Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof is enjoying fantastic coverage and rave reviews at the Cannes Film Festival. Originally 1/2 of the double-feature, Grindhouse, also featuring Robert Rodriguez' Planet Terror, the movies were split for a European release, thanks to lagging American ticket sales.
Grindhouse was originally packaged as a "double-feature" in the vein of the 1970s' "grindhouse" drive-in features. These packages usually contained cheaply-made, exploitative films filled with gore, violence, sex, and general raunch. The package contained both feature films, along with fake trailers for other "grindhouse" films never actually made.
Tarantino said, "We didn't cut our movies to the bone, we cut them past the bone," referring to the number of scenes edited from the individual films in order to make them fit on a double-bill. Star of Death Proof, Kurt Russell, says, "I am disappointed for any audience that won't get the Grindhouse experience. If you want to have the full effect, the experience is just bizarre - I just have never experienced it before."
I wondered how well this would play, and not because I feel our modern sensibilities tend more toward the MTV-style "quick-cut" editing or that we have short attention spans... what was I saying? Oh!
I wondered because a double-bill with fake features had to run well over 3 hours long (I don't know the actual time of the double-bill) and, with fake trailers rounding-out the package, you simply wouldn't have a chance to excuse yourself for a cigarette, bathroom break, or concession stand run without missing something. I still applaud the idea and hope that more filmmakers continue to try new things, even if these "new" things are based on retro concepts.
Grindhouse was originally packaged as a "double-feature" in the vein of the 1970s' "grindhouse" drive-in features. These packages usually contained cheaply-made, exploitative films filled with gore, violence, sex, and general raunch. The package contained both feature films, along with fake trailers for other "grindhouse" films never actually made.
Tarantino said, "We didn't cut our movies to the bone, we cut them past the bone," referring to the number of scenes edited from the individual films in order to make them fit on a double-bill. Star of Death Proof, Kurt Russell, says, "I am disappointed for any audience that won't get the Grindhouse experience. If you want to have the full effect, the experience is just bizarre - I just have never experienced it before."
I wondered how well this would play, and not because I feel our modern sensibilities tend more toward the MTV-style "quick-cut" editing or that we have short attention spans... what was I saying? Oh!
I wondered because a double-bill with fake features had to run well over 3 hours long (I don't know the actual time of the double-bill) and, with fake trailers rounding-out the package, you simply wouldn't have a chance to excuse yourself for a cigarette, bathroom break, or concession stand run without missing something. I still applaud the idea and hope that more filmmakers continue to try new things, even if these "new" things are based on retro concepts.
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