Film

Quentin Tarantino And Samuel L. Jackson Crashed Another Cinema After Their Interview On The Project

MELBOURNE. YOUR 24-HOUR WATCH OF THE ASTOR STARTS NOW.

by Meg Watson  19 January 2016

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If you’ve seen The Hateful Eight already, you’ve seen it the way director Quentin Tarantino wanted it to be seen: at the expense of a stressed and overworked film projectionist trying to figure out near-obsolete equipment, amid a throng of film students smugly explaining what an overture is to their friends. And, as painful as that sounds, it’s actually kind of great.

By releasing the film a week early exclusively on 70mm film with added overture and intermission, Tarantino’s deliberately created a unique filmic event — one which works to brings the grandeur and spectacle back to the move-going experience and provides the perfect atmosphere for a film which is essentially an elaborate three-hour stage play. I saw it on Sunday night in a sold-out theatre of more than 1,000 and only kind of resent the fact I was released after midnight.

Now, in his Australian press tour for the film’s release, Tarantino’s been paying his thanks to the local fans and venues willing to see through his vision. On Saturday night, he and one of the film’s main stars Samuel L. Jackson popped into Sydney’s Ritz Cinema in Randwick — one of the seven Australian cinemas currently screening the film. And last night, they made their first appearance in Melbourne at Yarraville’s Sun Theatre with co-star Kurt Russell in tow.

“Well thanks for coming out to see my movie, it means a whole lot to me, I really appreciate it,” Tarantino said, according to a report from The Age‘s Beau Donelly. “In particular I want to thank [cinema owner Michael Smith] and his wonderful, dedicated crew that brought the 70mm projector to give you guys in this town a hell of a show. I saw that show-reel that showed how they did it, I watched that in Los Angeles and I actually had a tear come down my cheek I was so moved by it.”

That showreel he’s talking about is this — an adorable clip produced by the cinema’s owner about how they got the 70mm technology working. It at one point features a group of cuddly old film nerds with notebooks laughing and rattling out ideas about what this film means for the future of big event cinema. It’s the best.

As others have pointed out on social media, this is not only a big win for the cinema but also the surrounding area. Yarraville is a sleepy little suburb in Melbourne’s west known for its hip young families, nice cafes and bookshops, and an increasingly violent war over parking meters. Thousands of locals have been rallying against the introduction of paid parking in the suburb’s main strip for more than a year now, and in November protesters reportedly “king-hit” and “bodyslammed” their local councilors over the matter before comparing their plight to that of people in the Arab Spring.

“I just wanted to say you are very lucky to live in a town that has a cinema like this, you are very fortunate,” Tarantino said, thankfully unaware of any of this.

While this is great for the Sun Theatre, it’s also a huge let-down for The Astor: one of the only two other Melbourne cinemas showing the film in its 70mm format. Though Tarantino was clearly touched by the Sun’s work before he arrived, just a couple of hours before heading to Yarraville last night, he, Russell and Jackson were appearing on The Project — a show which is filmed at studios which are literally on the same street as the beloved old picture house.

Hopefully tonight is their night.

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Feature image via Nyk Lee/Twitter.

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The Hateful Eight is currently screening in 70mm at Event Cinemas George Street, Cremorne Orpheum and The Ritz Cinema in Sydney; and Village Cinemas Rivoli, The Astor Cinema and Sun Theatre Yarraville in Melbourne.