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October 8, 2008 Note: Other directors should not use quotes or definitions as Tarintino uses them. It always appears unoriginal, as though they are copying Tarintino. Just be you. He did a good job being him. Do a good job being you! I'm more conflicted over the 'flashlight' issue. Yes, it always reminds me of Hitchcock, but when it's right and it works should it be avoided just because of the Hitchcock reference? It was used, and used well, in Tin Can Man. It lighting added to the overall ambiance of the film. I'm not sure I can say that for any film I've seen copy Tarintino's quote/definition style, with the exception of the Begium short film, 'A Day in the Life'. Is the acceptability for one (the flashlight) but not the other (quote/definitions) a matter of time lapse? Tarintino's works are still fresh in the average film-goers repetoir yet many, sadly, in today's times are not as familiar with Hitchcock so the reference, or knowledge, simply may not exist for them? Diverse and ecclectic musical choices... Sparce. Nice, silent spaces. Nothing wrong with watching a movie from time-to-time without losing your hearing or being unable to hear the dialouge over the soundtrack. In Cannes, Tarintino talked about not liking the idea of people basically putting a layer of something over his finished product, how it can totally change the feel of a film and how a director can be left without control over the final product at that point, if for no other reason because the production just paid the composer an arm and a leg for the blanket, so it then becomes difficult to justify removing the blanket. The composer is still paid, egos are involved, etc. Diplomatic and political issues potentially harming the director's vision of the film has perhaps lead to Tarintino's choices toward found music. Besides from Tarintino's fabulous way of jumping from one time segment to another an interesting thing to take note of in Kill Bill is his 'tv-esq' use of editing. I'm not sure it would have been quite as obvious or forward to me if I hadn't attended the "Master Lecture Series" at Cannes this past May where Tarintino spoke about how, at times, the use of editing sometimes seems a bit overdone and perhaps people just don't know when to stop. They have an editing problem (similar to a drug problem) and since it's not like you have to slice and dice as was the case with 35mm, you can easily edit until your heart's content... and sometimes it ends up being more like you ate the whole cake instead of just one piece. He spoke about getting back to basics or taking a more organic approach to editing. Perhaps this is why is very non-organic moments in Kill Bill struck me this last time I revisited the film. I love his fight choreography. My daughter was about 12 when I let her watch Kill Bill. We were huge La Femme Nikitia fans, a tv show from Canada. It was cool that Sophie got to have a strong, independent, sexy and very feminine role model... and La Femme Nikita certainly fit that bill. (I'm not sure she's ever seen the original. At the time, she was too young to be introduced to it.) Then came Kill Bill. I hadn't let Soph watch Pulp Fiction. There was just no way I could justify having her see some of those scenes. She was just too young, no matter how good the scenes were or no matter how much she understood film. It just wasn't time. But Kill Bill... that was a hard call. She was older. It was about strong women and it was great directing. Throughout Tarintino's films he's consistantly respectful of woman... in everyway. A woman's right to be equal. To be sexy. Liberated. Free. To just be. It's not like he addresses the woman issue. Instead, he treats it as what it should be... and what it is in our home, a non-issue. He just has the good sense to use strong, sexy, kickass independent woman in super cool, sexy ways. If someone else had directed and/or written Kill Bill it could have been a chick flick. But there is nothing about this film that isn't straightforward, hardcore and direct. I love woman but hate women's issues... so to speak. And Tarantino just uses women, not all the 'issues'. I love all the cussing. I'm not sure if being raised in the Valley makes for potty mouth people but I find all that free flowing profanity quite refreshing. It can be a drag spending too much time with people who constantly get a kink in their neck when they hear 'strong language'. I just don't get those people. But then again, they might not get this sort of film, either. A couple years back Sophie was reading one of Tarintino's scripts and she mentioned how they sound really stupid a lot of the time. It's true. Listen to some of these lines and it just makes you wonder how these actors could see it working while reading it. Some of this stuff is just far too corny... of course, the magic of it is that it works so splendidly. The Mr. Pink, Mr. White idea in Resevoir Dogs is a perfect example. Here, let's name these gangster guys after a board game. But it works. Othertimes, the dialouge is so traditionally tight it's reminescent of Cary Grant and Kathryn Hepburn in Philadelphia Story or Bringing Up Baby. "I beseech you on behalf of my daughter" "B*tch, you can stop right there. Just because I have no wish to murder you before the eyes of your daughter does not mean that parading her around in front of me is gonna inspire sympathy. You and I have unfinished business and not a goddamn f*ckin thing you've done in the subsequent four years, including getting knocked up..." Tight writing... but just out of curiosity, who uses 'beseech'? You know, I don't think it's ever come up in a conversation where I've ever felt that was the pressing word I just had to use. Yet.. there is it in a dire moment of survival, the antaganist uses 'beseech' and.... drumroll... it works! By the way, did anyone else hear that there is supposed to be a Kill Bill 3 when the little girl grows up (in real life) and she wants to avenge her mother's death. Kind of a cool idea, but a really long wait time. I'm impressed with that sort of foreplanning. (Found info on it under Tarantino's biography info on IMDB.) Okay, remember when we were acquainted with the Texas Sherrif who spits his sunflower seeds (or whatever) out the closed window then we get a nice long look at his POV out the front window over the row of multi-colored sunglasses who stops to talk to his son, the Deputy Sherrif... Not just anyone could have pulled it off. It would be easy for that scene to be hokey and dip down to a B film real quick... but it works, it glides right along and never misses a beat. It's like Tarintino uses the hokey 70s tv show antics but never crosses the line. If three is too many, he stops at two. Also, why isn't it predictible? We already know what happened, as we were just inside with the son and they are just rehashing the news. Yet, it's strong and interesting. The dialouge and matter of speaking is not commonplace and remains intriging. One more thing I wanted to address was the choreographed fight scene in the Asian bar. The change of color - from color to black-and-white, then back to color again, adds a whole new dimension. It brings an additional perspective to the scene. Is that part of the too much use of editing power used in cinema today that Tarintino was referring to? Probably not. A lot of films have taken it too far, perhaps, but good use of new tools should be welcomed and used. In the case of Pirates of the Carribean 3, perhaps a bit too much with the special effects was just that... well, perhaps a bit too much of everything... 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