"Once upon a time …" from Tarantino: The dawn and childhood memories of Hollywood

"Once upon a time in Hollywood" Quentin Tarantino, the ninth film, is a cinematic event in itself. He is the penultimate director (he had previously announced that he only wanted to do ten films). The film is a poem and a message of love for the cinema in general and for the cinema of the sixties and for itself.

We will not talk about the story or the sub-stories recommended by the director in Cannes, but we can say that Tarantino brings us back to the end of the 1960s, more precisely in 1969. When the wind of film change begins in Los Angeles in general and Hollywood in particular (New Hollywood *); Actor Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his replacement and friend Clive Booth (Brad Pitt) should try to adapt to this situation. They must look differently and do something unusual to flourish again and embark on a new adventure together. Tarantino offers a beautiful and sunny Los Angeles, and salutes television and film production (especially "B Movie") at this stage, but also reveals the evolution of the current social and cultural model.

Too often in the film, as usual Tarantino, the duo drowns in their work and their friendship and drowns us with them in the head of Tarantino, who revises his imagination with real events and real characters such as Bruce Lee, Charles Mcdonald, Steve McQueen, Sharon Tate (Margot Robbie) and the wife of director Roman Polanski and the legendary victim of the Manson family. Drowning is not going to last, Tarantino takes us a moment to catch our breath, then drowns us again with long dialogues, an overdose of drama (like Jackie Brown), the blood and violence of Tarantino. He even offers a monologue to a murderer of the Manson family, he speaks of the romanticization of violence in the world of entertainment as if it came out of the mouth of Tarantino.

Tarantino always finds a unique way to communicate with his audience: he celebrates his favorite movies by repeating some of his scenes in different ways. In his ninth film, he reinforces his skills as a director and screenwriter by applying them to a broad concept of the film industry of the 1960s. Despite the praiseworthy intentions of the director to write a love letter to Hollywood, the film just does not have a precise or specific definition … "Once upon a time in Hollywood" an unstable cultural mix, with superb layers and tones thanks to the unique style of the director and the exciting chemistry of his heroes, supported by long and multiple dialogues, violence, blood and laughter (as always happens in the Tarantino cinema). America in the movie Tarantino is about to lose his innocence. The film is a still image of a transformed past. Browse the sounds, colors, angels and demons of Hollywood and America of the time. But Hollywood, rebuilt by Tarantino, has not yet opened its eyes to the arrival of new rebels who will revolutionize it (for example, Bonnie and Clyde, 1967), but the director of the Razorvoire Dogs has preferred to focus on the long retreat from the movie kingdom at this time. The film jumps brilliantly between flashbacks and illustrative scenes. Tarantino always knows what he wants to offer: his allusions to the pop culture of the time are an artistic expression of his nostalgia. There are songs by Neil Diamond, moms and dads, references to Sergio Corpucci's Western cinema, Antonio Margheretti's war films, Western pop novels, huge live-music concerts, and more. boys in Hawaii, Hawaiian shirts, flower power, movie posters, leather jackets, hippies, the facade of mega cinemas, short skirts and filming locations.

Tarantino has always had the feeling of being a historian but also a vandal; he plays with the past as he pleases, uses his events to form and present his own appreciation and love for an undesirable period (as he did in an "unknown journey"), confident that his talent, as a writer and healer of Cinneville's mythology, Enough to make movies as he sees them. The cinema is presented as a model of collective memory, as an overflowing pbadion, as a way of life. He flips facts, scenes, and events as he pleases, hitting us almost every second with Bob's culture (often forgotten) and citing cinematic details that prompt us to revisit his recommendations to watch some movies in order to understand every aspect internal jokes of the film. But do not worry, even without this duty: a thrilling action in Hollywood that requires special attention, the comedy is incredibly fun (some scenes made us laugh a few minutes later), but it is certainly not the better than the American director did. As he described, "pure Tarantino" with greater maturity and deeper understanding than the picture in a thousand words, especially the last fifteen minutes.

* New Hollywood is a wave of American cinema that debuted in the late 60's, drawing inspiration from the clbadic Hollywood movie tradition.

• It begins in Lebanese cinemas on August 15, 2019, in the hope of not removing any scenes from the film as in previous films, during its screening in Lebanon.