rapid fire monologues and adventures into the deep recesses of your brain. I’ve missed your wit, your ability to make blood beautiful and most of all I’ve missed your single-minded assurance in taking what most consider a highly charged, sensitive subject and blowing the shit out of it in a battle cry that is overdue by what 70 years give or take??

Quentin demonstrating his directing style

Yup. My love is rekindled. Inglourious Basterds, a film with the main theme of revenge, is set in an alternate history of World War II in which the entire top leadership of Nazi Germany, namely Hitler, Goering, Goebbels and Bormann attend a film premiere in Paris celebrating the exploits of a German sniper who had managed to kill 300 American soldiers in Italy. Most of the film’s timeframe is set in early June 1944, after the D-Day landings but before the liberation of Paris.

http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi3738173977/

I attended a SAG screening and director’s Q and A led by QT which included the irreverent and talented international cast single-handedly selected by QT himself. (The Tagline is a direct quote from QT in answer to why he wouldn’t meet with German born actress Diane Kruger who happily resides in LA but was required to travel to Berlin for an audition with QT.) The man has a method so don’t bother mixing meetings with your American actors in Germany or your Italians in England. If there’s business to be done it’s gonna get done in your natural habitat with the ruthless precision of “the actor’s director.”

You really don’t watch a Tarantino film nor apparently do you show up to “act” your part in one of his films. “There is a tight, clearly drawn vision with a poetic meter and pace. It’s almost like rap music.” noted QT in answer to his creative process of writing and directing. “Yeah, it’s a poetic rap which if you try to improvise or throw in your own stuff totally destroys the rhythm of the work” observed the one and only Brad Pitt.

I have always felt that you don’t really watch a Tarantino film you enter a world where the only requirement is to suspend reality and just go with him to someplace completely different than you thought you were going. Anything is possible, anything is reality. It’s like getting lost on a road trip and deciding to stop at every roadside bar, not for directions but to get the stories of strangers in process of living their lives. One of my favorite moments in the film, for example, was a scene where a one-sided romantic interest between 2 of the characters culminates in a feverish shootout. As the two lay dying in pools of blood, the scene is taken to another level by the beautifully scored music of Ennio Morricone. Pure Tarantino.

Brad Pitt as a Basterd

Brad Pitt, dressed in head to toe gray, his gorgeous mane of hair hidden by a knit hat and sporting a 3 inch goatee was the epitome of handsome indifference. He elaborated on the subject of being on a Quentin Tarantino set which apparently does not allow for going through the motions even though “ the script, the characters, the work, it is already done for you.”

“When you come on set, you gotta be ready to play. You are in church, the script is the Bible and Quentin is….GOD… You are in school and there are no naps allowed.”

Literally.

At this point Brad told the story corroborated by QT and the rest of the cast that if you where caught taking a nap on set, Quentin would snap a photo of your sloth-like mug in blissful slumber, with a huge purple dildo nestled up to you and then post it for all the cast to enjoy. Brad held up 2 fingers to the audience confirming his dubious distinction of being posted not once but twice on the board of shame.

There were many highpoints to this event like seeing the Oscar bound German actor Christoph Waltz describe his journey from relative unknown in America to landing the prized part of Col. Hans Landa, or QT relating the genesis of the film from idea stage to completion as a truly international film which is as much a foreign film with a healthy supply of subtitles as it is a vehicle smacking of American gumption and Spaghetti Western references.

At one point actor and audience member Martin Kove from The Karate Kid 2 stood up to compliment QT on his music selection which featured David Bowie’s theme from Cat People and to relate his experiences of working on the Karate Kid with the aforementioned Ennio Morricone. At that point Brad Pitt interjected that he had just watched The Karate Kid with his children and that his oldest daughter now insists upon wearing her hair spiked like Ralph Macchio’s character in the film.

At the close of the 4 hour event I realized not only was I being asked to leave the theatre but I was walking through the looking glass and exiting the magical alternate universe that is a Tarantino screening and Directors Q and A in Hollywood.

…give me the magic potion, I wanna go back.

I’m already preparing to laugh out loud during this acceptance speech.

Betty White will be given the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award at the
16th Annual SAG Awards.

White, 87, is best known for her work as Rose Nylund on The Golden Girls and Sue Ann Nivens on The Mary Tyler Moore Show. She’s performed on radio and the big and small screen since the 1940s and is also a passionate animal activist.

Betty White is one of my favorite actresses; her frequent appearances on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson are always some of the best interviews on late night.

News about the upcoming, highly anticipated second season of “True Blood” is coming fast and furious these days.

The most intriguing of which is that Evan Rachel Wood has been cast to play the Vampire Queen of Louisiana, Sophie-Anne Leclerq. Now, although I’ve been reading all of Charlaine Harris’ Sookie Stackhouse books, I haven’t yet reached the one that prominently features Sophie-Anne (that would be “All Together Dead”; I’m midway through “Definitely Dead” at the moment), so I’m not up on my Sophie stats. But here’s what both Entertainment Weekly and Just Jared say about her:

*She’s 500 years old;
*She’s from France;
*She is charming, wily, ruthless and wise;
*She’s extremely diplomatic;
*She’s got friends in high places.

Evan, you may recall, recently played Mickey Rourke’s lesbian daughter in “The Wrestler” (which, it just so happens, was released on DVD this week; I love, love, love this movie! And not just because it was filmed in my home state of New Jersey – though that helps).  You may also recall that Evan, who is just 21, had a relationship with goth shock rocker Marilyn Manson.  While watching the SAG Awards back in January, I was shocked to realize how much Evan resembles Marilyn’s ex-wife, burlesque dancer Dita Von Teese. Take a look and tell me you don’t see it, too:

Is it real or is it Memorex? Dita, on left, and Evan.

Anyway, my point is that Marilyn likes a specific look. Oh, and Just Jared reports that he and Evan are back together again.

Mickey Rourke knocks Chris Jericho the F*ck OUT!

Hollywood actor Mickey Rourke knocked out wrestling superstar Chris Jericho during WWE’s WrestleMania 25 event.

The Hollywood actor – who recently starred as Randy ‘The Ram’ Robinson in Oscar nominated movie The Wrestler – returned to the ring and punched the WWE star to the floor.

Rourke was at WrestleMania 25 to support his friends – grappling legends Jimmy ‘Superfly’ Snuka, ‘Rowdy’ Roddy Piper and Ricky Steamboat who also had Ric Flair in their corner – who fought Jericho.

Jericho eventually won the match – which took place at Houston’s Reliant Stadium – and afterwards started to beat up Flair.

Rourke, who had been watching in the audience, refused to stand by and do nothing so took off his cowboy hat and slowly entered the ring before punching and knocking out Jericho.

Mickey Rourke in the Wrestler