David Roche, Professor at Université Toulouse Jean Jaurès, and member of CAS (Cultures Anglo-Saxonnes) “What Shall the History Books Read?”: History, Film History and Cinematic Metafiction in Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds (2009), Django Unchained (2012) and The Hateful Eight (2015)
Abstract: This talk starts by considering Tarantino’s turn to historical material from Inglourious Basterds on. Like many historical films, Inglourious Basterds, Django Unchained and The Hateful Eight have been criticized for misrepresenting historical facts and experiences or, worse, disrespecting them, but I argue that this turn, in effect, makes explicit the mode by which metafiction investigates the relationship between fiction and reality. Engaging with film history through allegory does not preclude an engagement with history; on the contrary, it constitutes the means by which the films inscribe themselves within cultural history.
