'God, I didn't think I could be more offensive after 'Hostel 2,' but how can I upset people more than that?' said actor Eli Roth about the short movie to be seen in 'Inglourious Basterds'.
- Apr 30, 2009
AceShowbiz - Eli Roth's involvement in "Inglourious Basterds" is not restricted only on playing Sgt. Donnie Donowitz, but also on helming a short film within the Quentin Tarantino-directed movie. The fact was exposed when the 37-year-old filmmaker shared to MTV News details of the film-within-a-film entitled "Stolz der Nation (The Nation's Pride)".
"Quentin had two shots that were very specific that he wanted to do - but he was like, 'For the rest of it, I need footage of people shooting. It's a guy in a bell-tower shooting 260 Americans. I need footage of people shooting!' So I said okay," Roth told MTV of the short film's shooting. "We got a second camera, and in 2 days we did like 130 shots and Quentin was so happy he gave me a third day."
"We shot with the actor Daniel Bruhl, and put together this Nazi propaganda film," he continued. "...[as we shot] I was thinking 'God, I didn't think I could be more offensive after 'Hostel 2,' but how can I upset people more than that?'" He also shared on his direction techniques at the time, saying "I was going, 'More swastikas! More swastikas!'"
Of the result, Roth opened up on his own reaction during the film's first audience screening. "The first time we showed it to an audience [the actors] were in character, but the Germans were screaming 'Heil Hitler!' and 'Kill the Jews!' and it was terrifying," he remembered. "We watched it over and over, and we were all friends and joking around by the end of it. But there was still something very powerful about that. I looked at Quentin and said, 'What have I done?'"
Centering its story on a group of disgraced U.S. soldiers at the period of World War II, "Inglourious Basterds" will tell an intertwined story between the soldiers sent to blow up a Parisian theaters premiering a Nazi propaganda film and a French Jewish teenager whose family is brutally murdered by the Nazi.
The star-studded cast ensemble of "Basterds" include Brad Pitt, Mike Myers, Diane Kruger, Michael Fassbender, Julie Dreyfus, Paul Rust and Melanie Laurent. Directed, co-produced and penned by Quentin Tarantino, the World War II flick is slated for August 21 U.S. release.
