MANILA, Philippines -- Iconic Hollywood director Quentin Tarantino was the picture of an amused child after an unusual experience Wednesday -- he had to get off a flood-stuck limousine and ride a pedicab to reach Malacañang and get his lifetime achievement award for film.
“It was a lot of fun. It just took a long time but it was not bad at all,” said Tarantino, brushing his hair in place with a hand as he arrived at Malacañang’s Rizal Hall after his pedicab ride.
Director Tikoy Aguiluz said he and Tarantino were stuck in traffic due to heavy rains for more than three hours from Mandaluyong City, leaving them with no choice but to take a pedicab near SM Centerpoint in Sta. Mesa to Nagtahan due to the flooded Ramon Magsaysay Boulevard.
Tarantino, director of the Cannes Film Festival winning film “Pulp Fiction” and cult classics like “Kill Bill Volume 1 and 2” and “Reservoir Dogs,” was in Malacañang to receive the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Cinemanila Film Festival, along with Robert Malengreau.
Asked if the ride in the pedicab pedaled by a driver scared him, Tarantino made light of his experience, saying: “No! ... That’s just the way it is.”
When Presidential Management Staff chief Cerge Remonde greeted him and asked if he indeed rode a pedicab, Tarantino said: “We were stuck in traffic and we took the bike.”
Drenched pants
The floods also victimized his host, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who herself got stalled in traffic snarls on her way to her appointments.
The pedicab ride drenched Tarantino’s pants and he had to change into black jogging pants with white trimming for the meeting with Ms Arroyo. He also shed off his sandals -- not allowed, under the Malacañang dress code -- for a pair of ill-fitting shoes that apparently gave him discomfort as he walked.
Over the jogging pants, he wore a barong.
Late for the awards
As the 2 p.m. awarding ceremony time went past without Tarantino and the other awardees, Presidential Adviser for Culture Cecil Alvarez told reporters the Hollywood director and Aguiluz had been stranded in the flood and had to take a pedicab just to make it to Malacañang.
Film producer Arleen Cuevas found Tarantino and Aguiluz standing near the first sentry gate in Nagtahan, where the pedicab had dropped them off, and gave them a lift to the Palace.
During the awarding rites attended by Ms Arroyo, Alvarez recounted how the awardees and participants had braved the floods and the traffic jams to get to the Palace.
Ms Arroyo smiled.
Story for Hollywood
“A funny thing happened on our way here. From limousine to pedicab,” Aguiluz said in his remarks.
“I asked him (Tarantino) to take the pedicab and it was OK with him. It’s another Filipino story he will tell in Hollywood,” Aguiluz said.
Aguiluz said the two of them could not fit into one pedicab so he allowed Tarantino to take one pedicab by himself.
A gracious awardee
A gracious Tarantino made no mention of his ride in his speech.
Instead he talked about the first Filipino film he watched when he was only 7 years old and how Filipino-made action and horror movies were making money in the United States in the 1970s.
Tiffany Richards, a friend of Tarantino who accompanied him and Aguiluz on the ride, joked that “it was pretty traumatizing for me but he had fun.” With a report from Agence France-Presse
Copyright 2007 Inquirer. All rights reserved.
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