Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood makes it to Cannes Festival

Tarantino’s under production film, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood came is competing for the top honours at the Cannes Film Festival.

The Cannes Film Festival much more than Venice or Berlin, has its favourite auteurs, and Quentin Tarantino is one. Some of his movies, Pulp Fiction in 1994 (which won the Palm dÓr), Death Proof in 2007 and Inglorious Basterds in 2009 have been part of the prestigious Competition. So, the festival was extremely keen that his under production Once Upon a Time in Hollywood came to the Croisette (Cannes beach front). And it did, and will be competing for the top honours.

The first look of Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio from Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

Also, Tarantino will arrive at the French Riviera with his stars – Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt and Margot Robbie, some of the top names in American cinema whose presence on the red carpet is sure to get critics and the crowds on a high.

There was another reason why Tarantino (who made his latest film on 35mm and whose editing can be a laborious process) and the festival were keen on Once Upon a Time..., because this year coincides with the Palm dÓr win of Pulp Fiction.

Margot Robbie filming for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

For others, Tarantino’s name is reminiscent of his tenure as President of the Festival jury in 2004, when he gave the Palm dÓr to Michael Moore’s Bush basher, Fahrenheit 9/11-- a documentary which many felt did not deserve the award. Tarantino was seen a as strong Bush critic.

There is still a mystery about this Once Upon a Time... Does it concentrate on the brutal murder of the heavily pregnant wife of Roman Polanski, Sharon Tate, by the cult called Manson Family. Or, is it a homage to Hollywood during its golden era around 1969, a time when Tarantino was growing up there. The film’s producers have told interviewers that Once Upon a Time... talks about those years when it was widely believed that the age of Hollywood cinema was coming to an end with television making strong inroads into drawing rooms.

The Festival chief, Thierry Fremaux, has also described the Tarantino work as a love letter to Hollywood.

Finally, the Festival has added several titles to its list of official selections that include Abdellatif Kechiche’s four-hour Mektoub, My Love: Intermezzo. The director had earlier made Blue is the Warmest Colour, a lesbian love story which won the Palm dÓr 2013. His latest outing is a French comedy.

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