Quentin Tarantino

"That's, like, really cool.""But, like, how about the one in, you know . . . ? That one was cool, too.""That one? It was really incredibly cool, too. Oh, it was like, too cool for words!"You're guessing mall teens on the subject of the best cuts on R.E.M.'s new CD? Or possibly two mentally challenged Sylvester Stallone fans (a redundancy, I admit) on the subject of their hero's best muscle group? Or, remote but still feasible, two of the Colt-impaired, remembering fabled games of yore in a chilly yard called Memorial Stadium?

Quentin Tarantino, Hollywood's reigning enfant terrible, seems to have some fans in the motion picture academy -- and in the pressroom. Tarantino's win, his second (he also won for "Pulp Fiction"), was a bit of a surprise, as it bested pre-Oscar favorites "Amour" and "Zero Dark Thirty. " But his win in the Original Screenplay category suggests the academy is becoming fond of Tarantino's brand of outrageousness. And the backstage pressroom's reaction -- a collective gasp followed by some heartfelt applause -- suggests cinema scribes feel likewise.

Details goes Hollywood for February, with an entire issue devoted to tinsel talk. The investigative piece on Scientology and celebrity sheds little light on the cult itself, and less on the motives of actor-followers like John Travolta, Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman and Kirstie Alley.Demi Moore writes about the trials of carrying weighty gifts of jewelry from her husband: They "practically qualify me as an honorary Gabor," she says. And Samuel L. Jackson writes about how being famous means being mistaken for Laurence Fishburne.

Christoph Waltz, fresh off winning one of the most competetive Oscar categories in recent memory -- all five Supporting Actor nominees were previous Oscar winners -- was admittedly caught off guard when he heard his name called from the Oscar stage. Asked how he felt about winning his second Supprting Actor Oscar in three years, Waltz said simply, "Guess. " Then, he paid tribute to the competition. "I was on a list with the greatest actors around," he said backstage. "How do you think someone feels when his name is called in that context?"

Murder, rape, dismemberment and cannibalism. The newest slasher flick at the multiplex? Or, the latest post-modern work by Quentin Tarantino or Robert Rodriguez? No, the man behind this particular gore fest is the greatest writer in the English language, and the work is Titus Andronicus. Titus Andronicus continues through May 20 at the Shakespeare Theatre Company, 450 Seventh St. N.W., Washington. $19-$76.25. 877-487-8849 or shakespearetheatre.org.

More than a quarter-century has passed since Tom Wopat last jumped, feet first, into the General Lee and sped away for a half-hour of redneck fun on TV's "The Dukes of Hazzard. " But in a career that has included Tony and Grammy nods (thanks to his stint on Broadway in "Annie Get Your Gun") and television appearances aplenty, he's still Luke Duke to legions of fans. "It's amazing, it's crazy," says the 61-year-old Wopat, who still gets together with "Hazzard" co-star John Schneider (and sometimes even the original Daisy, Catherine Bach)

Quentin Tarantino, Hollywood's reigning enfant terrible, seems to have some fans in the motion picture academy -- and in the pressroom. Tarantino's win, his second (he also won for "Pulp Fiction"), was a bit of a surprise, as it bested pre-Oscar favorites "Amour" and "Zero Dark Thirty. " But his win in the Original Screenplay category suggests the academy is becoming fond of Tarantino's brand of outrageousness. And the backstage pressroom's reaction -- a collective gasp followed by some heartfelt applause -- suggests cinema scribes feel likewise.

"Quentin Tarantino: Shooting from the Hip," by Wensley Clarkson. Overlook Press. Illustrated. 312 pages. $15.95 paper, $24.95 hard The breakneck ascent of Quentin Tarantino from video store clerk to Hollywood auteur was nearly legendary even before his first feature film, "Reservoir Dogs" (1992), had been widely released. By now the news feels a bit stale, but it's only lately that enough material has accrued to make a biography of the 32-year-old screenwriter and director a reasonable proposition.

"I've never seen 23 films in one week before," said Cannes jury president Clint Eastwood. "It makes me want to go home and cut at least 20 minutes out of every movie I ever made."Nevertheless, Mr. Eastwood and his nine colleagues, including jury vice president Catherine Deneuve, survived such endurance contests as a 2-hour, 33-minute Indian film about a roadside coffee shop (highlight: rat drowning in a jar of yogurt) to arrive at a verdict Monday night, bringing to an end the 47th annual Cannes Film Festival in France.

"Four Rooms," no vu.You people must have been very naughty to get this lump of coal in your Christmas stocking! A collection of four "short stories" written and directed by four allegedly talented, hip young directors, the movie is a total catastrophe. Ninety minutes long, it produces but one laugh and that one doesn't arrive until Minute 90. Worse, the film is actually annoying."Four Rooms" is set in an aging Hollywood hotel on New Year's Eve and follows one character, the new bellhop Ted (Tim Roth)

Justin Timberlake has released a small slice of his next album, "The 20/20 Experience," causing the New York Times to spin in circles spouting wardrobe puns. Also catching the Internet's eye over the weekend and this morning: Free speech advocate Aaron Swartz committed suicide after what friends and relatives say was a devastating smear campaign, the Ravens will be playing the Patriots for a conference championship, Quentin Tarantino is not afraid of controversy and there are shiny new things in Detroit.

More than a quarter-century has passed since Tom Wopat last jumped, feet first, into the General Lee and sped away for a half-hour of redneck fun on TV's "The Dukes of Hazzard. " But in a career that has included Tony and Grammy nods (thanks to his stint on Broadway in "Annie Get Your Gun") and television appearances aplenty, he's still Luke Duke to legions of fans. "It's amazing, it's crazy," says the 61-year-old Wopat, who still gets together with "Hazzard" co-star John Schneider (and sometimes even the original Daisy, Catherine Bach)

This rapacious new breed prowls alone and in packs, operating on any level. Anytime, anywhere and with anybody. Who are they? Your secretary, a doctor's receptionist or ... a go-go dancer!"

Murder, rape, dismemberment and cannibalism. The newest slasher flick at the multiplex? Or, the latest post-modern work by Quentin Tarantino or Robert Rodriguez? No, the man behind this particular gore fest is the greatest writer in the English language, and the work is Titus Andronicus. Titus Andronicus continues through May 20 at the Shakespeare Theatre Company, 450 Seventh St. N.W., Washington. $19-$76.25. 877-487-8849 or shakespearetheatre.org.

With Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez's Grindhouse opening today as a tribute to the cheap thrills and tawdry surroundings that fueled their cinematic adolescence, the lament here is that that kind of film-going experience is largely a thing of the past. Back in the '70s, when those guys were growing up, the so-called grindhouse theaters - run-down buildings showing cheaply made films in surroundings that weren't exactly pristine - kept alive the illusion that movie-going was an egalitarian experience.

CANNES, France - It has become something of a journalistic cliche to preface any mention of Wong Kar-Wai's 2046 with the words long awaited. Four years have passed since his In the Mood for Love, with its elliptical story and fabulous clothes, set the critics swooning at the 53rd Cannes International Film Festival (and won its dapper male lead, Tony Leung, the award for best actor). Wong's new film was expected at the Cannes festival last spring, and then in Venice the following summer.

With a title of "Destiny Turns on the Radio," you don't expect an ordinary movie.And with "Pulp Fiction"/pop culture maestro Quentin Tarantino playing a mythical character named Johnny Destiny, you don't even expect a halfway normal flick. What you get is a film that's calculated to be offbeat in the same obvious way that some Hollywood movies are prepackaged to be mainstream.This is the first feature of director Jack Baran, but it has definite Tarantino-ish touches. It's as rooted in '50s pop culture as Mr. Tarantino's pulp flicks are mired in the '70s.

Samuel Fuller, 86, a gritty drifter, former reporter and war hero who became one of the nation's premier directors of B movies and influenced other directors, including Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino, died Thursday in Los Angeles. He wrote most of his own screenplays and was perhaps best known for such 1950s movies as "The Steel Helmet" and "Pickup on South Street," and for "The Big Red One," a 1979 movie based on his experiences fighting with the 1st Infantry Division in World War II.Helen Wright Greuter, 82, an astronomer and author, died of heart failure Oct. 23 at a retirement home in her native Washington.

Six years have passed since Quentin Tarantino's last film, and not since Terrence Malick took a 20-year hiatus between Days of Heaven (1978) and The Thin Red Line (1998) has a director's return to the screen been more widely anticipated. Chat rooms have dedicated themselves to the topic. Speculation has known no bounds - was he suffering from chronic writer's block? Was he drying out someplace? Was he too demanding? Too sensitive to criticism? Just too plain weird for Hollywood? Kill Bill - Vol. 1 ends the drought, and its quality (as well as its assortment of patented Tarantino touches)

"The Saragossa Manuscript" was a favorite of Jerry Garcia and Luis Bunuel, and why not? Wojciech Has' 1965 film is a hallucinatory trip into history, the sub-conscious and narrative itself. Zbigniew Cybulski stars as a Napoleonic soldier who spies a book of drawings and is drawn into a series of ever-unfolding dream-stories worthy of Scheherazade. Garcia gave the Pacific Film Archives some money to find a complete print of the 180-minute movie, and the process of finding one ended the day before he died.