Quentin Tarantino names the hardest thing about being Quentin Tarantino
It’s common knowledge that Quentin Tarantino is just about as big a cinephile as is humanly possible. Not only has the director and screenwriter established himself as an auteur of the cinematic medium with his own movies, but he’s proven that he possesses an encyclopaedic knowledge of the history of film.
In fact, to look at a Tarantino movie is to look into the filmmaker’s personal preference for film. For instance, Tarantino’s directorial debut Reservoir Dogs tapped into the paranoia of John Carpenter’s science fiction horror movie The Thing, while he consulted the great blaxploitation films of the 1970s for Jackie Brown.
Elsewhere, Tarantino has showcased some of his favourite movies throughout his most admired works. Kill Bill serves as a homage to the kung fu films and Hong Kong and Japanese cinema that Tarantino holds closest to his heart, and Django Unchained is certainly indebted to the great works of Sergio Leone and Sergio Corbucci.
While such reverence has undoubtedly led to Tarantino dousing his films with widespread influence, is there a downside to his methods? Well, according to the director himself, there is, and it all comes down to the way his films are perceived by critics, as well as the kind of cultish yet pop cultural figure that he has inevitably become.
Speaking with Filmmaker, Tarantino once explained, “The biggest thing about being ‘Quentin Tarantino’ is, because I’m a known cinephile when reviewers review my movies, I give them complete permission to engage in their own cinephilia. But their cinephilia and my cinephilia aren’t the same.”
What Tarantino means is that when a critic watches a Tarantino movie, they bring in their own personal preferences for film, thinking that Tarantino himself must admire the very same work. However, Tarantino is keen to stress that not everything that the critic points out – “a little bit of Cimino here and a little bit of Sam Fuller there” – should indeed be attributed to the director’s artistic intentions.
“Sometimes they’re right, and sometimes they’re completely wrong,” he said. “Sometimes they bring in movies I’ve never heard of before or I’ve never seen.” Although Tarantino has raised this issue, he actually thinks that it can be a lot of “fun” and that it makes a critic’s job more interesting.
To watch a Tarantino movie is to look at the great directors who came before him, but there seems to be a misconception about how he goes about actually making a film. Sure, Tarantino is indebted to the likes of Sergio Leone, Kinji Fukasaku and John Carpenter, but the director doesn’t believe that such inspirations arrive as directly as some people make out.
He explained, “I’m not thinking, ‘Okay, I’ll do this a little bit like Robert Aldrich, and I’ll do this a little bit like Otto Preminger, and this shot is from Seijun Suzuki.’ I don’t think like that.” It’s refreshing to hear Tarantino speak about his work in this light because, all too often, critics suggest that he has merely ripped off other filmmakers for a living.
Still, Tarantino thinks that there’s a fun part about the relationship between his movies and critical writing about them. “They get to indulge their cinephilia but attribute it to me,” he signed off on the matter. “Many of these reviewers will probably say that some of their funnest [sic] pieces were the pieces they wrote about my movies.”
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.