Professor David Peimer
Inglorious Basterds: The Revenge Fantasy
Summary
Professor David Peimer discusses Inglorious Basterds, a 2009 war film written and directed by Quentin Tarantino that tells an alternate history of two plots to assassinate Nazi Germany’s leadership
Professor David Peimer
David Peimer is a professor of theatre and performance studies in the UK. He has taught at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, and New York University (Global Division), and was a Fulbright Scholar at Columbia University. Born in South Africa, David has won numerous awards for playwriting and directing. He has written eleven plays and directed forty in places like South Africa, New York, Brussels, London, Berlin, Zulu Kingdom, Athens, and more. His writing has been published widely and he is the editor of Armed Response: Plays from South Africa (2009) and the interactive digital book Theatre in the Camps (2012). He is on the board of the Pinter Centre in London.
Well, interestingly, they had to adapt quite a bit of it. Because you’re not allowed to show some of these images of swastikas and other things in Germany. But from what I understand it went very well, and like in many other countries, made money, and received a mostly positive response. But there was also enormous debate that I’ve tried to mention here. You know, and he was questioned by Der Spiegel and some of the other newspapers, “Are you making fun of the Holocaust?” You know, “What are you trying to do here?” So I think the debate was held at the forefront.
Well that’s a very important question. You know, when history is retold in art, whether through film or literature, or film or plays, what do they believe? I mean, Harari’s interesting argument is that the collective fiction of what a group believes in is necessary for the group to cohere in some way. And that phrase, “collective fictions,” you know, collective mythical stories. Stories of the imagination, which are made up really. Some might argue of different religious stories, or biblical or whatever. What’s believed and what isn’t, what’s truthful? Centuries or thousands or hundreds of years later is always a profound question.