Quentin Tarantino names the best monologue from his career
Dialogue is one of the many cinematic features which American filmmaker Quentin Tarantino is known to have mastered, writing his own wise-cracking voice into each and every movie he has made. Whether it’s the ramblings of Leonardo DiCaprio’s Calvin Candie in Django Unchained or the threatening speech of Michael Madsen’s Mr. Blonde in Reservoir Dogs, the quality of the auteur’s dialogue is unmatched in modern cinema.
Truly, the quality of Tarantino’s dialogue can only really be matched by the likes of Martin Scorsese and Paul Thomas Anderson in American cinema, with both such filmmakers utilising a similar voice in respective movies Goodfellas and There Will be Blood. But there is a sparky authenticity to the voice of Tarantino that borders on cinematic artifice, bringing an electric energy to a countless number of his characters.
Such may be most obvious in his latest movie, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, starring DiCaprio and Brad Pitt alongside Margot Robbie, Margaret Qualley, Austin Butler, Al Pacino, Maya Hawke, Sydney Sweeney and Victoria Pedretti. Telling the story of great political and cultural change in America at the turn of the 1970s, Tarantino’s film is injected with hidden significance that weaves in and out of the scintillating dialogue.
It is within this story that Tarantino claims one of his best-ever monologues, writing a speech for a French pimp in the novelisation of the movie, released in summer 2021. Speaking about the piece of dialogue in a recent episode of the Reel Blend Podcast, Tarantino states, “when I wrote that, it just came bursting out of me, and I got through writing it, and I was like ‘what the fuck was that, where did that come from holy shit’”.
Frustrated that he had not used the monologue in one of his movies, he adds, “It’s like the best monologue I’ve written in four years and I’m just throwing it away”.
Revealing that Pitt’s character almost became a pimp before he was tempted to the glitz of Hollywood, the monologue comes when he chats to a Frenchman who is part of the profession. Teeming with obscene, misogynistic dialogue, the monologue was omitted from the 2019 movie, with Tarantino adding, “I know it’s written to be a French pimp, but he’s supposed to sound like Sam Jackson”.
Despite the perceived quality of his monologue, Tarantino doesn’t consider it to be the best monologue of his career, even if it does exist in the “same sphere”. Instead, Tarantino adds, “I don’t think it’s better than the opening of [Inglourious] Basterds”.
Welcoming Christoph Waltz to Hollywood with a thunderous crash, the introduction to Tarantino’s fantastical war drama, Inglourious Basterds, is a scene of utmost genius, showing a filmmaker truly in touch with his own art. Opening at a French farmhouse, the atmosphere is perfectly set up as Waltz’s SS officer, Hans Landa, approaches with his band of soldiers to shake the man down, suspecting that he is hiding Jewish fugitives.
Wonderfully constructed with brutal intensity, Tarantino pairs a thrilling soundtrack together with excellent performances across the board to set up a compelling war thriller that never tops the promise of its gorgeous opening scene.
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.