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N obody has giddier fun making movies than Quentin Tarantino, and it’s contagious. Even when scenes run long and static, violent spasms intrude or too many characters are introduced, watching a Tarantino flick unfold is one of American cinema’s

pleasures. You sense him behind the camera, giggling at his handiwork, winking conspiratorially.

No exception is Inglourious Basterds, the neo-grind house auteur’s rewrite of World War II with a spaghetti western vibe, a bloody valentine to pulp war fiction: vengeance, resistance and a cinephile fantasy that a movie theater could defeat Hitler. It is The Dirty Dozen on crystal meth, Defiance without conscience, presented by a cocksure filmmaker for whom no project is “only a movie.”

Even the film’s final line, “I think this just might be my masterpiece,” sounds like the writer-director boasting through an actor. Inglourious Basterds doesn’t deserve that mantle, but it does reaffirm

Tarantino as an audacious dude who’ll err, but never on the side of caution.

Divided into five chapters, Inglourious Basterds is Tarantino’s most linear work and at times his most static, with rewards. Take the opening sequence, a visit to a French dairy farm by the film’s villain, Colonel Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz, a mesmerizing presence). Landa is known as “the Jew Hunter,” with keen instincts to find and kill them.

Landa believes the farmer is hiding a Jewish family, and toys with the man for 15 minutes, just sitting at a table. Tarantino loves writing deadly intimate confrontations, such as his True Romance face-off between Christopher Walken and Dennis Hopper with telltale tough talk and violent punctuation. The payoff is usually worth the wait, but Inglourious Basterds contains a handful of such conversations, bloating the 152-minute running time.

The next chapter introduces the titular heroes, a platoon of Jewish-American soldiers assigned to kill as many Nazis as possible. Brad Pitt gets top billing for a supporting role as Lieutenant Aldo Raine, a Tennessee stud leading the Basterds, demanding 100 Nazi scalps from each soldier. Pitt juts his jaw and drops his “g’s” in a cartoon Southern accent, making mutilation sound downright friendly.

Chapter 3 leads to Nazi-occupied Paris, where Shosanna Dreyfus (Melanie Laurent) owns a movie theater showing German propaganda films. Shosanna has a connection to Landa, who’ll be ordered to kill the Basterds, who’ll plan a war-changing mission at the theater, as Tarantino pulls plot threads together, disregarding history, logic and sometimes good taste. An international cast speaking native languages veers toward authenticity until a screwy subtitle sneaks in (a German exclaims “Wunderbar!” with an identical translation beneath).

After one viewing, and Tarantino movies demand more, I don’t think Chapter 4, detailing a parallel British mission, is necessary at this length. But it does provide another of those extended stretches of quietly delightful tension. Inglourious Basterds will be loved and hated, sometimes in the same scene, eventually leading to at least grudging admiration.

Obsession with film propels Tarantino (and repels his detractors), spilling off the screen whether you get the references or not, from Leni Riefenstahl and Emil Jannings to a German Audie Murphy becoming a movie star. By the time the flammable nature of nitrate film becomes Tarantino’s key weapon against tyranny, you can practically hear him cackling. Inglourious Basterds is flawed, yet proves that the former enfant terrible and now Wellesian myth still has impudence to burn.

Eli Roth, above left, and Brad Pitt, above right, star in Inglourious Basterds, directed by Quentin Tarantino, left. photos: BloomBerg and reuters

W hen filmmaker Quentin Tarantino was looking for a

German actress to play a 1940s German screen siren-turned-spy in his movie Inglourious Basterds, Diane Kruger knew she was perfect for the part.

After all, she thought, who better to play a German movie star working in France than a German actress like herself who was living in France?

Basterds follows a group of Jewish-American soldiers, led by Brad Pitt’s Lieutenant Aldo Raine, on a mission to take down the Third Reich.

Kruger’s Bridget von Hammersmark is loved by her German countrymen, but is secretly working as an undercover agent with “the basterds,” as Raine’s soldiers are known.

“This is the first time someone gave me a part where I’m strong,

where I’m the engine, the motor of the scene,” Kruger said. “Many times actresses are an accessory to a story line. To be handed intelligent dialogue was nice. It was a very new experience for me.”

It was also an unimaginable experience for someone who once considered modeling and movies “completely out of my reach.”

“I come from a lower middle-class village in Germany,” said the 33-year-old. “It is impossible to imagine that any of this was ever going to be in the cards for me.”

With dreams of becoming a ballerina, Kruger studied with the Royal Ballet School in London. As a teenager she was a finalist

in the Elite modeling agency’s Look of the Year contest and turned her attention to fashion and the catwalk.

“All of a sudden I moved to Paris and was learning French and traveling the world,” Kruger said. “Then I met my ex-husband (French actor and director Guillaume Canet) who was so influential in giving me confidence to pursue acting.”

Her first major acting role was in Canet’s directorial debut, 2002’s Mon Idole. The two divorced in 2006, but worked together once more in Joyeux Noel.

Though 2004’s romantic thriller Wicker Park, in which

Kruger starred opposite Josh Hartnett, was technically her first US-made movie, it was her second feature to be released in the US.

Troy, in which she co-starred alongside Pitt and Eric Bana was released first in theaters, and the hype over Hollywood newcomer Kruger playing the beautiful Helen of Troy helped her land box office hit National Treasure.

That movie’s success spawned the sequel National Treasure: Book of Secrets and together the big-budget movies made Kruger a household name — after a little adjustment, that is, because her real last name is Heidkruger.

“Nobody in America or France could ever pronounce or spell it correctly,” she said. “I was sick of saying, ‘H-E-I-D ...’ When you say ‘It’s like Freddy,’ everybody gets it.”

Today, Kruger is grateful that at least one person in the entertainment industry “gets” her: Tarantino.

“He took a leap of faith on an actress who has so far only played Helen of Troy and did National Treasure,” she said. “He sees me completely different.”

Kruger next stars with Jared Leto in French filmmaker Jaco van Dormael’s Mr Nobody. The film debuts at the upcoming Venice Film Festival, weeks after the release of Basterds.

“I feel Quentin gave me a great gift,” Kruger said. “No matter what impact this movie has on my career, or if it turns into a box office hit or not, I feel like I won the lottery.”

Diane Kruger: tailor-made for ‘Basterds’Who better to play a German movie star working in France

than a German actress who was living in France?

By ZoRIAnnA KITReuteRs, LOs ANGeLes

F I L M R E V I E W

Sing It! (唱歌吧!)

This Taiwanese documentary is being released with little warning or advertising, but the timing is crucial. A Bunun Aboriginal school principal, who cannot read music and has a sports education background, leads the local elementary school choir to national fame and a recording deal. As always, there are challenges along the way, including relationships with parents back home. But the events onscreen now have new currency given that the choir’s home village, Dongpu (東埔) in Nantou County’s Xinyi Township (信義), was badly hit by Typhoon Morakot — making this 64-minute film a valuable time capsule. Starts tomorrow.

G-Force

G-Force is a part-computer animated, part-live action thrill ride about a bunch of guinea pigs and other rodents who team up to defeat an evil big businessman who wants to take over the world using a bunch of malevolent gadgets. This is Jerry Bruckheimer territory, not Pixar, so expect exhaustion and kiddie crudity, not reflective or genuinely emotional moments. Screening in 3D in selected theaters, and featuring the voices of Nicolas Cage, Penelope Cruz and Steve Buscemi.

Coco Before Chanel

This French biopic tracks the childhood and early adult life of Chanel founder Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel, delving into how the fashion innovator who created an empire grew out of a cabaret performer and emotional recluse. As the grown-up Coco, Audrey Tautou (Amelie, The Da Vinci Code) has impressed critics with her latest big role, though some wondered if this film’s sumptuous photography and overall elegance might not have been boosted by more emotional appeal.

Kabuli Kid

The “kid” of the title is a baby boy left behind in a Kabul cab, the driver of which can’t seem to work out how to get rid of the creature. Steering between realism and — perhaps — a hint of black comedy, this is a portrait of ordinary Afghans, the lives they lead and the mundane dilemmas they face — details obscured by the international media’s focus on the wider conflicts in the region and electoral woes.

Sanpei the Fisher Boy

This live-action film based on a classic manga dating back to the 1970s is director Yojiro Takita’s follow-up to this year’s Oscar-winning drama Departures. Sanpei is the grandson of a master fisherman who is happy to pass on his skills and enthusiasm to the youngster. One day Sanpei learns about a possibly mythical superfish — and immediately sets his sights on catching it, along with another fishing ace. It’s hard not to imagine this as a Japanese Huckleberry Finn — energetic and brimming with life, and there’s straw hats too.

Compiled BY MARTIn WIllIAMS

InglourIous Basterds

DIRECTED BY: Quentin tarantino

STARRING: Brad Pitt (Lieutenant aLdo raine), MeLanie Laurent

(ShoSanna dreyfuS), ChriStoPh WaLtz (CoLoneL hanS Landa), eLi roth (Sergeant donny

donoWitz), MiChaeL faSSBender (Lieutenant arChie hiCox), diane Kruger (Bridget von

haMMerSMarK), danieL BruhL (fredriCK zoLLer)

RUNNING TIME: 152 MinuteS

TAIWAN RELEASE: today

‘Inglourious Basterds’ contains all the things Tarantino fans like,

but its emotional core and bigness of

spirit are new

By STEVE PERSAllNY times News seRvice, st PeteRsbuRG

photo: epa