Inglourious Basterds and Tamara Taggart on Regis and Kelly

By Joe Leary | Aug 21, 2009

It’s the latest offering from filmmaker Quentin Tarantino and ‘Inglourious Basterds’ is certain to illicit response, given the story offers a fictional account of a group of Jewish-Americans out to scalp Nazis in 1941, thus eradicating the entire German High Command.

Director Eli Roth - among the group of horror filmmakers dubbed the ‘Splatt Pack’ – takes a turn in front of the camera in the role of Donny Donowitz ‘The Bear Jew’, a Boston native who joins forces with the traveling band of headhunters led by Brad Pitt’s character Lt. Aldo Raine.

During his first ever visit to our city this past week, I chatted with the somewhat reluctant actor, who talked about the ironic underlying story that takes place within the film.

“The whole last act takes place at the premiere of a Nazi propaganda movie,” Roth tells me. “I offered my directing services to Quentin to help him make the Cannes Film Festival because he was on a very tight schedule. He had me shoot the film within the film. You had Quentin directing this film with the Jews killing the Nazis and then there’s this Jewish director directing the Nazi propaganda film. It was really kind of perfect.”

Significant also as Tarantino actually utilized the European setting to shoot pivotal scenes in one of German’s most infamous locales.

“We shot it in Berlin and we were on the stages of Babelsberg, which is where (Joseph) Goebbels (one of Adolph Hitler’s closest associates) made 800 propaganda movies and one of the production offices was actually Goebbels office,” Roth tells me. “It was weird to film this scene of us shooting the scene in the theatre of us watching this Nazi propaganda movie with 300 people dressed like Nazi extras with the swastika banners. My parents are New York Jews and they swore they would never set foot in Berlin but I convinced them to come over. As soon as they got there, they said it was so different and the country has changed and they were so happy they were there and they ended up going to the Holocaust Museum. When they came to the set, there were all these extras and Quentin has them sing ‘Happy Birthday’ to my parents. It was not their birthday but he just wanted Hitler and Goebbels and the High Command of the all the Nazis singing to my parents.”

Unlike other films of the genre, ‘Inglourious Basterds’ utilizes a particular element of authenticity by utilizing a cast comprised largely of actual German-speaking actors.

“Most of the time the German soldiers are speaking Shakespearean English,” Roth tells me. “As Quentin says, you’d think that every Nazi trained at the Old Vic; so I just found it ridiculous since the Germans never spoke German.” It’s quite a unique take on Nazi-occupied France and is likely to have a strong this opening weekend.

Going in to the situation, CTV’s Tamara Taggart knew she was up against countless hundreds of other television news personalities from across North America, all vying for the opportunity of their broadcast lifetime to co-host ‘Live with Regis and Kelly’ from New York City for a day.

Vancouver’s most popular weather personality certainly didn’t disappoint, and just a few hours after her hosting stint with Regis Philbin came to an end, she told me just what exactly the whole experience was like for her.

“It was Number One for the highlight of my career, absolutely!” says Tamara.

“Knowing myself, I honestly thought I was going to be a nervous wreck, keeled over in the bathroom, freaking out and they’d have to drag me out of there and hold the show until I could pull it together. It didn’t happen – I was shockingly calm. Everyone there was just so calm, and incredibly friendly and welcoming. Regis was just incredible; he was so sweet and luckily for me, he took a liking to me and sort of took me under his wing. That helped a lot too.”

Given the magnitude of the opportunity presented to her, Tamara Taggart did not only herself proud, by the entire Province of BC. One can only begin to imagine the imminent possibilities that may present themselves to her from this point forward, and they would be well-deserved.

Well done Tamara!!!