September, whose breath even now dampens our necks, will see the UAE release of Inglourious Basterds. Anticipation runs hot for this, the sixth feature from the banana-jawed American auteur Quentin Tarantino, if one agrees for charity's sake to overlook Four Rooms.
I'm not a huge Tarantino fan but even so, I confess I am curious to see this film when it finally plays in Abu Dhabi. For one thing, having followed the voluminous and excitable coverage heaped upon it since its debut at Cannes in May, it has proven remarkably difficult to get any clear sense of what manner of beast the film really is.
We know that it's an homage to pulpy Second World War thrillers, that it references the spaghetti westerns of Sergio Leone and that there's a splendid villain in it - an SS "Jew-hunter" played by the German television actor Christoph Waltz, hoisted from obscurity by Tarantino for this film.
But is it, in the words of the great critic Roger Ebert, "a big, bold, audacious war movie", an additional proof of the director's ability to deliver "quixotic delights"? Or is it rather, as the Guardian's Peter Bradshaw claims, "a gigantic two-and-a-half-hour anticlimax" boasting only "great heavy lumps of nothing"?
As a potential viewer, one is placed in a position of unusual ignorance, a state of doubt rarely achieved in this age of online spoilers and rottentomatoes.com. It is, I'm surprised to find, all quite exciting. What, when you get down to it, is Inglourious Basterds?
My own thrilling sense of uncertainty seems not to have been diminished by the fact that I've already seen it. I was, as it happens, one of the film's first reviewers, crammed into that Cannes screening. An hour or so later I had composed The National's slightly giddy write-up. I gave it four stars, noting that it was "sadistic, jingoistic, inauthentic" but, all the same, "a blast".
At the time I wasn't entirely sure what I'd seen, except that it was in doubtful taste and that I'd enjoyed it. My review was, I thought, the kind of delicate hedge that shouldn't blow up on me. And then I started to hear what other people were saying.
Incoherent. Botched. Tarantino still has nothing to say, except now he's saying it about the Holocaust. That was the gist of it.
My colleague Kaleem Aftab appeared sunk in gloom at the whole thing. In the press office there was a rumbling consensus that Tarantino had finally lost the plot. Most perplexingly, several critics appeared to have found it very boring. (It does, in fairness, run to a talky 153 minutes, many of them subtitled.)
The more I listened, the more convinced I became by the case for the prosecution. Why was it called Inglourious Basterds when the guerrilla group of the same name played so small a part in it? Why did it feel like Brad Pitt, the top-billed actor on the marquee, was just pulling a whimsical cameo between smug caper films? Why exactly was Eli Roth, that gleaming-eyed Squirrel Nutkin of torture porn, allowed on screen at all? It all mounted up. Ah well, I thought, perhaps I can spin my review as a piece of Armond White-style contrarianism. It is still possible to carve out a career as an idiot about films, after all.
Imagine my puzzlement when the first wave of pre-release commentary seemed to vindicate my first impression. American reviewers seemed as entertained by its pop-art vacuity and hokey sensationalism as I had been ("for anyone professing true movie love," said Rolling Stone in a representative take, "there's no resisting it").
The Brits pretty uniformly hated it, but mainly for irritable, hand-wavy reasons. Sukdev Sandhu complained in the Telegraph that Pitt "carries himself like a cross between Popeye the Sailorman and Clark Gable," but who could see that as a bad thing?
Indeed, the spread of opinions has been so wide, the factions so evenly matched, that any firm view looks like a hostage to posterity. Misshapes like Inglorious Basterds make fools of us all, especially reviewers. Best to steer clear. Still, I wouldn't mind another look. Just to check, you understand.
RESULT
Kolkata Knight Riders 169-7 (20 ovs)
Rajasthan Royals 144-4 (20 ovs)
Kolkata win by 25 runs
Next match
Sunrisers Hyderabad v Kolkata Knight Riders, Friday, 5.30pm
Famous left-handers
- Marie Curie
- Jimi Hendrix
- Leonardo Di Vinci
- David Bowie
- Paul McCartney
- Albert Einstein
- Jack the Ripper
- Barack Obama
- Helen Keller
- Joan of Arc
Coming soon
Torno Subito by Massimo Bottura
When the W Dubai – The Palm hotel opens at the end of this year, one of the highlights will be Massimo Bottura’s new restaurant, Torno Subito, which promises “to take guests on a journey back to 1960s Italy”. It is the three Michelinstarred chef’s first venture in Dubai and should be every bit as ambitious as you would expect from the man whose restaurant in Italy, Osteria Francescana, was crowned number one in this year’s list of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants.
Akira Back Dubai
Another exciting opening at the W Dubai – The Palm hotel is South Korean chef Akira Back’s new restaurant, which will continue to showcase some of the finest Asian food in the world. Back, whose Seoul restaurant, Dosa, won a Michelin star last year, describes his menu as, “an innovative Japanese cuisine prepared with a Korean accent”.
Dinner by Heston Blumenthal
The highly experimental chef, whose dishes are as much about spectacle as taste, opens his first restaurant in Dubai next year. Housed at The Royal Atlantis Resort & Residences, Dinner by Heston Blumenthal will feature contemporary twists on recipes that date back to the 1300s, including goats’ milk cheesecake. Always remember with a Blumenthal dish: nothing is quite as it seems.
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Election pledges on migration
CDU: "Now is the time to control the German borders and enforce strict border rejections"
SPD: "Border closures and blanket rejections at internal borders contradict the spirit of a common area of freedom"
What is the FNC?
The Federal National Council is one of five federal authorities established by the UAE constitution. It held its first session on December 2, 1972, a year to the day after Federation.
It has 40 members, eight of whom are women. The members represent the UAE population through each of the emirates. Abu Dhabi and Dubai have eight members each, Sharjah and Ras al Khaimah six, and Ajman, Fujairah and Umm Al Quwain have four.
They bring Emirati issues to the council for debate and put those concerns to ministers summoned for questioning.
The FNC’s main functions include passing, amending or rejecting federal draft laws, discussing international treaties and agreements, and offering recommendations on general subjects raised during sessions.
Federal draft laws must first pass through the FNC for recommendations when members can amend the laws to suit the needs of citizens. The draft laws are then forwarded to the Cabinet for consideration and approval.
Since 2006, half of the members have been elected by UAE citizens to serve four-year terms and the other half are appointed by the Ruler’s Courts of the seven emirates.
In the 2015 elections, 78 of the 252 candidates were women. Women also represented 48 per cent of all voters and 67 per cent of the voters were under the age of 40.
Bharatanatyam
A ancient classical dance from the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Intricate footwork and expressions are used to denote spiritual stories and ideas.
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
Ms Yang's top tips for parents new to the UAE
- Join parent networks
- Look beyond school fees
- Keep an open mind
Subscribe to Beyond the Headlines
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
The specs
Engine: Four electric motors, one at each wheel
Power: 579hp
Torque: 859Nm
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Price: From Dh825,900
On sale: Now
UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
