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The three comedy movies Quentin Tarantino calls “untouchable”

Mon 2 December 2024 17:52, UK

Sometimes, it feels like Quentin Tarantino has offered his opinion of just about every movie that has ever been made, such is the breadth of the director’s cinematic knowledge. The upside of that is that cinema fans pretty much always have a new avenue to go down with Tarantino’s recommendations.

With an extensive understanding of film history and an unreserved passion for the medium that penetrates every part of his life and work, Tarantino is nothing short of a borderline-compulsive cinephile. For Tarantino, film is more than simply a profession or an art form; it’s a language, an obsession, and a passion that allows him to express his thoughts. His own movies are both love letters and tributes to the films that influenced him, fusing references, genres, and techniques to honour cinema’s past while producing something wholly own.

Of course, as we—and everyone else even remotely aware of Hollywood know—Tarantino is renowned for having a broad (and very determined) understanding of cinema, having studied everything from silent films to the newest independent productions from his own self-made dungeon of relentless viewing time. As someone who has studied unknown directors, B-movies, and neglected gems for decades, he casually drops his very forthright opinions throughout most of his interviews. He is equally at ease analysing Jean-Luc Godard’s subtle genius as he is praising the pleasures of a low-budget kung fu film.

The director is famously renowned for his candid remarks regarding movies both of his own making and of others. His frank and frequently divisive views seemingly seep out at any given moment, whether he’s lauding a lost masterpiece, criticising contemporary filmmaking trends, or supporting the directors and genres that shaped his work, Tarantino’s matter-of-fact passion has become as much a part of his public image as his films.

One area Tarantino has yet to venture, though, is the world of comedy, at least not directly. When once again discussing the movies that impacted his own vision, Tarantino focused on the films of director Peter Bogdanovich, a key figure in the New Hollywood film movement. Bogdanovich was the recipient of a Bafta and a Grammy Award and was also nominated for two Academy Awards and a Golden Globe to boot for his extensive filmography.

But which movies does Tarantino call “untouchable”?

At the premiere of Bogdanovich’s 2014 comedy movie She’s Funny That Way, Tarantino spoke glowingly of many of his fellow director’s works. “Well, I’m a big fan of Peter’s work,” he said. “Actually, They All Laughed is one of my favourite movies. Paper Moon and What’s Up Doc are just untouchable.”

The first of those movies to arrive was What’s Up Doc in 1972, starring Barbara Streisand and Ryan O’Neal. The film serves as an homage to the comedy movies of Golden Age Hollywood, such as Bringing Up Baby and several Bugs Bunny cartoons by Warner Bros.

A year later, Bogdanovich released his road comedy-drama Paper Moon, which was adapted from Joe David Brown’s 1971 novel Addie Pray by writer Alvin Sargent. Paper Moon takes place in Kansas and Missouri during the American Great Depression and stars Ryan and Tatum O’Neal (a real-life father and daughter) as a man and his child on a touching journey. The film made its way onto our 25 greatest comedy movies of all time list.

Another of Bogdanovich’s films that Tarantino thinks is “untouchable” is They All Laughed, the director’s 1981 romantic comedy starring Audrey Hepburn, Ben Gazzara and John Ritter, amongst others. It focuses on three private investigators who look into the cases of two women accused of cheating on their husbands before romantically pursuing them for themselves.

Tarantino had actually starred in a cameo role in Bogdanovich’s She’s Funny That Way, where at the film’s conclusion, Imogen Poots’ character, Izzy, ends up dating the director. Alongside Poots, the film also stars Owen Wilson, Kathryn Hahn, Will Forte, Rhys Ifans and Jennifer Aniston.

Discussing his brief role in Bogdanovich’s movie, Tarantino added, “So it was really funny when he called me up and asked me; he talked me into it because I’m a little shy. That was part of the idea; it was like, ‘Okay, I’ll go, but you gotta direct it.'”