Quentin Tarantino Shocks Cannes Again with Epic Once Upon a Time
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YOUR PAGE, YOUR STAGE! There’s probably a photographer hidden in each of us, looking out for a platform. Community invites you to grab your chance and send your contributions with contact details and complete description of the images to [email protected] — PHOTO ESSAY, Page 10 Friday, May 24, 2019 Ramadan 19, 1440 AH Doha today 280 - 390 COVER Master at work STORY Quentin Tarantino shocks Cannes again with epic Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood. P2-3 CUISINE BACK PAGE Enjoying scrumptious A British Muslim woman likes zafrani phirni in Ramadan. to connect to self in Ramadan. Page 6 Page 16 2 GULF TIMES Friday, May 24, 2019 COMMUNITY COVER STORY Shock value Quentin Tarantino’s movies may no longer have quite the same audacity or revelatory power, but the ability to PRAYER TIME shock — and, if you’re lucky, to make you think — remains Fajr 3.17am Shorooq (sunrise) 4.47am Zuhr (noon) 11.32am an important tool in his kit, writes Justin Chang Asr (afternoon) 2.58pm Maghreb (sunset) 6.18pm Isha (night) 7.48pm USEFUL NUMBERS Emergency 999 Worldwide Emergency Number 112 Kahramaa – Electricity and Water 991 Local Directory 180 International Calls Enquires 150 Hamad International Airport 40106666 Labor Department 44508111, 44406537 Mowasalat Taxi 44588888 Qatar Airways 44496000 Hamad Medical Corporation 44392222, 44393333 Qatar General Electricity and Water Corporation 44845555, 44845464 Primary Health Care Corporation 44593333 44593363 Qatar Assistive Technology Centre 44594050 Qatar News Agency 44450205 44450333 Q-Post – General Postal Corporation 44464444 Humanitarian Services Offi ce (Single window facility for the repatriation of bodies) Ministry of Interior 40253371, 40253372, 40253369 Ministry of Health 40253370, 40253364 Hamad Medical Corporation 40253368, 40253365 Qatar Airways 40253374 ON MESSAGE: Quentin Tarantino delved into this project intent on allaying our worst fears and doing right by his subject, says the ote Unquo author. Qu te “Laughter is not at all a bad beginning for I will do my best to oblige a friendship, and it is far the Monsieur Tarantino best ending for one.” and his collaborators — Oscar Wilde on this richly evocative, conceptually jaw- dropping, excessively foot-fetishising, Community Editor inescapably terrifying Kamran Rehmat and unexpectedly e-mail: [email protected] Telephone: 44466405 poignant movie Fax: 44350474 ‘ — Justin Chang, film critic ’ Friday, May 24, 2019 GULF TIMES 3 COVER STORY COMMUNITY he day before the Cannes Bruce Dern and the late Luke Perry premiere of Once Upon a (in one of his last performances), Time … in Hollywood, his and also of Margaret Qualley, hotly anticipated movie Austin Butler, Mikey Madison and set in Los Angeles during Dakota Fanning as Mansonites. Tthe tumultuous events of 1969, Most of all, perhaps, you will Quentin Tarantino published an remember Margot Robbie in the open letter online. He addressed it role of Sharon Tate, who pops to audiences at the festival, opening up every so often, hijacking the with the words “I love Cinema,” narrative as she goes about her day, which may be the most redundant her luminous presence working in thing this movie-mad auteur has almost contrapuntal rhythm to the ever written (and given his endless, main story. self-admiring fl urries of dialogue, I am both reluctant and obliged that is saying something). The to say more. When the picture letter then implored us not to reveal was fi rst announced in 2017, many “anything that would prevent later expressed their reservations audiences from experiencing the about Tarantino, not a director fi lm in the same way.” known for his tact or sensitivity, A version of this entreaty was taking on a story that would deal repeated from the stage by a festival with a subject as horrifi c and representative shortly before painful as the Manson murders. the picture screened on Tuesday And that was months before the for members of the press, some #MeToo storm broke, bringing of whom booed and snorted in with it the downfall of Tarantino’s response. I didn’t join in. Even STAR-TURN: From left, Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt and Quentin Tarantino, at the 72nd international film festival, longtime collaborator Harvey as someone who believes that Cannes. Weinstein, plus Uma Thurman’s excessive spoiler sensitivity is a sign account of having been subjected of an entitled, infantile approach to matter. DiCaprio, his golden-boy It would be a hoot to watch these Bounty Law is a distant cousin of to reckless treatment on the set moviegoing, it’s easy to understand wattage persuasively dimmed, is stars in boozy, cigarette-chomping western serials including Gunsmoke of Kill Bill. A resurfaced 2003 Tarantino’s anxiety, especially after both mockable and sympathetic buddy-comedy mode even if they and Bonanza. One of Rick’s more audio clip of Tarantino defending a leaked script nearly led him to as a handsome has-been actor, weren’t tethered to such a loving successful movies, 14 Fists of Roman Polanski (played by Rafal shelve The Hateful Eight. (Many, of the unwitting star of his own male and persuasive re-creation of McCluskey, might be a callback to Zawierucha in a few scenes) didn’t course, still wish that he had.) midlife-crisis movie. He’s cradled the movie industry at the time. The Dirty Dozen. Barbara Ling’s help matters. Twenty-fi ve years after Pulp beautifully by Pitt as the most loyal Fans of the era may be reminded production design is a wittily In short, Once Upon a Time … Fiction won the Palme d’Or at this of pals, someone who’s always of legendary actor-stuntman intricate treasure trove of fake in Hollywood arrived in Cannes on festival, Tarantino’s movies may there to lend a shoulder — or some pairings such as Burt Reynolds movie memorabilia, though there’s Tuesday saddled with the kind of no longer have quite the same serious muscle — as needed. (The and Hal Needham, and some will some real stuff in the mix too. A foul-smelling baggage that perhaps audacity or revelatory power, but second-billed Pitt may be playing supply their own real-life reference one-sheet for the 1949 Roy Rogers only a fi lmmaker of Tarantino’s the ability to shock — and, if you’re the lower man on the industry points for Rick and Cliff ’s work, western The Golden Stallion is just reputation, an artist still revered as lucky, to make you think — remains totem pole, but this is very much even if they are unable to match one of many decorating the walls of one of the industry’s last true big- an important tool in his kit. This his movie.) Tarantino’s characteristically Rick’s Benedict Canyon home. picture originals, could possibly turns out to be the case even when obsessive scholarship. Yes, Benedict Canyon. The early overcome. he’s dealing with real-life subjects sight of a Cielo Drive street sign Does he overcome it? It’s far such as Sharon Tate, Roman cuts ominously through Tarantino’s too early to tell. But after a fi rst Polanski and members of the Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood fl ood of references and reminds viewing, it seems clear to me that Charles Manson cult, whose well- is both a luxuriant, sometimes you that he does have a very dark Tarantino delved into this project documented stories would, by now, story to tell. That story is slow to intent on allaying our worst fears seem beyond spoiling. lumbering ode to a bygone era of coalesce, however, in a movie that and doing right by his subject. Not quite, apparently. I will doesn’t always draw a distinction And he does this, of course, in the do my best to oblige Monsieur moviemaking and a singularly between period detail and narrative language he speaks best: the love of Tarantino and his collaborators on thrust. Is Mike Moh’s amusingly cinema. this richly evocative, conceptually bold reinterpretation of a violent cocky Bruce Lee impersonation a Where the character of Sharon jaw-dropping, excessively foot- chapter of history gratuitous touch or a key piece of Tate is concerned, that love fetishising, inescapably terrifying foreshadowing? Do the extensive takes the form of a seemingly and unexpectedly poignant movie. scenes of Rick struggling on the unconnected subplot that shows Still, if you wish to preserve set of his latest movie count as her casually walking up to a the purity of a fi rst viewing, it character development or mise- Westwood theatre screening her is probably best if you read no en-scene overkill? (Thanks to Julia 1968 movie The Wrecking Crew. further and that you read nothing Butters’ lovely performance as We see the real Tate light up the big else about the movie before Sony Rick’s preternaturally confi dent screen, and Robbie’s eyes glow with Pictures releases it in US theatres child costar, I didn’t much care joy in the audience, as she watches July 26. either way.) the person she’s playing. It’s a Like Tarantino’s 2009 picture, For most of its 159-minute moving act of homage, and it is not, Inglourious Basterds, Once running time, Once Upon a Time … crucially, the only way in which Upon a Time … in Hollywood in Hollywood both does and doesn’t Tarantino seeks to inspire a fresh is both a luxuriant, sometimes behave the way you might expect and compassionate reconsideration lumbering ode to a bygone era of a Quentin Tarantino picture to of Tate’s memory. moviemaking and a singularly bold behave. The storytelling is entirely The fi nal act of Once Upon a Time reinterpretation of a violent chapter linear.