The director Quentin Tarantino said “reinvented” the crime genre
Many high-profile filmmakers can rightfully claim to have “reinvented” the crime genre, whether it’s Sidney Lumet for his landmark 1957 movie 12 Angry Men or Francis Ford Coppola for his seminal Godfather movies of the 1970s. Undoubtedly, Quentin Tarantino can also stake a claim to the crime throne.
Quentin Tarantino has carved out a truly exceptional cinematic niche since making his impactful directorial debut with the cult classic Reservoir Dogs in 1992. His unmistakable style as an omnipotent auteur evokes a sense of familiarity across his filmography, no matter how thematically disparate.
With a filmography consisting of nine movies to date, Tarantino has established a distinctive lineage of dark comedy, exaggerated violence, and a recurring ensemble cast of A-listers. Whether he’s exploring tales of vengeance set in the 1800s or satirising Hollywood’s Golden Age, Tarantino’s productions never fail to entertain.
Not all of Tarantino’s movies are crime per se, but crimes are ubiquitously committed, whether it’s movie stars burning hippies to a crisp or Nazis being Nazis in Inglorious Basterds. However, his sterling work in Reservoir Dogs and Jackie Brown can most certainly be filed in the crime department.
Although Tarantino’s style is unique – or, at least, it was until he inspired a generation of filmmakers – his hand was guided by a swathe of crucial luminaries. One such luminary was the Frenchman Jean-Pierre Melville, one of Tarantino’s all-time favourite crime directors.
Like Tarantino, Melville had a knack for injecting his own DNA into his movies. “He would make these crime films like the Warner Bros Bogart/Cagney films, but completely set to this French, Parisian rhythm…he reinvented the genre,” Tarantino once said of the late filmmaking icon.
Melville lived between 1917 and 1973 and became famous in the post-war cinematic boom thanks to his crime thrillers that would invariably draw from his experiences as part of the French resistance during World War II.
Watch the trailer for Bob le flambeur, one of Jean-Pierre Melville’s best-known crime dramas, below.
Never Miss A Take
The Far Out Quentin Tarantino Newsletter
All the latest Quentin Tarantino content from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.