Inglourious Basterds

"Inglourious Basterds" stars Diane Kruger, who had her breakout role as Helen in "Troy." Now she stars in Tarantino’s newest film as German actress and undercover agent Bridget Von Hammersmark who works with Lieutenant Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt) who is organizing a group of Jewish soldiers to engage in targeted acts of retribution on a mission to take down the leaders of The Third Reich.

The “New York Times Magazine” interviewed Quentin Tarantino and Diane Kruger about "Basterds."

The interview — which you can watch below — is part of the Sunday, May 3 feature in the magazine titled “The Call Back” by Lynn Hirschberg, which includes photos of Kruger and Tarantino taken by Jean-Baptiste Mondino and a quick interview with Tarantino.




Below are three questions directed to Tarantino about his newest film which comes out August 21, 2009.

When you’re making a film, like this year’s "Inglourious Basterds," which will premiere at Cannes, is it hard to watch movies?

Maybe it’s just this movie, but it’s become very hard to concentrate on anything but the film I’m making. This was the hardest movie I’ve ever made.

"Inglourious Basterds" is a World War II epic that combines historical events with a vivid, pop sensibility. The movie stars, among others, Brad Pitt as an American lieutenant in search of Nazis and Diane Kruger as a German movie star/spy. It’s both authentic and highly theatrical. Did you shoot on soundstages in America or in Europe?

We shot the film in Berlin and a little bit in Paris. I only cast actors who could speak English with their native accents. The Germans have accents, the French are French, and the English are English. During the war, your understanding of German, whether you were a French citizen or you were in a concentration camp, meant the difference between life and death. In Hollywood movies, Germans often have English accents, and I can’t go for that contrivance. The proper accent could be the difference between success and failure.

On this movie, you worked very quickly. Was that partially to have the film ready in time for Cannes?

Yes. I wanted to have a masterpiece before the decade’s out.

More news to come! Catch ya' later!