Hilarious! Quentin Tarantino directs ‘Pulp Fiction’ dance number
An on-set devil captured footage as Quentin Tarantino directed Uma Thurman and John Travolta in their iconic twist to a Chuck Berry song. It does beg the question: Is that how John Ford directed? Tarantino demonstrated on a British talk show host his inspiration for the choreography. artsmeme interviews a dancer/choreographer who did not do ...
Pas-de-deux in perpetuity: Travolta & Thurman in ‘Pulp Fiction,’ at TCM Fest 2024
At the conclusion of the witty dance duet between Vincent Vega (John Travolta) and Mia Wallace (Uma Thurman), on the dance floor of a kooky retro coffee-shop-style restaurant, the full auditorium of TCM Fest 2024‘s opening night gala at the TCL Chinese Theatre broke into spontaneous applause. The occasion was the screening of Pulp Fiction ...
REVIEW: Hanging out with ‘The Holdovers’
“There are certain movies that you hang out with the characters so much that they actually become your friends. Those movies are usually quite long, because it actually takes that long of a time to get past a movie character where you actually feel that you know the person and you like them.” That now-famous ...
Movie-viewing happiness @ The Montalbán
Apr
25
2023
When I like something, I like it. And, lately, I like the summer movie-viewing series high atop the venerable Ricardo Montalbán Theatre, aka The Montalbán, located dead center of Hollywood, on Vine Street just south of Hollywood Boulevard. The above image of director Quentin Tarantino’s single-card credit for his kick-butt KILL BILL, VOL II (2004), ...
Tarantino & Toni
Toni Basil at home in Los Angeles.Credit Amy Harrity for The New York Times LOS ANGELES — When Toni Basil’s agent told her that an anonymous filmmaker from an unidentified production company wanted to chat, she was intrigued. It was something about the 1960s, she was told, so she mopped her dance-studio floor in case ...
Cinematography & editing enhance Toni Basil choreography for ‘Head’ 2
I have found a new obsession in this brilliant “ear worm” song and early music video, “Daddy’s Song.” This extraordinary dance-film number was choreographed by Toni Basil who appears in the video in tandem with Davy Jones, of the Monkees. It’s from the cult-favorite movie Head (1968) co-written by Jack Nicholson, directed by Bob Rafelson ...
Dear Hollywood Boulevard … love, The Lare
Jul
22
2019
boulevard of dreams … and nightmares ed. note: a letter contributed by artsmeme’s friend Jeff Mantor of Larry Edmunds Bookshop on the cusp of the opening of ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD. Dear Hollywood Boulevard, You are a short street, but a long road. A place & idea. A dream & a dirty nightmare ...
Tarantino’s dream: the Pussycat meets the Bookshop 2
Women around the world are beside themselves with joy to see movie director Quentin Tarantino bring back the sleaze old days of the late sixties, when XXX-rated porn movies spooled at the bygone Pussycat Theatre. Admittedly, even I miss rolling by this colorful (ahem, it was the color purple) ediface of screaming architecture on the ...
Russ recalls Rusty Tamblyn, child star of GUN CRAZY @ UCLA Film & Television Archive
Mar
3
2013
“I never owned one and could care less about guns,” said the gentle-spirited Russ Tamblyn before a sold-out house at the Billy Wilder Theater on Friday night. The conversation with Shannon Kelley, Director of Public Programs for the UCLA Film & Television Archive, followed a screening of cult-classic, GUN CRAZY (Monogram Pictures, 1950). Tamblyn, then ...
Django’s jangling cinematic reflections
Jan
16
2013
We massively enjoyed Quentin Tarantino’s frontal attack on a hateful chapter of American history, “Django Unchained,” an ambitious and hilarious cinematic tour de force. The strength of the film is its use of the director’s best gift — his deep knowledge of his own metier — in a conversation not just with history, but with ...