Stylish violence in the feminine

Rating: 6/10 (21 August 2006)

Quentin Tarantino is a very gifted image manipulator, and our times are times of "image", for the better or the worse. Cinema is the art of images and therefore he is very successful. He is furthermore honest paying tribute to the likes of Sergio Leone, Charles Bronson, Clint Eastwood, and so on.
But, like almost all directors in Hollywood, these days, he is just an imitator. Probably the best, but an imitator..
These 2 movies deserve to be seen for the performance of Uma Thurman. She is so versatile and credible in roles as different as a "French Marquise of the XVIII century (as in Vatel) to a woman Samurai (which never existed in Japan, and is totally alien to Japanese culture), in this movie.
If she does not control her career, things may go very wrong.
The same for Tarantino. We are approaching, or already reached, the end of a Era very similar to the "Belle Epoque" which ended in World War I's bloodshed.
Mankind cannot keep in harmony for more than say 70 years average...