"Once upon a time … in Hollywood": Cannes Review | view

Dir / Scr Quentin Tarantino. WE. 2019. 158 mins.

The fact that Once upon a time … in Hollywood regards Sharon Tate (played by Margot Robbie) and the Manson family no secret. Its author / director Quentin Tarantino would like the public not to know exactly how; and he is right, because this knowledge would greatly reduce the viewing experience of his ninth film. But, like a real bedtime story, Once upon a time… does not really concern this one thing. There is staging, detours, getting lost, coming back, finding a happy ending. But it's mostly a love story – between two best friends (a TV star, Leonardo DiCaprio and stuntman Brad Pitt), and between Tarantino and the Los Angeles of his youth, he wants to revisit and redo.

Beyond all the keys 'Tarantino-esque' action, jokes, violence, constant references to the film, it's a real art at stake here

For Tarantino, it's an almost tender film – for him – although he's cracking more than a few heads along the way. It's always fun, with excellent performances by Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio, which gives it a potentially greater appeal than some of the director's more recent and more violent works (though, by themselves, they may disappoint unconditional fans). There is even an excellent dog. We can and will criticize the occasional loss of concentration of Tarantino; The vignettes he tells are all perfectly formed, but they are long and can exhaust the impetuosity of the film. But it is undoubtedly the commercial response of "independent" cinema in Marvel: big stars, big screen, big money.

In two acts, Pitt and DiCaprio, two top losers, offer us an entry into the world of television and cinema of the 1960s. The two stars are extremely pleasant to watch here during their first couple, with DiCaprio in full swing. as an unsafe actor who has seen better days and Pitt as a former stuntman and driver / driver at the bizarre and current job, clever with his fists. Both characters receive their own scenic flashbacks, and there is sometimes a humorous voice-over to get things done.

But do not get me wrong: Tarantino is in no hurry to finish this story, because DiCaprio reporter Rick Dalton learns shooting for a Western Sam Wanamaker and meets a Hollywood agent (Al Pacino) who tells him proposes to work on Spaghetti westerns. and has repeatedly collapsed on the fact that his television success as a bounty hunter is well in the black and white past. (The crumbling of the star system and the rise of television described here echo the seismic changes that occur in Hollywood today.)

Meanwhile, Pitt's loyal sidekick, Cliff Booth, returns home in his caravan, feeds his dog, a rat-like meal, pushes Bruce Lee away in a flashback and meets the hippy Pussycat (a Margaret Qualley's remarkable performance) which leads her to Spahn's Ranch Cinema and her encounter with The Manson Family (an unexpected cameo from Lena Durham here).

The public already knows that this is where Tarantino surrounds himself: by a stroke of luck, he invested in a property at the time, Rick lives on Cielo Drive, where he witnesses the whereabouts of Sharon Tate and from her husband, Roman Polanski. stars, unlike Rick envious). Tarantino also usefully provides a sequence in the Playboy Mansion where Tate and Polanski dance with Mama Cass and Michelle Phillips while Damian Lewis, as Steve McQueen, explains their story and explains how Tate is still adored by her ex-fiancé Jay Sebring (Emilie Hirsch)

Once upon a time … in Hollywood is beautifully done. Beyond all the nuances 'Tarantino-esque' of action, jokes, violence, constant references to the film, it is a real art at stake here. You can see it in close-ups – it's very close to the faces of its main actors – and when it's moving to take a long view of the ranch with the family stuck in a panic of goose bumps. There are bidding sequences where Hollywood neon lights are lit sequentially, which testifies to the skill of acting in an extended narrative of attempts to Rick to make sure his lines are right for Wanamaker. Even in the very first scene, a mock-up of a Hollywood backstage special, there's a real talent.

Because it reproduces cinematic styles and revisits the old world of the small screen, there could be a tendency to reject Once, once … in Hollywood as pastiche. But it's more than that: it's love. A quarter of a century to the day since the premiere of Quentin Tarantino pulp Fiction in Cannes, it's a new beginning for the filmmaker. And the heat is welcome.