Once Upon A Time On Silver Screen
Quentin Tarantino made the right professional choice – he knows how to surprise the audience. There might be a vast palette of attitudes to him and his eccentric creative thinking, but he cannot be deprived from high-staking freshness, sense of style and ability to follow it in his own way. Signature aesthetics of bloodshed is a long gone fairytale for lamers, Tarantino is multidimensional and unpredictable. This October he returns on screen with his 9th feature film that has already made the summer – Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood. 10 extra minutes of previously unveiled footage to be shown in theaters while China bans the release of the film, tanking its box office – too much of an intrigue, let`s better talk about the movie itself. It is quite a deed to rebuild the live atmosphere of Hollywood of 1960ies in the name of sweet nostalgia. The way Tarantino coped with this task is absolutely stunning, the soundtrack he has chosen still rocks in my ears, covering the profound performance by Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt. For those who think they`re too old for this party: just keep in mind The Irishman by Martin Scorsese that united Robert De Niro, Al Pacino and Joe Pesci into the third age dream team.
Once Upon A Time…In Hollywood has got its name for the reason, it is Tarantino`s fairytale. Just go and see it, all the emotions, smiles, sweet and sour sadness, nostalgic atmosphere will find you. In 1969 Hollywood were going west with its standard cheesy plotlines, like the enormously red sun over the Sunset Boulevard, burnt down by the star shining of its fabulous residents and Hollywood Heights neighbors. Some of them are happy and rich, the others are less lucky, but there is one big thing they all are living in: the cinematic world of illusions. Tarantino shows its backstage without any dirty laundry, he just embraced the obvious: actors are the raw material, directors are rather ‘indie rebellions’ or just main-streamers, while the true conductors are producers who simply know how to sell a thing. What is the audience`s place in this supply chain – no one cares.
©Photo credit: Columbia Pictures, SPE, Bona Film Group
The main characters are correspondingly struck in an awkward anti-gravity of career crisis. The western actor Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio) sick and tired of his on-screen type and his stuntman Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt) both got lost in the cinematic mirror-world and now are trying to catch the last car of the leaving train. DiCaprio and Pitt shows acting skills that cannot be underestimated: there are two premier violins in this duo, while the one portrays the fading and thin-skinned actor, the other personates the worn-out Sancho Panza. They`re like the silver screen soul mates Lone Ranger and Tonto, heading to the sunset of their own fame. The actual poster of these classic heroes of 1950ies can be seen in the scene at George Spahn`s.
©Photo credit: Columbia Pictures, SPE, Bona Film Group
Their career seemed to be an endless highway, running through the canyons of success and sunny valleys of fame, but suddenly turned to a service drive ending at the motel dump. Once Upon A Time…In Hollywood is not a road movie, yet it is full of sweet rides: the lives of all characters are like roads, smooth and nice, speedy and adventurous, or even rocky and dangerous. The cars themselves are as expressive as their owners are: Cliff gives Rick a ride on a boxy-styling and desperately ivory Cadillac DeVille, while in the evenings he rides home on a scratched and mongrel-colored Volkswagen Karmann-Ghia. Happy and careless Sharon Tate (Margot Robbie) and Roman Polanski (Rafal Zawierucha) are partying on their frill mid-1950ies MG TD Midget. When alone, Sharon uses her own Porsche 911, elegant like a little black dress, and Manson`s (Damon Herryman) men ride a hardly startable Ford Galaxie. Just because Hollywood is the roads, California is the roads, and the America itself is all about the roads.
©Photo credit: Columbia Pictures, SPE, Bona Film Group
This is the basic level of detailing that Tarantino used to revive the spirit of the times. Neon street lights, sultry interiors, nearly 1970ies-crazy fashion, but part is given to the very core of filmmaking process. A film inside a film is quite a frequent plotline decision, however it is something more than a popular trend, and Quentin Tarantino shows how to use it right. Besides the perfectly done fake posters with Leonardo DiCaprio imaginary characters all the episodes of Once Upon A Time… are somehow connected with different stages of filmmaking, including taking scenes, screenplay rehearsals, on-set interviews, casting and costume design. Tarantino tends to western, Django Unchained and The Hateful Eight proved it well enough. This time he presented western not just as a parodic and sadly comical element of Rick Dalton that allows him to go on exploding with hysteric self-reproach wearing silly make-up. His duel with himself is twice more interesting than the one with contenders: he tries to find some acting resources inside himself along with some will not to give up.
©Photo credit: Columbia Pictures, SPE, Bona Film Group
Meanwhile the true western happens not in the cardboard studio walls, but on the horizon-less spaces of George Spahn`s (Bruce Dern) ranch given up to hippies. Those horses and firefights Dalton are playing with are quite real here. The long forgotten place located not far from the very center of global cinematic industry appears to be far from civilization: it still lives by the wild laws of the West, when the truth belongs to the one who is harder among all the hard men. The motley hippie crowd were casted from mainly fresh faces, Tarantino gave young actors quite a chance for a good line in their CVs: Austin Butler (the future Elvis Presley in his next project), Margaret Qualley (Andie MacDowell`s daughter), Rumer Willis (Demi Moore and Bruce Willis`s daughter) and Maya Hawke (Uma Thurman and Ethan Hawke`s daughter). Tarantino`s faves are in the cast as well: besides the leading duo of DiCaprio and Pitt there are Michael Madsen (Reservoir Dogs, Sin City, Kill Bill: Vol. 1 and 2, The Hateful Eight), Kurt Russell (Death Proof, The Hateful Eight), and – what a coincidence! – Uma Thurman`s stunt and marital arts coach Zoë Bell who appeared as an actress in Death Proof and Django Unchained. Quentin loves to quote Clint Eastwood and himself in his movies, and there is nothing wrong about that: a director who has a signature has a right to reprise and develop it. This time he could not do without iconic Red Apple cigarettes, and Cadillac that reminds the one Mr. Blonde rode in Reservoir Dogs in distant 1992.
©Photo credit: Columbia Pictures, SPE, Bona Film Group
All the fictional characters shape their own vibrant reality in parallel with the real media heroes of that times: Polanski and Tate`s friends Jay Sebring (Emil Hirsch), Abigail Folger (Samantha Robinson) and Voytek Frykowski (Costa Ronin), actor and director Steve McQueen (Damian Lewis) and Oriental marital arts star Bruce Lee (Mike Mo). This eclectic Hollywood lives in an electric and colorful way as its soundtrack is – you will hardly find a better late 1960ies music guide. Although to highlight the illusion of everything on screen Tarantino uses the covers of original songs, making an intentional or unintentional circle of good music. The Letter is performed by Joe Cocker while everyone knows the track by The Box Tops. The Box Tops themselves perform Choo Choo Train. The hymn of summer vibes California Dreamin` is performed by Jose Feliciano, while the original The Mamas & The Papas perform Twelve Thirty and Straight Shooter.
©Photo credit: Columbia Pictures, SPE, Bona Film Group
Once Upon A Time…In Hollywood is a must-see not for Tarantino`s fans, some of them were surely surprised by such a nostalgic turn in his career. This film will work for those who love Interstate 60 or Jim Jarmush with their paradox thinking, and for those who adore Chinatown and Sunset Boulevard. Everyone can find something personal, like a secret in an old candydrops jar, or a quarter, travelling in a backpack pocket around California. That`s a wrap!
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