‘Interstellar’: the modern sci-fi movie Quentin Tarantino compared to Andrei Tarkovsky
Throughout his groundbreaking career, Quentin Tarantino has drawn artistic inspiration from a wide variety of sources, ranging from epic westerns to highly energetic martial arts flicks. However, one director whose style is completely different from Tarantino’s arthouse action sensibilities is the revered Soviet auteur Andrei Tarkovsky.
While Tarantino developed a unique form of postmodern American cinema through his unconventional narratives and extensive use of pastiche, Tarkovsky had modernist artistic concerns that sought to demystify the magical relationship between time and cinema. In fact, he often referred to his films as “time sculptures” and used them to condense several realities into one medium, creating masterpieces such as Solaris and Stalker.
Although most film fans believe that nobody has been able to replicate Tarkovsky’s genius, Tarantino insisted that there is one modern filmmaker who has come close. During a conversation with The Guardian, the Pulp Fiction director claimed that Christopher Nolan succeeded in reviving the grand sci-fi vision of Tarkovsky through his 2014 epic Interstellar – a dizzyingly beautiful journey to the boundaries of the cosmos.
“It’s been a while since somebody has come out with such a big vision to things,” Tarantino pointed out, comparing Interstellar to the films of Tarkovsky and Terrence Malick. “Even the elements, the fact that dust is everywhere, and they’re living in this dust bowl that is just completely enveloping this area of the world. That’s almost something you expect from Tarkovsky or Malick, not a science fiction adventure movie.”
When asked about the challenges of making such a grand film, Nolan added: “I’ve always believed that if you want to really try and make a great film, not a good film, but a great film, you have to take a lot of risks. It was very clear to me that if you’re going to make a film called Interstellar, it’s going to have to be something extremely ambitious. You push it in all the possible directions you can. Not for its own sake, but because you know that if you’re going to try to add something to the canon, besides fiction films and all the rest, and live up to the promise of that title and the scale of that title, you really have to go there.”
Interstellar has repeatedly drawn comparisons to all the great practitioners of cinematic sci-fi, including Stanley Kubrick. Ever since he was a child, Nolan had been mesmerised by 2001: A Space Odyssey, which undoubtedly influenced his decision to become a director. Interestingly, Tarkovsky often expressed his disappointment with sci-fi. Famously, he called Solaris an “artistic failure” because he couldn’t escape the genre frameworks.
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.