Inglourious Basterds

The War According to Tarantino, or, Historians Beware! When a film begins with the phrase "once upon a time ... in Nazi-occupied France" you should know that any resemblance to reality is purely accidental. After swearing *never* to see another Tarantino film after the bloated, self-indulgent Kill Bill, there were enough intriguing elements to Inglourious Basterds to make me change my mind. OK, not the presence of Eli Roth (dear God, as bad as Tarantino when he acts) but that's really the only bit where gritting the teeth is required. I did worry about the 2 1/2 hour running time - plenty of opportunity for verbosity and more self-indulgence - but it actually flies past. This might be due to the episodic nature of the film, divided into chapters concentrating on different characters or plot lines. You don't have time to get annoyed with any single character or development. It also helps that Tarantino's broken away from the same old faces. Instead, there's an impressive array of multi-lingual Europeans all strutting their stuff. Even Diane Kruger turns in a good performance, and it's hard to visualize Simon Pegg in the role of Archie Hicox as now played by Michael Fassbender (upper class, suave, an obvious choice of date for a glamorous German movie star, and subtly hilarious) The scene in the basement bar is one of the highlights: talky, funny, tense and ultimately disastrous for all concerned. In fact, the best parts are scenes of people talking, with an undertow of menace and unease permeating everything (see the opening sequence) There are lots of film-buff in-jokes but they actually fit neatly with the plot, based as it is around Operation Kino, and don't feel like the gratuitous cultural riffing of some of Tarantino's other films. And towering above everything is Christoph Walz, proficient in four languages (in this film at least) and creating a monster that is nevertheless endlessly fascinating. You loathe him but whenever he's on screen the film moves to another level. Brad Pitt might be the name above the title but the real joy is the European contingent.