‘Basterds’ One of Many Tricky Titles

Author: admin

26 Aug

LOS ANGELES – Quentin Tarantino isn’t saying why he spelled the title of his World War II adventure, “Inglourious Basterds,” the way he did.

The writer-director is enjoying having a little fun with his audience, similar to the way he credited himself and Uma Thurman, with whom he co-wrote the “Kill Bill” movies, by their initials Q and U.

“I’m never going to explain that,” Tarantino said during a news conference in May at the Cannes Film Festival, where “Inglourious Basterds” premiered. “When you do an artistic flourish like that, to describe it, to explain it, would just … invalidate the whole stroke in the first place.

“(Artist Jean-Michel) Basquiat takes the letter L from a hotel room door and sticks it in his painting,” he added. “If he describes why he did it, he might as well not have done it at all.”

Tarantino’s film about Jewish-American soldiers who hunt down and scalp Nazis, which opened this past weekend atop the box office with an estimated $37.6 million, is one of several in recent memory with a name that’s tripped people up, either because of its spelling or because it contains a potentially offensive word.

The Weinstein Co., which is distributing it in the United States, says it hasn’t heard of any censorship of the title — which has nothing to do with a 1978 Italian action picture called (and correctly spelled) “The Inglorious Bastards.” Next >>