GERMANY: Cast and director of the "Inglourious Basterds" dazzle at the Berlin premiere

Record ID: 219430

  • Title: GERMANY: Cast and director of the "Inglourious Basterds" dazzle at the Berlin premiere
  • Date: 30th July 2009
  • Summary: KRUGER TALKING TO MEDIA CAST AT PHOTO CALL KRUGER, TARANTINO AND MELANIE LAURENT PHOTOGRAPHERS TARANTINO POSING FOR PHOTOGRAPHERS RED CARPET AT PREMIERE (SOUNDBITE) (German) SOENKE MOEHRING, WHO PLAYS PRIVATE BUTZ WHO HAS A SWASTIKA CARVED INTO HIS FOREHEAD, SAYING (ASKED IF IT MATTERS WHAT THE ROLE IS WHEN TARANTINO IS THE ONE OFFERING: "It doesn't really matter. In my case I was lucky, so even though it didn't matter it was still great. It was a great experience and this movie is film history. Nothing comparable will be seen in the next ten years."
  • Embargoed: 14th August 2009 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Germany
  • Country: Germany
  • Reuters ID: LVA49LIUKV0AQHRW4MIFO7CPLH7
  • Story Text: The filmmaker who received a standing ovation at this year's Cannes Film Festival with 'Inglourious Basterds' on Tuesday (July 28) brought the movie to Berlin for its Germany premiere.
    Leading man Brad Pitt attended, reason enough for hundreds of female fans to wait for hours to catch a glimpse of their heart throb. Tarantino and Pitt were joined on the red carpet by Austrian actor Christoph Waltz and German actress Diane Kruger as well as a large German cast.
    Tarantino told Reuters that the multi-language production had been a challenge: "I would say the most difficult part wasn't the shooting of it, that was very easy. I had a sixth sense about it, because it's my dialogue. The trickiest part was translating my dialogue into French and into German and making sure that it was done the correct way."
    Since its world premiere in France, critics have been split down the middle about 'Inglourious Basterds', some suggesting it is Tarantino's best yet, whilst others find the film unengaging, some even suggesting it needs to be watched twice to be understood.
    In the movie Tarantino rolls a Western, a gangster flick, and a wartime caper into one. The "Basterds" are a gang of Nazi -slayers. So fearsome is the band of Jewish-American "bastards" that Adolf Hitler himself comes to hear of them, and the predictably violent and action-packed narrative weaves real life figures into a riotous plot that re-writes history.
    The end is not at all historically correct, but Tarantino said: "There was no choice (about the ending), I had to do it that way, otherwise it not would have been worth making it."
    Uber actor Brad Pitt stars as the leader of the ruthless gang of Nazi-slayers. Asked about his part he just jokingly replied: "It's so hard being an actor, I sometimes don't get coffee, or they bring you coffee and it's cold and sometimes you don't have a chair to sit on...It's really hard."
    During shooting, Pitt and other cast members as well as Tarantino were frequently spotted leaving Berlin restaurants after crew parties. But Pitt said, his partying days are now over: "Listen, I am a dad now and my partying at six pm."
    Most of the dialogue is in German and French and translated with subtitles, possibly limiting the film's box office potential in the United States.
    The narrative opens in the first year of the German occupation of France, where character Shosanna Dreyfus witnesses the execution of her family at the hands of Nazi Colonel Hans Landa, flamboyantly played by Christoph Waltz.
    Elsewhere in Europe, Pitt's character Aldo Raine forms a group of Jewish-American soldiers charged with scalping their Nazi victims, and so successful are they that Hitler comes to fear them.
    Diane Kruger's character is set to take down the leaders of the Third Reich. The strands of the story converge on a small Parisian cinema where history is turned on its head in an explosive climax.
    Christoph Waltz's portrayal of a Nazi earned him the best actor palm d'or in Cannes.
    There have been rumours that Tarantino is looking at making a possible prequel to 'Inglourious Basterds'.
    'Inglourious Basterds' is to be released in August.
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