After the cult Reservoir Dogs, Quentin Tarantino pulls off a real tour de force by directing "Pulp Fiction", a film whose excellence sometimes touches the sublime by relying on a truly cartoonish puzzle scenario. The cast mixes confirmed actors and resurrect the star of "Saturday Night
Fever" in the person of John Travolta, who excels as a precious and crazy gangster
His accomplice is the immense Samuel L Jackson, an extraordinary hitman who recites verses from the Bible (Ezekiel.25 verse 10.) before executing his contracts. His gestures and phrases are always delirious and contribute to his brilliant performance. Uma Thurman, little known at the time, plays the cocaine-addicted wife of the two killers' boss, "Mia Wallace". Bruce Willis plays the boxer "Butch Coolidge" (very attached to his father's watch) with strength and determination.
He remains very convincing, as does the most experienced actor of the team, Harvey Keitel, a suit-wearing cleaner who dispatches the most delicate cases with disarming thoroughness and speed. Christopher Walken plays the role of a former soldier who left for Vietnam, in reference to his character in "Journey to the End of Hell". With Pulp Fiction, Quentin Tarantino signs (thanks to the non-linear editing) a puzzle work in which the spectator has to assemble the pieces in order to build his universe. He uses flashbacks and flashforwards, which bring consistency to the narrative and give very important information to the subject.
He separates the different parts so as not to create an incomprehensible story and has fun with his protagonists who die a few minutes before and come back to life in the next sequence. The exceptional original soundtrack from different genres and artists, specific to the filmmaker, is one of the major factors of the film's success. The film's references are numerous, notably Sergio Leone's films (the long sequences, for example, "often boring, alas, the only negative point of the work", could represent the Italian director's testament). The most beautiful scene is obviously the one where the couple Uma Thurman /John Travolta dance to Chuck Berry's music as a tribute to "Saturday Night Fever", but it is Bruce Willis who really wins the day with the scene of "choice of weapons", and more precisely the one where he returns to his flat to get the famous watch.
by holding its breath ....Sergio Leone would not have disowned this zany universe where violence mixes with absurdity with brio... A Palme d'Or (which seems to be in Samuel Jackson's suitcase) amply deserved.