Inglourious Basterds

For Lights, Camera . . . , we ask a craftsperson to talk about a specific scene in his or her latest film. This week, Sally Menke, Sally Menke, film editor on "Inglourious Basterds," talks about the shootout scene in the basement tavern. Quentin Tarantino told the multiple stories of "Inglourious Basterds" in five distinct chapters, and we knew from the script stage the film would hinge around the set-piece in the tavern La Louisianne. The daunting task of putting a 25-page dialogue sequence, spoken almost entirely in German, in the middle of the film, weighed heavily on everyone's minds, and it all had to come together in the cutting room.

"The King's Speech" and "The Fighter" solidified their positions as Oscars front-runners Thursday morning when they each received four nominations for the 17th Screen Actors Guild Awards. "The King's Speech," a period drama about King George VI's efforts to correct his stammer, earned nominations for Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush, Helena Bonham Carter and, perhaps most importantly, in the ensemble category -- SAG's equivalent of the best picture Oscar. "The Fighter," a drama about a Boston boxer who gets his shot at the championship, earned nods for Christian Bale, Melissa Leo, Amy Adams and ensemble.

Ah, that most inglourious of basterds, Quentin Tarantino. His raucous new World War II farce with its tiny Jewish American contingent out to exact justice on Nazis in France is also raising a lather among the body politic. Brad Pitt is the leading basterd, a hill-country absurdist with a killer underbite and a choking drawl. He's demanding 100 Nazi scalps from each of his men, which the filmmaker proceeds to deliver in hair-razing color. More than a few critics have handed Tarantino's scalp right back for his irreverent take on the war's indignities and atrocities, though he's never been shy about the mayhem he'll wreak given the chance.

Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis from "Black Swan," Jesse Eisenberg from "The Social Network," Annette Bening, Julianne Moore and Mark Ruffalo from "The Kids Are All Right," Mark Wahlberg and Christian Bale from "The Fighter" and James Franco from "127 Hours" are among the contenders when the 17th annual Screen Actors Guild Award nominations are announced early Thursday morning. On the television front, the projected front-runners are Jon Hamm and Elisabeth Moss from " Mad Men," Michael C. Hall from "Dexter," Jim Parsons from "The Big Bang Theory" and Edie Falco from "Nurse Jackie.

When Quentin Tarantino was just a video store clerk filled with filmmaking dreams, he and his pals shared a shorthand for the against-all-odds mission movie they would someday make: "This will be our 'Inglorious Bastards!' " Tarantino and his friends would say.

Inglourious Basterds Universal, $29.98/$34.98; Blu-ray, $39.98 Cannes audiences largely dismissed Quentin Tarantino's long-gestating World War II adventure, but actual moviegoers and a brilliant marketing campaign turned this talky, unusual action picture into a surprise hit. It's heartening to know that a slow-building story (more than half of which isn't even in English) about cartoonish Nazi-hunting soldiers, tragic cinéastes and the perils of propaganda can win over crowds expecting a bloody romp.

Iconoclastic filmmaker Quentin Tarantino, hot off earning Oscar nominations Tuesday for best director and original screenplay for "Inglourious Basterds," will discuss his career with Variety critic Todd McCarthy on Monday at the American Cinematheque's Egyptian Theatre screening of "Basterds," which received eight Academy Award nominations overall, and his 1994 classic "Pulp Fiction." www .egyptiantheatre.com . At LACMA "Song of the Dunes," a new documentary about the difficult lives of the "untouchable" caste musicians in India's Rajasthan state, screens Thursday at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art's Leo S. Bing Theater.

Never mind its handicapping by many gurus of gold as an odds-on Oscar front-runner heading into Sunday evening. The downsizing drama "Up in the Air" was completely excluded in all six categories for which it was nominated, including nods for George Clooney (best actor) and director Jason Reitman. And "Up in the Air" was hardly the only multiple nominee to fall into a veritable hurt locker of Oscar indifference. In director James Cameron's trailblazing sci-fi epic "Avatar," its 10-foot-tall alien characters utter the phrase "I see you" to one another as a kind of outer-space affirmation, signifying: "I understand and accept you. I validate your existence."

It's fascinating to look at the blog postings Wednesday from the Cannes Film Festival of the premiere of "Inglourious Basterds," Quentin Tarantino's WWII Nazi-scalping action fantasy (he has the Reich apparently coming to an end not in Hitler's bunker but in a Paris movie theater). To me, the postings reflect each blog's rooting interest in the film and the director, whose PR campaign is orchestrated by the Weinstein Co., which will release the film later this summer.

After watching the Golden Globes red carpet turn into a soggy glamour scramble, the organizers of the Screen Actors Guild Awards pitched a tent over their scarlet rug. The rain never came Saturday evening at the Shrine Auditorium, but the covering still felt right -- every celebrity circus needs a big top. The Times' Geoff Boucher and Amy Kaufman share some moments from the center ring, inside and outside the show. The show ended with a director singing the praises of another director.

SUNDAY Dr. Jill Biden, wife of Vice President Joe Biden and "second lady" of these United States, guests stars as herself and salutes our nation's service members and their families on a new episode of the drama "Army Wives."   (Lifetime, 10 p.m.) MONDAY "California Gurls" and "Glee" boys come together when singer Katy Perry (below) and the series' young male stars co-host "Teen Choice 2010," the latest edition of the awards celebrating adolescent fans' pop-culture faves.

Here's to the exceptionally inglourious Christoph Waltz, so wicked, so winning and now so richly rewarded with an Oscar for his simpering Nazi nemesis in Quentin Tarantino's bloody World War II satire, "Inglourious Basterds." The 53-year-old Austrian-born actor, long a popular and prolific presence in German TV and film, was basically an unknown in this country until "Basterds" blew into town in late summer. Early on he had picked up a best actor honor at Cannes, but it wasn't until the film opened here that critical accolades began piling up faster than the U.S. debt.

"The Hurt Locker," a gritty, challenging and little-seen drama about bomb disposal in the Iraq war, was the leading winner with six Academy Awards on Sunday night, including best picture and the first directing honor for a female filmmaker. Academy Award organizers had doubled this year's best-picture contest to 10 movies to rope in more mass-appeal hits and boost the ceremony's ratings; but "The Hurt Locker," an emotionally exhausting account of an Army Explosive Ordnance Disposal team, stands apart as the lowest-grossing film in modern history to capture Hollywood's highest award.

Never mind its handicapping by many gurus of gold as an odds-on Oscar front-runner heading into Sunday evening. The downsizing drama "Up in the Air" was completely excluded in all six categories for which it was nominated, including nods for George Clooney (best actor) and director Jason Reitman. And "Up in the Air" was hardly the only multiple nominee to fall into a veritable hurt locker of Oscar indifference. In director James Cameron's trailblazing sci-fi epic "Avatar," its 10-foot-tall alien characters utter the phrase "I see you" to one another as a kind of outer-space affirmation, signifying: "I understand and accept you. I validate your existence."

Film editing "The Hurt Locker" Bob Murawski and Chris Innis The prize for best editing went to the husband-and-wife team of Bob Murawski and Chris Innis for their work on the whiplash tense "The Hurt Locker." It was the first nomination for both. "Thank you to the academy for giving this award to a movie that was made without compromise," Murawski said. "We didn't have any preview screenings or focus groups or studio notes. Everybody made the movie we wanted to make."

Cinematography "Avatar" Mauro Fiore In tribute to the film's groundbreaking visuals -- a combination of live-action and computer-generated images -- the award for best cinematography went to Mauro Fiore for his work on director James Cameron's "Avatar." The film was shot using high-definition digital cameras and a system for creating 3-D effects invented specifically for the film. "I want to thank the academy for this unbelievable honor," said the 45-year-old Italian-born Fiore, who received his first Oscar nomination for "Avatar."

This Oscar race has become one of the most exciting contests we've seen in years. Other than the supporting acting races, which seem pretty solidly locked up by Mo'Nique and Christoph Waltz, there's not a sure thing in sight. Will it be "Avatar" or "The Hurt Locker"? Bullock or Streep"? A "Slumdog" season this isn't. So, curious for some insights into how the academy voters are leaning, we cajoled three members into anonymously revealing their actual votes. We talked to an actor, a director and a producer -- all men, in their late 40s to mid-50s -- about what they loved and why. You might be surprised at some of their choices.

BEST PICTURE "Avatar" "The Blind Side" "District 9" "An Education" "The Hurt Locker" "Inglourious Basterds" "Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire" "A Serious Man" "Up" "Up in the Air" SPOTLIGHT: In a classic David-versus-Goliath fight, pitting more than $2-billion box office giant "Avatar" against "The Hurt Locker," a maverick indie that has reaped only $16...