Christopher Nolan calls Quentin Tarantino a “purist”
Christopher Nolan, the British director behind Oppenheimer, has called the American auteur Quentin Tarantino “very purist” with regard to his retirement plans. The Pulp Fiction actor has long asserted that his forthcoming tenth movie would be his final cinematic offering.
Tarantino recently said he’s “ready to quit” making movies after three decades in the industry. His forthcoming movie, The Movie Critic, which will be his tenth when regarding Kill Bill volumes one and two as one movie, appears to be his swan song. He will be only 60 years old on his supposed retirement day, an early retirement relative to others in the line of work.
For comparison, Francis Ford Coppola is 84 years old and still active in the industry, with his latest project, Megalopolis, nearing completion and looking set for release in 2024.
Speaking on the RealBlend podcast, Nolan said that Tarantino’s retirement plans are a sign of his “purist” approach, adding that he understands “both points of view.”
“It’s addictive to tell stories in cinema. It’s a lot of hard work, but it’s very fun. It’s something you feel driven to do, and so it’s a little hard to imagine voluntarily stopping,” Nolan said.
He continued to say that Tarantino, “very graciously,” is “never specific about the films he’s talking about” and that he’s “looking at some of the work done by filmmakers in later years and feeling that if it can’t live up to the heyday, it would be better if it didn’t exist.”
“And I think that’s a very purest point of view,” Nolan opined. “It’s the point of view of a cinephile who prizes film history.”
While understanding and appreciating Tarantino’s noble position, Nolan explained that he likely wouldn’t know when to call a halt. “I’m not sure that I would trust my own sense of the absolute value of a piece of work to know whether or not it should have been brought into existence,” he said.
“I’m a big fan, as is Quentin, of films that maybe don’t fully achieve what they try to, but there’s something in there that’s a performance, or a little structural thing, or a scene, you know, that’s wonderful. And so, yes, I understand. I think [I] wanted to keep a sort of perfect reputation of something, but also kind of don’t want to take anything off the table.”
Watch the trailer for Oppenheimer below.
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