Oh yeah, the action scenes are there as tribute, not as the point, in my head. They're fun, but the things that stick in my head are the gimmicks - the switch to black-and-white, and back to color, for example. I love the lack-of-action-in-action of the fight with O-Ren, though. Beautiful. The fountain doing it's thing as they fight is beautiful.

Honestly, I liked the second movie better. Tarantino is somewhat better at expansive than action, I think. But, God, I love them both so very much.

The second movie doesn't have the anime sequence, though. I love that bit so very much. "W...h...i...m...p...e...r"

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I liked it enought to track down Delacorta's novels (one of which is the basis for the movies). Girodish (obviously based on Serge Gainsbourg) and Alba had many adventures.

Oh, me too, and the books are so screwy. I own four or five, and I've read a few that I don't have. So bizarre. I think it's the one that's riffing on The Collector that really weirded me out. I enjoyed them, but I also spent some time wondering how much of what was happening required cultural context that I didn't have.

But Alba's love letters are always incredibly beautiful.

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that's riffing on The Collector that really weirded me out.

The one where he captures Alba and dresses her up in a dragonfly outfit and strings her from the ceiling?

They are totally screwy, but I always buy the paperbacks and give them to friends when they're going on a vacation.

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The one where he captures Alba and dresses her up in a dragonfly outfit and strings her from the ceiling?

Yeah. And that part is creepy, but in a cartoony way. But at the end.. it's been a while, but what I remember is that she escapes, gets caught by, like, inbred rednecks, is almost gangraped, and then while she's traumatized, Gorodish starts blasting people with a shotgun. I may be misremembering the details, but I'm positive there was a abrupt shift in tone. I mostly remember feeling like, "Is he satirizing action movies or something? I think he probably is, but holy crap."

I'm waiting for the "Ultimate Criterion Super-Secret Special DVD with your own personal Tarantino Sperm Packet Included" before buying the Kills Bill

Yeah, me too. I think there was an interview recently where he'd said he was still too wiped out from doing it to look at it again for a special edition, but he was planning to do one.

I don't know about Oscars, though. It's a beautiful pastiche collection, but even in my ideal world where Oscars are based on merit, I'm not sure that's what they should reward. I do think Tarantino should get some kind of special achievement award for having some kind of savant-y skills when it comes to picking music, though.

Oh, anyway, TNT is running both movies back-to-back on Sunday.

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My strongest impressions of French cinema come from Amélie and Techine's Wild Reeds. And, I guess, With a Friend like Harry, which made me sympathize with my mom's utter loathing for the fantastic. Considering my all-time favorite TV shows include Buffy, Wonderfalls, Farscape, and Due South, exceeding my surrealism tolerance in 90 minutes is quite an accomplishment.

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I really liked the first Kill Bill.

Did you not like the second? I thought while the first was (mostly) a wild ride, the second was the whole heart of the thing.

With a Friend like Harry, which made me sympathize with my mom's utter loathing for the fantastic.

Huh? I saw that with a friend who's big comment (and not pejoratively) was "that was very French", and I can't say I found it particularly "fantastic", at least no more than when compared to the Hitchcock films it was apeing, and not at all surreal.

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Do any of you remember Jean de Florette and Manon des Sources ?

Two of the only three movies that made me cry. Twenty years later and I can only remember the barest outline, but I still remember thinking, "Wow. So sad, but wow."

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Did you not like the second? I thought while the first was (mostly) a wild ride, the second was the whole heart of the thing.

I definitely liked the second part, and you are right that it carries the emotional weight of the story. But I never want to rewatch that part. Ultimately I don't think there is that much emotional weight in this story, and all of the parts that stuck with me were from the flashy trashy first part.

To me, the most emotionally intense part isn't her face-off with Bill at the end, but the ragged edges at the end of the first one when Sophie has been delivered, one-armed to deliver her message.

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flashy trashy

And that's really what Quentin excels at.

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And that's really what Quentin excels at.

And I don't dismiss it. The guy is a genuine scholar of exploitation film. He knows it deeply. I respect that. He wants to make movies that hit you hard emotionally. He's already shown with Jackie Brown that he's capable of more range when he sets his mind to it. It'll be interesting to see what happens with his war movie.

How did Kill Bill do at the box office, incidentally? Did it make Harvey money?

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