To say that I’m no fan of Quentin Tarantino is no exaggeration. I find Tarantino gifted, but the gift lies not in his direction, his cinematography or his script-writing: it is his deep knowledge of the cinema and a twisted sense of æsthetics, ethics and bold storytelling fascinate and engage audiences and critics alike. But are his films worthy of the praise and celebration they’ve garnered over the years?

I think not. While Reservoir Dogs and, to a lesser extent, Pulp Fiction, introduced a fresh, raw perspective on crime films, a style that subsequently became Tarantino’s trademark, all of his later works, with the exception perhaps of Jackie Brown, were mediocre and shallow entertainment.

Inglourious Basterds is no exception. It is a very entertaining movie that satisfies a viewer watching it, having come to the theatre with zero expectations; it’s fun and easy to watch, its characters caricatures, more suited to a comic rather than a film, but nevertheless likeable and entertaining. But it’s far from what Tarantino subtly tries to make it: a big movie worthy of any sort of presence in Cannes, a brilliant story, whose script was worked upon for more than a decade, an epic portraying Tarantino’s idea of the racial and sociological status quo in World War II France. Basterds is not even close to evoking any sentiment or engaging the audience in this respect.
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Reboot.

Labelling any fictional universe, any story, any work as a ‘franchise’ couldn’t be considered anything, but demeaning to those that love it. Yet I am lost for words when I try to determine how the Star Trek series of movies and TV episodes could be called.

After 2002’s ‘Nemesis‘, it was all but clear that the beloved The Next Generation (TNG) crew was long overdue for retirement. One might say that it was apparent well before that movie hit the cinemas; even 1998’s Insurrection lacked the feel and canon that defined the TNG series, the last Star Trek that Gene Roddenberry, Star Trek’s creator, participated in. At the same time, ‘Enterprise’ the latest TV series to hit TVs just after the turn of the century was demonstrably, obviously so far from universe, æsthetics and philosophy of the ‘franchise’; there was little of the sophistication, little of the idealism, little of the sense of responsibility that defined the Star Trek TV series that came in the previous two decades: TNG, Deep Space One and Voyager — The Original Series being the exception, having been created at a time when science fiction on TV was clumsy at best and it being Roddenberry’s first outing — that first attempt, largely devoid of the technical sophistication of its successors, deficient of skill and execution, still included enough of the brilliance of Roddenberry’s universe that would make it successful in the long term; akin in some ways to early adventure computer games: it wasn’t so much the execution/implementation, it was about the concepts, the ideas.

In 2002 the Star Trek universe was dying; lacking direction, vision and the charismatic crew to bring it forward it was more of a rotting ‘franchise’ than art. It made little money to Paramount and there were few ways out of the decay. So, yes: Star Trek needed a reboot. And a reboot it got.
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Το περασμένο Σάββατο ήταν ημέρα κινηματογράφου και, έχωντας πρόσφατα δει τους Τρείς Πιθήκους, μια σαφώς υπερτιμημένη, πλην όμως αρκετά καλή ταινία, επισκεφθήκαμε τον Δαναό για την προβολή του ‘Βάλς με τον Μπασίρ’, μια από τις λίγες ταινίες που αξίζει να δείτε στους ελληνικούς κινηματογράφους αυτή την εποχή.

Το ‘βαλς’ επιχειρεί μια ιδιαίτερα πρωτότυπη προσέγγιση ενός τρομακτικά δύσκολου θέματος, μέσα από ένα απαιτητικό μέσο και απευθυνόμενη — κυρίως — σε ένα προβληματισμένο, εαν όχι σκεπτικό κοινό. Πραγματεύεται την ‘επέμβαση’ του Ισραήλ στον Λιβανέζικο εμφύλιο στις αρχές της δεκαετίας του 1980 και συγκεκριμένα τις σφαγές στους παλαιστινιακούς καταυλισμούς στη Ṣabrā και τη Shātīlā από τους ‘φαλαγγίτες’ χριστιανούς λιβανέζους. Σφαγές που έγιναν με την έμμεση αποδοχή/ανοχή (εαν όχι ενθάρρυνση) των Ισραηλινών και που απασχόλησαν τόσο την Κνεσσέτ όσο και τη διεθνή κοινότητα.
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