Tarantino to present ‘The Hateful Eight’ at JFF alongside Jennifer Jason Leigh

It’s been eight years since Quentin Tarantino first got involved with the Jerusalem Film Festival and the Jerusalem Cinematheque. Now he’s coming again – not only to attend the screening of his movie entitled The Hateful Eight but to present it with its star, Jennifer Jason Leigh, the festival’s guest of honor, on July 18.

The Hateful Eight, for which Leigh was nominated for an Oscar, is a dark Western set in wintry Wyoming about a bounty hunter (Kurt Russell) and his prisoner, a treacherous outlaw (Leigh), who is on the way to be hanged. They take shelter in a cabin with other brutal lawmen and equally tough criminals. It’s not a spoiler to say that things get pretty violent, and there is some snarky humor. 

The cast includes many regulars in Tarantino’s on-screen repertory company, among them Samuel L. Jackson, Tim Roth, and Michael Madsen, as well as Bruce Dern, Demian Bicher, and Walton Goggins. It features a score by iconic Italian composer Ennio Morricone – for which he won an Oscar – and even if you don’t know his name, I guarantee you can hum some of his tunes from previous films.

It will be shown in the afternoon of the opening day of the festival at the Jerusalem Cinematheque, before the opening-night screening of Thelma, an elderly-lady-takes-revenge comedy that will be shown before thousands at the Sultan’s Pool Amphitheater, including a thousand evacuees, soldiers, and bereaved families who will receive free tickets. The festival, which features hundreds of movies from Israel and around the world, will run until July 27 at the Cinematheque.

Tarantino starts learning Hebrew

Tarantino has taken part in many events at the Jerusalem Cinematheque, as well as the Tel Aviv Cinematheque, since he met and married his wife, Israeli singer/actress Daniella Pick. The two now live in the Tel Aviv area and have two young children. During the first week of the war, he visited an IDF base and posed for selfies with soldiers.

He has told late-night talk show hosts in the US that he watches kids’ television with his children and is starting to learn Hebrew. Pick recently completed filming a major role in The Perfect Gamble, a movie directed by and starring Danny A. Abeckaser, also starring Pick and David Arquette of the Scream franchise.

Tarantino was the guest of honor at the Jerusalem Film Festival in 2016, where he impressed Israelis with his affability and lack of pretension.

During the festival in 2021, at the height of Covid when few could travel, the famed director and actor saved the day by livening up the program with cult classics from his personal collection of movies by the Cannon Group, run by Israelis Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus. He presented these films with glee, introducing them and often sitting through them to the end, including double features.

For the full program and ticket ordering go to https://jff.org.il/en.