By Tarantino Standards, Basterds Indeed Inglourious

(NEWSER) - Inglourious Basterds had a glorious opening weekend, scalping the box office for $37.6 million to give Quentin Tarantino the best opening of his career, USA Today reports. District 9 continued its strong showing in second place with $18.9 million, while GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra ($12.5 million), The Time Traveler's Wife ($10 million), and Julie & Julia ($9 million) rounded out the top five. More»

(NEWSER) - Michael Haneke’s The White Ribbon took the top prize at Cannes today, while Lars Von Triers’ controversial Antichrist was vindicated with a Best Actress award for Charlotte Gainsbourg, the AP reports. French film A Prophet won second place, with Fish Tank and Thirst tying for third. Christoph Waltz took Best Actor for his portrayal of a Nazi in Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds. More»

Economic woes put the breaks on Croisette craziness

(NEWSER) - The Cannes Film Festival opens tomorrow with a screening of the new Pixar film Up, but this year the glitzy two-week movie fest on the French Riviera may be a low-key affair, writes the Hollywood Reporter. Yachts have gone unrented, Vanity Fair has canceled its annual party, and movie execs are anxious about the dealmaking that takes place around the festival. More»

(NEWSER) - The trailer for Quentin Tarantino’s new film, Inglourious Basterds, is just 100 seconds long, but that's enough. "Perhaps there will prove to be a level of postmodern self-ironising,” Paul MacInnes writes in the Guardian. “Perhaps serving up Kill Bill with the Holocaust as a backdrop will be a fabulously worthwhile endeavor.” More likely, he writes, "This is going to be the worst film ever made!" More»

Germany probing 1944 massacre in occupied France

(NEWSER) - German police have raided the homes of six former SS soldiers suspected of having taken part in the worst massacre of civilians in Nazi-occupied France. A German war crimes prosecutor says the John Demjanjuk trial inspired him to reopen the investigation into the massacre of 642 men, women, and children in the village of Oradour-sur-Glane four days after the D-Day landings in 1944, Der Spiegel reports. More»