Thursday

Perhaps five of the best minutes in cinema are those that occur in the build-up to the climax of Tarantino's Kill Bill: Vol. 1. To the annoyance of the purists among you, I switched on part-way through this film and watched it to the end. The five minutes begin with the cue 'One ticket to Tokyo, please'. There are about four song changes - each one now a classic, over-used in a hundred TV shows. We have a brief car chase, and then what feels like a single camera movement lasting several minutes, panning around the Japanese tavern. The tension builds brilliantly. And then the fight begins - perhaps one of the bloodiest in film history, but I'm not altogether convinced by its impressiveness. The build-up is the most important thing. I wonder if you could make a whole film of such choreographed action? I'm guessing it's necessary to have silence and dialogue in order to pace the movie, but certainly we could see more of what Tarantino does here so excellently: great music, great movement, great script. What are your favourite five minutes?