Brad Pitt & Angelina Jolie
Whenever Quentin Tarantino releases a movie it is always surrounded in hype but Inglorious Basterds really is the talk of the Cannes Film Festival.
Tarantino won the Palme d'Or for his 1994 movie Pulp Fiction and the maverick filmmaker is back in the In Competition category at the festival fifteen years after winning for the first time.
The Director brings together a cast list that includes Brad Pitt, Diane Kruger and Michael Fassbender Inglorious Basterds begins in German-occupied France, where Shosanna Dreyfus (Mélanie Laurent) witnesses the execution of her family at the hand of Nazi Colonel Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz).
Shosanna narrowly escapes and flees to Paris, where she forges a new identity as the owner and operator of a cinema. Elsewhere in Europe, Lieutenant Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt) organizes a group of Jewish soldiers to engage in targeted acts of retribution.
Known to their enemy as "The Basterds," Raine's squad joins German actress and undercover agent Bridget Von Hammersmark (Diane Kruger) on a mission to take down the leaders of The Third Reich.
Tarantino has been writing Basterds (spelt right) over the last ten years the World War II revenge fantasy movie appears to have split the critics.
While some claim that the movie is lack-lustre, and comes with a hefty two and a half hour running time, while others claim that the movie sees Tarantino return in style.
Variety back the movie saying: "Surprising, nutty, windy, audacious and a bit caught up in its own cleverness, the picture is a completely distinctive piece of American pop art with a strong Euro flavour."
While Screen International were not that keen: "With some of the scenes running up to half an hour each, the thread of the drama is left disjointed and the focus ever-changing."
However Tarantino has never been a filmmaker to shy away from controversy and he appeared to take to the red carpet without a care in the world.
Leading man Brad Pitt was also on the red carpet last night with Angelina Jolie, who was in the Cannes spotlight twelve months ago for Changeling, just playing a supporting role this time around.
While Fish Tank was the runaway favourite to scoop the Palme d'Or, after the success of Katie Jarvis' central performance, but Inglorious Basterds may just see Tarantino scoop this prize for the second time.
Inglorious Basterds is released 21st August.
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw
Tagged in Quentin Tarantino