Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill has always played like a dare. Part grindhouse fantasia and part operatic blood ballet, it is also a cinephile’s fever dream built from genre history and bravado. Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair, which unites Volume 1 and Volume 2 into a single unrated epic, restores the film to the shape Tarantino originally envisioned, complete with a new, never-before-seen anime sequence.
That full vision arrives at Tinker Street Cinema in Woodstock on Saturday, January 3, for a special fundraiser screening presented by the Woodstock Film Festival. (Tickets are $50-$150.) The occasion is elevated by the presence of Woodstock Film Festival board member Uma Thurman, who will introduce the film. Thurman’s performance as The Bride remains one of the defining screen performances of the past quarter century, not just for its physical rigor but for its emotional precision.
Thurman’s Bride begins the film shot in the head and left for dead, betrayed by her former lover Bill and his circle of assassins. What follows is often remembered for its bravura violence, but the full cut reveals something steadier and stranger beneath the surface. Across its 275-minute runtime, including a 15-minute intermission, the film traces the long shadow of love curdled into cruelty. Thurman carries that weight scene by scene, moving from mythic fury to something quieter and more bruised. Seen whole, the performance breathes differently.
The screening runs from 1 to 6pm. Themed attire is welcome, should you own a spare yellow tracksuit. The evening continues with a separate, ticketed after-screening reception and Q&A from 6:30 to 8:30pm at Medo Woodstock. There, Thurman will sit down with veteran journalist and writer Jonathan Van Meter for an in-depth conversation about the making of Kill Bill and its cultural afterlife. The reception includes a buffet and passed hors d’oeuvres, a specially themed cocktail and mocktail, and music by DJ Marco Benevento, keeping the mood social and celebratory.
