13th February 2010

As 2009 becomes a distant memory and the new decade kicks into gear I thought it was the perfect opportunity to look back at my favorite event of last year, the week that Tarantino invaded Australia.

A mixture of screenings, interviews and public appearances, to say I was thrilled is an understatement. The last time I had seen the great man in the flesh was in 1994 at a surprise screening of Pulp Fiction, days after its Cannes world premiere. We high tailed it up the motorway to Nottingham after a long day at The Cinema Store to make sure we arrived in time for the 1am screening. You’ve never seen Paul so excited, well possibly! The crowd went suitably nuts when Quentin Tarantino strode on stage and announced that the film we were about to see was a French subtitled print as that was all that was available. The audience knew what was to come. The director stayed well into the early hours much to the gathered masses delight.

First stop for the Tarantino Australian whistle stop tour was the Australian premiere of Inglorious Basterds. To the strains of Misery Lou from Pulp Fiction the director pressed flesh, posed and signed autographs as he made his way down the red carpet towards the press pit. He was joined by two of his stars, Diane Kruger and Christoph Waltz. I was lucky enough to interview Tarantino and we chatted about David Bowie, German cinema and gun toting film critics. Once inside Melbourne’s wonderful Forum theatre, Tarantino was interviewed by Australia’s own John Safran for an entertaining Q&A. Safran is hot property in Australia at the moment, his recent show Race Relations, a comedy exploring his Jewish heritage and his obsession with dating Euro-asians, ended with the Safran being actually crucified in the Philippines. A controversial Jewish comedian, the perfect person to interview Tarantino about Jewish torture porn, as Eli Roth calls Inglorious Basterds. “That gives you an idea what he likes to spank to!” quipped the director. I also spent some time with the now Golden Globe winning Waltz. Having just seen the film at that point it was unnerving to greet the ever-smiling actor after seeing the atrocities he had performed on screen. Constantly laughing he was a delight to chat to. Waltz, who has been acting since 1977, has also nothing but adulation for his director, “Quentin is extraordinary, he’s the actor whisperer! He doesn’t order people around; he doesn’t yell commands across the floor like some do. Quentin comes up and comes close. He kneels down and he whispers. He is so sensitive and devilishly smart. I only know what he said to me because he was always whispering; I don’t know what he said to the others. I’d be interested; I have seen actor’s performances change so drastically that it could have been a different person.”

The following day it was up to Sydney and the cities State Theatre for another premiere but then all eyes were on Tarantino’s appearance at Popcorn Taxi. For those who don’t know it ,Popcorn Taxi holds cinematic events where the filmmakers meet the film fans. The likes of Danny Boyle, George Miller, Lars Von Trier, Dennis Hopper and Ewan McGregor have been interviewed on stage and I recently hosted a screening of Jon Hewitt’s Acolytes interviewing the director and one of the film’s stars Michael Dorman who many of you will recognize as Ethan Hawke’s brother in Daybreakers. Well Tarantino turned things around. Bringing over his own print, and the only known existing print, of Dark Age, the little seen Australian crocodile shocker, he introduced the screening and then interviewed the film’s stars John Jarrat (Mick Taylor from Wolf Creek) and Nikki Goghill. The film was fabulous, taking in all that is great about the Ozpolitation film and adding a stupendous scene involving a giant croc being transported on the back of a Ute. Seeing Tarantino wax lyrical about other people’s films is always a thrill and he didn’t disappoint.

Well that’s it for now, more soon, here’s to a fabulous Mad Max fuelled 2010.

Be lucky

Dave.

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