Quentin Tarantino on what makes a director a “genius”
Love or loathe the movies of Quentin Tarantino, there’s doubting that he ehas dramatically impacted the world of cinema. From his script for True Romance to pop culture hits such as Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, across his career, Tarantino has delivered many memorable moments that have positioned him as a wildly influential figure of Hollywood. Whether it be memorable lines, anachronistic elements or his penchant for stylised violence, a Tarantino picture has numerous notable aspects – all of them combining in harmony to create one of cinema’s most individualistic styles famed for its referential tendency and overall postmodernism.
Of course, this is the reason why Tarantino’s films have an endlessly rewatchable quality. He uses his movies to tie together various references from his life to create a new style and universe that is distinctly his own. Ultimately, this has underpinned all of his own successes. From the pastiche of a famous scene from 1967’s The Graduate that was featured in Jackie Brown to the appropriation of an iconic moment from 1969’s Easy Rider in Pulp Fiction, this referential concept creates unique worlds in Tarantino films, which is ironic, given that it often relies heavily on the works by others.
This challenge to the classic notion of the auteur being indebted to high art confirms that Tarantino is a postmodern filmmaker. Whilst some might not like it, his career path is one masterstroke after another. This mesh of pop culture references will see his movies picked apart by arthouse cinema lovers and film schools for a long time, but it is also what makes fans so eager for him to release a new title.
Given that Tarantino revolutionised how filmmakers approach cinema, he is often asked what he thinks makes a good director. When sitting down with Charlie Rose in 1997, he was probed on what he believes confirms someone as a directorial “genius”, and separates them from those who are just good at their craft.
Rose asked the director: “Is it choice of shots, or something much more profound and fundamental, in terms of what separates the boys from the men? What separates those who have genius from those who can make good movies?”
The Pulp Fiction mastermind replied: “At the end of the day, I just think there are certain people…you know this is gonna sound so simplistic to say this, but in my heart of hearts, I believe it. At the end of the day, there are just some people that God touched and just said, ‘You know what, you’re supposed to make movies’, but there’s other people who are theatre directors and television directors and all kinds of stuff, but there’s some people that it’s just like you know, ‘You know how to make movies be movies.'”
Afterwards, he attributed this explanation to his own work.
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