Normally when a film leaves me cold, I tend to shy away from thinking about said picture. If I must, I’ll ponder the film and realize that I’d just seen a film I wanted to like, but had ultimately witnessed something mediocre or worse. Walking out of Inglourious Basterds, I recalled the same feeling as walking out of The Matrix Revolutions. I wanted to like it, and convinced myself for a while I did. In the end, the mediocrity of that film won and while the trilogy still gets my defense, I no longer consider the whole a work of genius like the perfectly standalone first entry. Basterds initially left me thinking ‘good, not great.’ Then through the rest of the day I couldn’t stop thinking of the film. By the time it was all said and done, I had reached the only conclusion that could be made:

Inglourious Basterds may be Tarantino’s best film.

First things first: I do not subscribe to the notion that Quentin Tarantino is the be-all end-all of cinema. In fact, if anything, the man is really overrated as a director and slightly overrated as a writer. He’s not a terrible filmmaker by any stretch (although Death Proof tries to convince you he is,) but he left an impact on cinema that ruined crime films post-1992. One person put it to me one time that “Tarantino masturbates onscreen,” and that statement seems right on track. He loves to hear his characters talk, instead of showcasing their actions, having them do something interesting. This indulgence destroyed the second half of Grindhouse, and the legacy has been continued here in Inglourious Basterds.

And that is one of Basterds best strengths, as everything that didn’t work in Death Proof is perfected here. The words are weapons, and all the trademark Tarantino pop-references are present but they build tension. These characters do talk, and it does go on and on and on, but all of it leads up to something and has some sort of payoff. Yet as opposed to some of Tarantino’s other works, it never feels like it drags on. He indulges as we’ve come to expect, yet here he turns his dialogue into gunfire. Q.T. keeps one on the edge of his seat as the characters fire back at one another, and above all feels his most relaxed as he crafts his most entertaining film to date.

Yet the true winner in this marvel isn’t Q.T., but Christoph Waltz who portrays one of the best, most charismatic villains since Alan Rickman defined the suave baddie with Hans Gruber in Die Hard. I’m going to echo what some of my colleagues are declaring, that Waltz doesn’t deserve just a nomination for his role as Colonel Hans Landa – oh, no. The Oscar itself is already chiseling his name in under ‘Best Supporting Actor.’ Consider it a crime if he doesn’t get every supporting actor award. The man embodies Gregory Peck in To Kill A Mockingbird by putting on an Acting School. To continue the gushing, while it’s arguable this man is the leading male of this particular story, Waltz needs to be jettisoned as a leading man in the future. He has everything, from screen presence to charm. Landa is the perfect Nazi, a terrible person who enjoys slaughtering his foes. Yet Waltz does everything he can to make him likable, only to have it snatched away by an act of valor.

His adversary, the lead Basterd, comes in the form of Brad Pitt as Lt. Aldo ‘Apache’ Raine, who has much more personality than he did in his last film. Pitt’s also having a ball, playing on every hard-assed lieutenant stereotype. It’s never been done with this kind of swagger though, as Pitt makes for a wonderful protagonist (or is it antagonist?) You root for the guy as he captures and plays with his Nazi prey before dispatching them, as it’s just as fun as hell to see the actor mosey through this. The most unique of his ‘Basterds’ is likely Donny “The Bear Jew” Donowitz, portrayed by Eli Roth. Regardless of his filmmaking abilities, one can enjoy the ruthless aggression with which Donowitz dispatches Nazis. Lowbrow actor Til Schweiger makes an appearance here as Hugo Stiglitz, a man who’s notorious for murdering large numbers of the Gestapo. All he really needs to to is pose and look gruff and tough, but damn if the man doesn’t do it so well.

Covering all required bases of World War II, Melanie Laurent gives a beautiful performance as Shoshana Dreyfus, a Jew who avoided death at the hands of Hans Landa. She’s the most sympathetic of the group, as displayed by the brutal slaughter that opens the movie. Her motivations are openly justified, and Tarantino is wise enough to watch them build up chapter by chapter through the film. She gives everyone some breathing room with her journey as a refugee who tricks the Nazis into hosting the premiere of Stolz der Nation at her theater. The star of said film is Frederick Zoeller who’s graciously, arrogantly, and expertly played by Daniel Bruhl. In a great sense of irony, Zoeller stops being egocentric for just a moment – and it costs him big time. It’s almost operatic, the way Tarantino directs it and plays it.

Tarantino masterminds all of these stories to come together in a climax that should be taught in history classes. All of these stories mesh together, and I’ll dare to say they meld better than three stories present in Pulp Fiction. Give credit where it’s due as Q.T. makes a near perfect war film, that’s actually about movies. His love of cinema has never been more evident, going so far as to show us the mark for reel changes. While also at his best, Tarantino is also at his most fun, enjoying what’s happening just as much as the audience is.

“Y’know, I think I’ve made my masterpiece.”

So you have Quentin. So you have.

Rating: ★★★★½ 

SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

Atomic Popcorn: What is it like working with Tarantino?

Diane Kruger is a Basterd

Diane Kruger: Well, it’s everything you would imagine for a Tarantino movie, he’s a little larger then life, he’s very exuberant, and mad and running around. It’s nearly a childlike quality, he sits next to a camera and gets so excited about the scene you’re doing and at the same time he can also be incredibly soft spoken and sensitive. But what sets him apart from other directors is he has the ability to sense what a different actor needs for different scenes and he knows exactly what you need to help you open the door.

Atomic Popcorn: What were your inspirations for the role?

Diane Kruger: No one in particular. I guess the only character that could make the role exist is Bridget Von Hammersmark, it’s a bit of a puzzle of different people. Though he had a lot of other actresses Tarantino wanted me to watch one actress, I think she was Hungarian. Of course also being German I knew a lot of German actresses of that period.

Atomic Popcorn: What do you think your character’s motivation was? Your character decides to stay and spy on the British, but we don’t know much about her, what’s her backstory?

Diane Kruger: Well the truth is I can tell you 20 years of backstory on her, which is what Quentin does, but without getting into too much details because I don’t know if there will be a prequel or not. But she grows to despise the Nazi regime and wants to use her influence to attempt to take down the Third Reich and end the war.

Atomic Popcorn: What was the casting process like? How was the meeting with Quentin?

Diane Kruger: Casting for me was not pleasant, you know he had someone in mind when he originally wrote the script so there was never even going to be the opportunity to meet with him. So of course everyone calls and plans, and he says no, no, I want a German, so that was hard because it took a while to convince him that I was German. And I guess he was casting German women so he told me to come to Germany to meet with him …so I flew there and had 2 days to prepare 30 pages of dialogue in both German and English. So when we finally met it was the easiest thing in the world and it was obvious that we liked each other and we both saw the same humor for the character which was important so we both agreed on it.

Atomic Popcorn: Did you grow up in Germany?

Diane Kruger: Yes. I was born and raised there until I was fifteen

Atomic Popcorn: So what made you decide to go to the states?

Diane Kruger: No, I live in Paris, and I’ve sort of been living here on and off because I worked here as a model and I love America.

Atomic Popcorn: Did you feel lucky? Honored to be the focus of the foot fetish?

Diane Kruger: Well it’s a funny thing ’cause I guess I was naïve but I didn’t know about that and I was interviewed by a journalist who had just got the job and said “So have you heard about it? You don’t have a foot scene?” And I said I no and so he filled me in on it. And the day comes and I tell Quentin, “Hey Quentin, it’s the foot day, are you excited?” and he said “No it’s not true, journalists made it up.” Six close-ups later on my foot, then my face, maybe there’s some truth to it.

Atomic Popcorn: And it was your foot?

Diane Kruger: Oh [yes], never looked better, that pedicure lasted forever.

Atomic Popcorn: How did working on this movie change your attitude or ideas towards acting?

Diane Kruger: I feel confident, I think that’s what he does, he installs confidence into actors and he has faith in actors and I feel like that you can do anything when someone had faith in you. Especially as a woman who works in Hollywood to feel valued to be given a dialogue that actually is intelligent and nuanced and you’re not just being treated as the accessory to whatever male story is happening in the movie, it’s empowering. He empowers women; women should thank him for the parts he writes for them in his films.

Atomic Popcorn: Any funny anecdotes about wearing the leg cast?

Diane Kruger: I think it’s a genius idea, when I first saw it I was, like, “It has a heel? Are you kidding me?” It was genius. It wasn’t comfortable but it looked great.

Atomic Popcorn: How did you study your character?

Diane Kruger: Well it was important to Quentin that when you watch films from the 40s people back then were more formal and especially for actresses; I guess what you call it is a commanding presence, they’re more formal and less conversational. They were big stars and when you saw them you could tell they were stars with the lighting and filtering, and it was important for when you see Hammersmark on screen you see that she’s the movie star and when she speaks no one else does. It was also important that you would see the fierce and intelligent Bridget Von Hammersmark and if you only thought she was this ditzy actress then you wouldn’t believe her to be this smart elite spy for two years without being discovered and to come up with this smart plan to take out the high command. And that gave me a great arc later on because you do, later, see the real Bridget in distress when she steps into the office, she thinks the Basterds are morons for messing it up and it was just so much to play with her.

Atomic Popcorn: Was the fight scene with Christoph very tough?

Diane Kruger: Oh, yeah, that’s the funny anecdote of that scene, though, is that was Quentin straddling me and strangling me… and I was, like, “Quentin, are you trying to tell me something? Did I do something wrong?” [laughs] It was my last day and Quentin came into my trailer and told me “Christoph is just a actor, you know? And he’s gonna squeeze too hard or too little and we’re gonna have to do it over and over. I know exactly how much I need, so I think I should do it, you trust me, right?” And then you’ve seen Christoph, and Quentin is two heads taller so none of his costumes would fit him. So they had to make strap-on fake SS sleeves you know, and so then there’s this huge man on top of me squeezing me and you know it was sweet cause he was a lot less stronger than Christoph, and I couldn’t tell him “Oh [yes], good one, we can do one more, ‘cough, cough’!” He’s so sweet ya know.

Atomic Popcorn: How do you think this film will be received in Germany or, say, France – do you think it will be different from America, I mean, is this still a sensitive subject in Germany?

Diane Kruger: I know it’s going to play well in Germany because we premiered it there two weeks ago and you know, it’s funny thing ’cause journalists have asked the same question since we [asked] the question in Cannes. The thing is it’s the same audience as it is here in America because its been sixty years, there’re six generations that have not lived through the war and that half had to grow up with this heavy shadow on their shoulders and honestly they don’t want to hang on to Adolph any longer then you guys do. If they could, they would have killed him themselves; if anything, it’s even more positive towards seeing a movie end the way it does, where it has this revenge aspect and lets us change the ending of World War II.

Atomic Popcorn: So what was the reaction In the theater?

Diane Kruger: Cheering, it brought down the house, it was Cannes times 3. My grandfather came to see it and I was a bit  nervous about it and you know he was, like, “OHHHH it’s all fairy tale! They messed up Goebbels! He didn’t talk like that!”

Atomic Popcorn: How do you feel about rewriting history?

Diane Kruger: That’s what I wanted to do, you can imagine as a German, I get offered World War II movies and I never wanted to do it, why should I associate with it just because I’m German? So this came along and I was, like, that is cool, I will be able through Bridget Von Hammersmark to bring down the Third Reich. I like it.

Atomic Popcorn: You have the momentous scenes, which ones did you like?

Diane Kruger: They’re all so different, like the tavern scene. They were fun to film but it was a two-week scene, imagine keeping up the energy for two weeks, you know? Ten to twelve minute takes, even when you’re not on you’re still on, I think the funniest one was the one in the theater it’s with Brad and two of the Basterds trying to pass for Italians. I mean it was really hard to keep a straight straight face and I think Brad is so genius “BONJIUUURNO” it’s, like, really? I mean, I loved it because my character could go really big and be, like, “are you a f-ing moron?!” its just so funny! Its like an old screwball comedy to do.

Atomic Popcorn: What was it like working with Brad Pitt?

Diane Kruger: Well I knew him from Troy and I was glad I had the opportunity to meet him later on in my career because I was so green and inexperienced at that time and completely overwhelmed when I was doing Troy, that was my second or third film ever. So being a little calmer about the whole thing, having experience and having such a really cool character to play… Knowing each other it helped you know, we were laughing and having such a good time. We were doing accents together all the time and joking around; it was a real good time.

Atomic Popcorn: You said that Quentin doubled for Christoph in that office scene, did he stand in for the foot close up part as well?

Diane Kruger: No. [Laughs]

Atomic Popcorn: What are your upcoming projects?

Diane Kruger: Well, a movie I just shot was selected for the Venice film festival, which is cool. I have never had a film in competition there and then I am going to do a French film in French, it’s been my love project and I have been trying to get this movie made for years and it’s finally coming together. I tried to make a French film for a year at least.

Atomic Popcorn: As someone who speaks different languages, from the acting side are you more comfortable with one or another?

Diane Kruger: Not really, but you tend to be different in other languages, I think German tends to be tougher for some reason while French is so soft, and English is just sort of normal [laughs].

Atomic Popcorn: This project that you’ve been working on, what did you do on it?

Diane Kruger: I raised money for it, I was lobbing it around to get made.

Atomic Popcorn: What was it about?

Diane Kruger: It’s about two sisters, it’s a very female-driven movie, a female director as well and it’s a art house movie, its hard to make in these times.

Atomic Popcorn: Would you have gotten Genghis Kahn if you played the game?

Diane Kruger: No I don’t think so, [laughs] you know it’s funny when I read it and there were all these different names, I was, like, who the hell are all these people? And I didn’t want to go to all of Quentin’s meetings and not know all these people.

Atomic Popcorn: I heard Quentin plays movies for his cast on Thursdays, what did he play?

Diane Kruger: Well he loves Spaghetti Westerns and he played The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly. But the funny thing was that Quentin would have a popcorn machine and hot dogs and he sits through all the movies, he’s seen all of the movies two times and he’s like “ha ha ha ha,” you just gotta watch him be this little boy watching them.

Atomic Popcorn: He was invested a lot into the Spaghetti Western theme, was there anything that he pointed out in the film that he wanted you to do especially for moments in it?

Diane Kruger: It’s more about how he shoots it, there were a couple of iconic shots, I don’t think it was in the movie but there was a closeup of me with a fedora and you don’t see the face, kind of like the classic Eastwood thing with the face coming up. But he was inspired by other things, he was inspired by von Sternberg, I actually called him my von Sternberg we had that kind of relationship as well, he gave me a book about him. There’s a shot in the tavern scene that was kind of a iconic von Sternberg shot. Where it’s a long traveling shot, it was from a famous movie of his.

Atomic Popcorn: Do you ever want to direct? After doing a movie like this with Quentin?

Diane Kruger: I don’t really have a ambition to direct, but when you work with a person such as Quentin I don’t think I could ever do that job, I don’t think I have that kind of visual eye for it. I like producing, though.

Atomic Popcorn: Eli Roth talked about how Quentin would be strict on set with no cell phones and whatnot, and keeping everyone focused with strict rules. Was that difficult?

Diane Kruger: I think the cell phone thing is a given – I don’t know what idiot would bring a cell phone onto a movie set because I think its simply disrespectful. I think that will happen, though, because a cell phone went on while we were filming and he went ballistic. What he’s so strict though is that he’s so attached to his words, if you don’t say one word  right he could break a scene, he wants you to say every single word and that exercise can be difficult because you can forget an “and” or a “but”. So that took a little getting used to.

Atomic Popcorn: We were told Quentin would give line reads because he wanted the words a certain way, was it something he worked on with you?

Diane Kruger: Not really no, not with me.

Atomic Popcorn: What sort of stories do you lean towards when you look at a script?

Diane Kruger: No it’s just, it has to be that every movie you make has a different challenge, it has to be worthwhile, I don’t want to play the same part that I played in a different movie like playing Helen of Troy again. So I have to be scared of it to want to do it.

Atomic Popcorn: Is this the first movie you fired a gun?

Diane Kruger: YESSS! [yells, laughs] the preparation they would make you train to use it, but I used to hunt because I come from the country hard and I am a pretty good shot. But come to think of it, shooting with your eyes open without blinking was really hard.

Atomic Popcorn: Well thank you for coming!

Diane Kruger: Thank you!

Quentin Tarantino’s interesting take on World War II through his latest film, Inglourious Basterds, has already been generating a great deal of buzz. Not only because of the alleged cult status director’s huge group of fans who will flock to theaters, but because of the all star cast that joins in. With the likes of people such as Brad Pitt, Eli Roth and Diane Kruger (just to name a few) this movie already has a lot going for it. Now with the very recent release of the spiffy trailer, we’ll be able to get a fairly better look at what is in store for us on August 21rst. Look down below and sneak a peek!

Check out the crazies below:

Finally. Something else I can add to my wall.

The new international poster for Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds has hit grandma’s interwebs and we are lucky enough to find it. Maintaining the true international poster style, this one-sheet is mostly lame with a side of a haunting Eli Roth. But, with that said, it appears Brad Pitt is walking into my soul.

Basterds stars Brad Pitt, Diane Kruger, Melanie Laurent, Christoph Waltz, Daniel Bruhl, Eli Roth, Samm Levine, B.J. Novak and Til Schweiger. It opens August 21, 2009.