For Quentin, the 72nd Cannes Film Festival has a special significance. Quentin came to Cannes for the first time with Pulp Fiction 25 years ago and won the Palme d'Or; Cannes became his blessed place.
10 years ago, Quentin made his second candidacy for Cannes with Shameless Bastard. This time, although he did not win the award, he won the movie emperor for "Uncle Wa" Christopher Waltz.
Today, this is Quentin's third entry into the Main Cannes competition; apparently, he is coming for the Palme d'Or. If "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" really got the Palme d'Or, quentin would be the ninth director to join the "Twin Palms Club". (Top eight: Francis Ford Coppola, Billy Auguste, Emile Kusturica, Masahira Imamura, Michael Haneke, Dane Brothers, Ken Lodge)
Counting Quentin's ten-film contract, "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" is already a creation that has entered the countdown. It could also be said that this is Quentin's love letter to Hollywood movies.
The day before the Cannes premiere, Quentin deliberately released an open letter. The opening sentence reads "I love the movie" and implores all viewers who have seen the movie not to reveal the plot, "I hope that future audiences can experience this movie with the mentality of the first encounter".
Quentin's apprehension is understandable, as early as the filming of "Eight Wicked Men", the leak of the script almost aborted the project. Judging from the experience of watching the film, as a movie driven by the time of the characters, if it is spoiled in advance, it will indeed lose the shock of the first viewing. In view of this, this article tries to avoid spoilers.
It can only be said that "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" is Quentin's most personal film work to date. Maybe everyone will get different feelings in it, but there is no doubt that this is a moving work that can both entertain audio-visual and touch the heart. Unlike Quentin's previous works, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is infused with a brilliant light because of its intense emotions, and when we wander through the Hollywood era in 1969 with Quentin's lens, we can really feel that light.
If Quentin's previous works have been with a leper-style funny prank, then this "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" is rarely unusual, and the master atmosphere after precipitation is secretly gushed out. Thankfully, there is such a work as Quentin that allows us to overlook the unique private Hollywood in film history with the flowing camera. And after watching it, people are so emotionally excited, the duration of 159 minutes seems to be fleeting.
The film is full of traces of all of Quentin's previous works to date. Counterfactual assumptions in Shameless Bastards; American Western elements in Django Rescued and The Eight Wicked Men; Nonsense in Falling Dogs. It even has Quentin's well-known fan-style uniqueness – the texture of a videotape movie.
But overall, it's the closest thing to Pulp Fiction.
It is rare that in such a masterpiece, without overly considering the plot, you can unleash your personal habits in creation, from car restaurants to donuts, from gun cool girls to Bruce Lee, from Italian Westerns to foot fetishism.
In this two-hour and 39-minute time and space, Quentin presents a Hollywood in the cracks of the times to the audience with a loose and charming narrative. For the director himself, this is also the starting point for his love of film.
Judging by the title, "Once Upon A Time in Hollywood" is clearly a tribute to Two of Leone's classic films, Once Upon A Time in West and Once Upon ATime in America.
Quentin himself once "admitted" with no concern that every play he made was copied here and there, and then mixed together. "I just copied bridges everywhere, and my films were plagiarism, not tributes." The blunt, angry response of that year directly closed the mouths of all those who wanted to laugh at him.
But this time, Quentin undoubtedly put away his usual arrogance, and integrated his unique "collage art" into a more macroscopic film feeling, and even can be said to be a tribute and remembrance of the Cultural Elements of American Hollywood at that time.
In Hollywood To Die, Quentin presents the streetscape of Los Angeles in the sixties with rich layered sound and painting details, reproducing the most representative elements of the urban landscape. Hollywood Boulevard, wind-pulling convertibles, old movie theater posters, neon billboards, old restaurants and bars, and more.
Not only that, but there were also TV shows, advertisements on the radio, pop songs on the jukebox, and fancy hippies all over the streets.
In Quentin's words, "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" means to itself as "Roma" means to Alfonso Cuarón. The film from different levels to show the 1969 Los Angeles, at that time only six-year-old Quentin Jr., Hollywood is a kaleidoscope of bustling places.
As I expected, "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" does not follow the cult "Manson Family" to kill Polanski's wife, Sharon Tate, and is obviously just a confusing gimmick smoke bomb.
In fact, this event exists only as one of the historical facts in the film. Through the situation of Rick Dalton, played by Little Plum, a sunset TV star, and his agent assistant Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt), the film shows the era of rapid change of American culture in 1969, and everyone is at a crossroads of fate. (Official information, not a spoiler)
In Quentin's black humor, Dalton, an actor who makes a living from television and movies, ends gracefully under the tide of the times, which is undoubtedly the epitome of Hollywood's entire golden age that has quietly passed. Filmmakers who have passed away in those years have had Sharon Tate and Bruce Lee. The film adopts a narrative structure that integrates a harsh reality into the purely fictional personal destiny, and thus spreads countless forks.
It is not so much a fragmentary narrative to construct the Hollywood past of the 60s, but rather to look back at the glimpses of the Golden Age of Hollywood with all the impressions of the city of Los Angeles in the director's mind.
Quentin's creation of this unique world is like a gorgeous window assembled. Under the mirror image of 35mm film, it is soft and hazy, but it has colorful colors. This is the most intuitive feeling of this era through Quentin's eyes.
Quentin maintains his consistently efficient camera language, paired with the signature hippie banter tone, with a linear narrative tone that is twice as slow as ever. Overall, "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" is still a very interesting movie, the golden combination of Little Plum and Pete, leading the audience from the end of one era to the beginning of another era.
I have to say that the combination of Little Plum and Pete is just perfect. In the high-density dialogue of the film, the two half-old men are fully engaged in the rhythm of the characters from action to emotion, striding with their heads held high, and performing a mocking sadness in the contrast between the two characters.
The rest of the cast is also very luxurious, such as Al Pacino and Demien Luiz, all of whom are strong actors.
Fanning's performance in the film is also very outstanding; and Sharon Tate, played by "Clown Girl" Margot Robbie, is not the core character, but her light is bright and compelling, and people can't look away. There is also Luke Berry, who recently passed away, and his role in the film ended his acting career.
Little Plum said in an interview that the only reason to pick up this film is Quentin. He believed Quentin was the director who could perfectly represent this fascinating era. When he was shooting, he did it with respect for Hollywood. He said it can't even be called a performance, but rather a way to incorporate his feelings about the place into his daily shooting.
For them, 1969 was a groundbreaking moment in the history of cinema and even in the history of world culture.
In the film, Rick and Cliff are part of the old Hollywood guns, trying to find their place in a newly opened era of freedom. For Quentin, it is not only through the eyes of the characters to recall that fascinating era, but also a kind of calmness to the Changing United States today.
It can be said that "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" is not only a historical memory of this shining city, but also the most personal childhood memories of Quentin. Only look forward to Quentin's early promotion to the "Twin Palms Club"!