8:00 PM, 28th July, 2011
Reservoir Dogs may have introduced the world to the motor-mouthed cinematic stylings of Quentin Tarantino, but it is his Academy Award winning 1994 film Pulp Fiction that showed us all what he was really capable of.
The fractured narrative of this cult hit follows a boxer on the run (Bruce Willis), a couple of diner bandits (Tim Roth and Amanda Plummer), a gangster's wife (Thurman) and a pair of mob hit men (Jackson and Travolta, in the role that brought him back to A-list status) as their lives, wise cracks and crimes intersect - but even that is a gross simplification of a wonderfully intertwining and entertaining story. Accompanied by an iconic soundtrack, soaked in blood, laced with pop culture references and infinitely quotable, Pulp Fiction marked a turning point in cinema that loudly, and profanely, heralded the true arrival of the American indie movement. An ensemble piece in the truest sense of the word - with Harvey Keitel, Steve Buscemi, Ving Rhames and Christopher Walken (with a very special watch) all also making appearances - this is a film that every cinephile should experience.
Even if you have seen it a hundred times before, there's never a bad time to revisit this seminal genre-bending classic on the big screen. And if you've never had the chance, there is no better place than at the ANU Film Group to at last find out what they call a Quarter Pounder with Cheese in Paris!
Daniel Eisenberg