Django At Cannes

Django Unchained Footage Revealed:

Cannes Reaction

Tarantino’s ‘Southern’ looks mighty fine

May 21st 2012

By Total Film

Cannes was treated to a sneak peak of Quentin Tarantino’s tale of an escaped slave seeking both revenge and his stolen wife tonight, and judging by the clips we saw, Django Unchained is going to be… well, off the chain.

Here’s 8 things we now know about QT’s ‘Southern’.

1) It’s going to be widescreen stunning

Opening with a beautiful wide desert landscape shot that recalls Leone, we’re introduced to a chain-gang of slaves dragging their weary feet over rock and stones, stumbling over their shackles and watched over by their captors on horseback.

Among them is Jamie Foxx’s Django – raggedly bearded and wild eyed, clearly in mental torment and seething with rage, as Johnny Cash sings hauntingly over the soundtrack. Mood-wise and lensing-wise (he’s shooting anamorphic on 35mm), Tarantino is clearly looking to deliver epic.

2) Christoph Waltz’s Dr King Shultz is going to equal Hans Landa

In a night-time woodland scene, we were treated to Waltz’s intro to the film – riding through the gloom in a tiny carriage with a bobbing model of a molar on top (he moonlights as a dentist) Schultz stops to introduce his horse (who bows on command) to the chain-gang masters. Impeccably-dressed, the good doctor greets all before expertly filling the bad guys with lead.

He’s calm, collected, sardonic and morally ambiguous. Another classic character in the making?

3) It’s bloody

Like any good QT flick, Django Unchained promises unflinching fisticuffs. In the footage we saw, Waltz plugs holes in heads and splatter’s blood like a good ‘un and Foxx’s Django is deadly with a bull whip – lashing one fat slave trader to shreds amid the Spanish moss-laden oak trees of a plantation.

4) Leonardo is going bad to the bone

As Calvin Candie, a sadistic slave owner who enjoys making his slaves fight gladiatorial battles at his Candie Land plantation, DiCaprio is oily (in both hair and manner), puffing on his cigarette-holder and leering at Foxx across his opulent salon.

"You had my curiosity," he drawls in a molasses accent while toying with a hammer, "Now you have my attention." Django wants to rescue his wife Broomhilda (Kerry Washington) from Candie Land, so what’s going to go down?

5) This is the coolest Foxx has ever been

Whether he’s rocking leather cowboy duds or a frilly blue valet suit (in a scene where Django is ridiculed by houseslaves for his choice of outfit), Foxx’s Django is the epitome of cool, a heat-seeking missile looking for his wife.

Foxx has described Django as "Richard Roundtree meets Clint Eastwood" and watching him ride his fine horse through a town of staring shop-keepers, hat-brim dipped low, we can attest that he’s making all the right moves. "My name’s Django," he drawls at one point, "the D is silent." What a dude.

6) Don Johnson is channelling the Colonel

Dressed all in dazzling white, with pointy goatee and slow, slow Southern drawl, Don Johnson is all mighty fine manners as a plantation owner Shultz and Django call on. His exchanges with the duo look fun, but we’re hoping there’s a darkness to Johnson’s charming KFC schtick.

7) Schultz and Django are like Butch and Sundance

Bound together in a mutual aim, Schultz teaches Django to shoot by aiming at a snowman and treats the emancipated slave as an equal. From the clips we saw it’s clear this relationship grows into a bond that could make it one of cinema’s greatest buddy movies. The title may be all about Django, but the dramatic arc is all about the duo.

8) The N word crops up a lot

Tarantino has written a film set in the pre-civil war South and his script reflects all the realities of that. So expect the N-bomb to be dropped everywhere by everyone.

Django Unchained opens in the US on 25 December 2012 (and 18 January 2013 in the UK).

Talk about it on HEF – the Hudlin Entertainment Forum

The Avengers

I couldn’t make it to the Avengers premiere, but we have so many crew members on our movie who worked on it, and plenty of comic book geeks in general, so Samuel L. Jackson graciously arranged for us to see the film in advance. 

I had to break out the classic Steranko Nick Fury t-shirt in honor of SLJ.  He’s very proud of the film. 

We also have Clay Fontenot, a brilliant stuntman and all around great guy who is Iron Man.  The suit of armor was built for him and he’s the man inside for all the films.

What did you ask?  What did I think of the movie itself?

THE AVENGERS is the best superhero movie ever made. 

I say that as a filmmaker and a comic book fan for as long as I can read.  And I say it with confidence. 

Who had the title before?  Here are the contenders:  SPIDERMAN 2, X MEN 2, BATMAN BEGINS, BATMAN: THE DARK KNIGHT, the first IRON MAN….but this one beats them all.  Why? 

It has what the best of them all had and it has what none of them ever had – a satisfying act three.  Usually the attempts to go big end up hollow, with fights with not emotional content. 

AVENGERS also has the advantage of almost all the characters having been set up in previous movies, so we are spared the clichés of the origin story that drag down the first film, and make the sequel seem so much in comparison. 

The key to a good comic book movie is making the man or woman behind the mask a compelling character.  Can you imagine anyone other than Robert Downey Jr’s high-speed sarcastic brilliance as Tony Stark?  Raimi always got Peter Parker right.  The scene with a spindly Steve Rogers taking on a bully in the alley is Captain America’s defining moment.  The Nolan BATMAN movies make Bruce Wayne the most interesting he’s ever been in any medium – comics, films, animated or live action television series. 

BEWARE…FROM HERE ON, THERE BE SPOILERS.  DON’T READ IF YOU DON’T WHAT TO KNOW BEFORE YOU SEE THE FILM.

Joss Whedon deftly builds on our collective knowledge of these characters from a variety of mediums and nails their personalities and interacts with each other spot on.  And like the comics, he lets those personality clashes express themselves in large scale mayhem, which both ups the action quotient and raises the stakes….their lack of cohesion is as big a threat as the big bad.  There’s three different fights among the Avengers (core members Thor, Iron Man and Cap; Hulk vs. Thor; and Hawkeye vs. Black Widow)

And speaking of villains…there’s just one.  The double villain idea has never comfortably worked for me.  Both Batman and Spiderman sequels have suffered from split focus.

Conversely EVERYONE in Avengers gets an adequate amount of screen time.  No character dominates the movie, but if anyone steals the show, it’s Mark Ruffalo as Banner/Hulk, who wipes out previous well meaning but failed attempts with the greatest of ease.  Whedon wisely withholds his transformation as long as he can, knowing audience is waiting for him to get really pissed…and green.  In a movie full of fantastic one-liners, Banner gets the best in the film:  “here’s my secret – ”.

This movie could only happen because of the existence of Marvel Studios.   Because they laid out a master plan with the individual films building to this one, and having the financial clout and filmmaking skills to back it up, a film series that mirrors comic book release could happen.  Can’t wait for the next one. 

I am planning on seeing the film again this weekend, because I couldn’t watch it again right after I saw it.  Kudos to Joss Whedon, producer Kevin Feige, and an amazing cast and crew for making a magnificent film.

Talk about it on HEF – the Hudlin Entertainment Forum