The D is Silent – All about the Django Unchained Cannes footage

We didn’t go to Cannes, but if we had, we probably would’ve seen some roughly seven minutes of Django Unchained today, and then suffered a heart attack and died, out of coolness. The Weinstein Company screened some footage of the film, something like an extended promo trailer, to industry people and journalists, and the reactions to it are great so far.

MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD, YOU’VE BEEN WARNED

Eric Vespe of Aintitcoolnews.com wrote a particularly enthusiastic review of the footage. He reveals the most amazing double-fact right in the first sentence, namely the nature of Franco Nero‘s cameo, and how the main character is to be pronounced.

Now, I was already won over by the time we see Jamie Foxx and a grizzled cowboy in a two shot having drinks at a saloon, but the moment I realized who the cowboy was I went from love to obsessed stalker. “What’s yer name?” Franco Nero asks Foxx. “Django,” he replies. “The D is silent.”

He goes on to describe how it is a fairly humorous, but also quite bloody at times, movie – at least from what he saw. And he gives another soundtrack clue: James Brown – The Big Payback.

Another soundtrack clue comes from Totalfilm.com’s really good breakdown of 8 essential things they learn from the footage. They mention Johnny Cash, but also mention how it looks in gorgeous widescreen and how essential Christoph Waltz is in the movie. And not to be outdone, there’s plenty of language to go around for the sensitive folk..

Tarantino has written a film set in the pre-civil war South and his script reflects all the realities of that. So expect the N-bomb to be dropped everywhere by everyone

Django Unchained

Lasty, I recommend checking out CriticWire, who summed up a number of tweets by people who saw the footage.

Empire Magazine: “Harvey Weinstein just presented 7 mins of ‘Django Unchained.’ Looks ace. We’re tipping Fritz the nodding horse to be a breakout star. #Cannes”

I hope that silences all the ridiculous kinda bad Twitter press the movie has been getting due to some changes in the cast, which are being blown completely out of proportion because people don’t read more than catchy headlines. I recommend you to read the three articles that I linked above, none of them very spoilerific, and I think what emerges is a confirmation of how awesome we all think this movie is gonna be. All the style of Leone-inspired widescreen spaghetti western goodness, paired with Quentin Tarantino‘s unique blending of genres and twisting of expectations. I can’t wait to see Jamie Foxx as a blend between Richard Roundtree and Clint Eastwood.

Click here to get a BluRay of Sergio Corbucci’s Django

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Sebastian

Sebastian is the founder and owner of the Tarantino Archives and has been a fan and observer of QT for over two decades now, cherishing his work and the window in the the wider world of cinema his movies have opened up. Inspired as such, he runs the Spaghetti Western Database (SWDb), the Grindhouse Cinema Database (GCDb), Furious Cinema, its German sister Nischenkino and The Robert Rodriguez Archives. He lives in Berlin.

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10 Responses

  1. Roulette says:

    I am dying to hear the soundtrack for this movie. James Brown, Johnny Cash, excellent choices so far as I’m concerned. I love both of these artists. I wonder which Cash song is used. Wow, this is the first time I’ve ever wanted to go to Cannes.

    • I hope the use in the footage of “The Payback” is just temporary, used just for the preview. Tarantino is the king of finding the most gloriously obscure stuff and putting it to great use… That particular James Brown tune (it IS a great song) is SO overused at this point. ‘Lock Stock & 2 Smoking Barrels’, ‘Poolhall Junkies’, ‘Dead Presidents’, ‘Scrubs’, ‘Bernie Mac Show’, ‘Everybody Hates Chris’, even in the game ‘Grand Theft Auto’! Yeesh!

  2. Bmm515 says:

    The Johnny Cash song is “Ain’t no Grave”.

  3. Bmm515 says:

    The guys in this video explain what they saw in the footage at about the 4 minute mark.
    http://vimeo.com/42568655

  4. VirgiliaCoriolanus says:

    I seriously cannot wait for this movie to come out.  Which is funny because my type of films are Jane Eyre, Pride and Prejudice, etc.  That tells you how good Mr. Tarantino is.  I have never been so excited about a movie, by just reading the description of the seven minute trailer.  It’s going to be hell on earth for me until I see this movie.

  5. Jack says:

    my ass