Quentin Tarantino talks Django Unchained
Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill director discusses depiction of slavery, violence in new western
Though Quentin Tarantino's latest film Django Unchained is still several weeks away from its theatrical release, chatter is already bubbling about one particular scene.
Described as an homage to the spaghetti Western, the film is set against the backdrop of slavery and — not surprising for a Tarantino title — doesn't shy away from extreme violence, including a much-discussed scene of African-American actress Kerry Washington being lashed with a bullwhip.
"We shot it on a real plantation, in the slave area quarters called shack row," Tarantino told CBC News on Monday, noting that it was one of the first sequences of that type his crew shot for the film and praising Washington's performance.
"You could feel the blood on the ground, the flesh on the trees. You felt the spirits kind of watching over the whole thing.
"[Those scenes] lay out the brutality of America at that time during slavery," he continued. "No matter what we were doing, far, far worse happened in real life."
The celebrated director of Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill and Inglourious Basterds was in Toronto for a special preview screening of Django Unchained, which stars Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz and Leonardo DiCaprio.
Tarantino talked to CBC's Deana Sumanac about taking the camera for the infamous whipping scene himself, his fascination with stories of revenge by the oppressed and the desire to tell a tale of operatic proportions (Note: some language).
Django Unchained is in theatres Dec. 25.