Sneak preview as Tarantino comes to town

The American director Quentin Tarantino was in London last night for a lecture and preview screening of his new film, Jackie Brown, at the National Film Theatre.

The film opens in the UK on 20 March. Since opening in America on Christmas Day it has been garnering rave reviews.

The film, which is based on the Elmore Leonard caper novel Rum Punch, is less highly stylised than Tarantino's previous films, Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, and plays fewer games with time and shifts of perspective.

But it retains his trademark dialogue, both arcane and wildly profane, despite containing much less violence. The film is set in present-day Los Angeles but carries with it a strong whiff of the Seventies, in particular the music and attitude, and in Pam Grier, a star of the Seventies Blaxploitation genre.

Grier, 48, who had been reduced to television roles before being rescued - like John Travolta - by Tarantino, blows co-stars like Robert De Niro, Samuel L Jackson, Bridget Fonda and Michael Keaton off the screen with her serene portrayal of the title role.

Jackie Brown is a fading stewardess in her forties who refuses to be beaten by a plot that contains bank robbers, arms dealers, federal agents, stoned surfer chicks and a cynical bail bondsman who falls in love with her.