GERMANY: Tarantino unleashes "Django Unchained" onto German audiences at Berlin premiere

Record ID: 220981

  • Title: GERMANY: Tarantino unleashes "Django Unchained" onto German audiences at Berlin premiere
  • Date: 8th January 2013
  • Summary: FOXX WALKING PAST FOXX TALKING TO REPORTERS (SOUNDBITE) (English) "DJANGO UNCHAINED" ACTOR JAMIE FOXX, SAYING: "I think that Leonardo (DiCaprio) turns in a fantastic performance. I remember early on how he felt like how he should play the character and we embraced him and said you have to be that very treacherous character in order for us to have something to work towards
  • Embargoed: 23rd January 2013 12:00
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  • Location: Germany
  • Country: Germany
  • Reuters ID: LVAB34MIHU19O6NDOH2SWKD25C9Q
  • Story Text: Quentin Tarantino and his cast of "Django Unchained" cause a storm with fans at the Berlin premiere.


    Twenty years after Quentin Tarantino unveiled his first film "Reservoir Dogs," the director has turned his eye to America's slavery history, spinning a blood-filled retribution tale in his trademark style for "Django Unchained". On Tuesday (January 8) Tarantino unleashed his latest work onto the red carpet in Berlin, where hundreds of devoted fans had waited for hours to get hold of a precious autograph by Tarantino and his cast. The director and his stars did not disappoint and patiently signed autographs for nearly 30 minutes.
    Tarantino, 49, has become synonymous with violence and dark humor, taking on the Nazis in "Inglourious Basterds" and mobsters in "Pulp Fiction."
    In "Django Unchained," he fuses a spaghetti Western cowboy action adventure with a racially charged revenge tale set in the 19th century, before the abolition of slavery in the United States.
    Jamie Foxx stars as a slave whose freedom is bought by a former dentist, played by Christoph Waltz. The two set off as bounty hunters, rounding up robbers and cattle rustlers before turning their attention to brutal plantation owners in America's Deep South.
    Much of the film's more graphic slavery scenes, such as gladiator-style fights to the death and being encased naked in a metal hot box in the heat of the Southern sun, are drawn from real accounts.
    The film has received good reviews from critics and is expected to add Oscar nominations to its five Golden Globe nods.
    With the exception of Waltz, who plays eccentric German bounty hunter Dr. King Schultz, the majority of the main players are not only American but from the South.
    Tarantino reunited with Waltz, who won an Oscar in 2010 for his role as a menacing Nazi officer in "Inglourious Basterds," and long-time collaborator Samuel L. Jackson, who plays slave housekeeper Stephen, a character who Tarantino described as "the most despicable black (character)" in movie history.
    The role that has people talking is Leonardo DiCaprio's first villainous turn as a racist plantation owner - a stark contrast from his Hollywood heartthrob "Titanic" days and roles as eccentric Americans in "The Aviator" and "J. Edgar." "I think that Leonardo turns in a fantastic performance" Foxx told Reuters at the red carpet. "He embraced the character, he was just an amazing person to work with, my fingers crossed for him for everything as far as award season is concerned. But he is a real true artist, which you don't get a chance to see a lot in our business because it is so shiny, it is so much about the commercial part of it, but he is a serious, serious actor I was happy to work with," said Foxx, adding jokingly: "And also when I tell women that my women left me and ended up at Leonardo's plantation, everyone is like, what's wrong with that? It's Leonardo DiCaprio."
    Jackson said playing a villain opposite DiCaprio was a good experience: "It was great. He is a great kid, we know each other socially, so... it was our first time working together and it was an amazing kind of collaboration, turning into that, I guess you would call it a two headed monster. It was nice."
    The film's female lead, Django's wife Broomhilda, played by Kerry Washington, moves away from Tarantino's fierce screen women such as Uma Thurman in "Kill Bill" and Diane Kruger in "Inglourious Basterds." She said playing opposite Foxx before as his wife (in "Ray") helped both of them performing in "Django": "I think it really helps that Jamie and I have worked together before, that we played husband and wife before, so a lot of that chemistry was already there. We are such good friends we really do love and respect each other, so I think we were able to bring some of that to the screen."
    "Django Unchained" opens in German cinemas on January 17.
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