Quentin Tarantino reveals his “number one collaborator”
Since his directional debut with Reservoir Dogs in 1992, celebrated filmmaker Quentin Tarantino has shaped a cinematic career like no other. His distinctive script-writing style and directional grasp make for a familiar experience in each film. His nine movies so far have followed a distinct lineage of dark comedy, sensationalised violence and a reel of recurring A-listers who bring top-flight entertainment to any story, from 1800s vengeance stories to satirical studies of Hollywood’s Golden Age.
As an auteur in the truest sense of the word, Tarantino’s style is unique – or at least it was before he inspired a new generation of filmmakers. He learned his core talents from a wide spread of directors and screenwriters on whose shoulders he proudly stands today.
Born in 1963, Tarantino was lucky enough to grow up through the ‘New Hollywood’ era, marinading in the excellence of Stanley Kubrick, Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg, among other top-flight names in the business.
Like his fellow famed filmmakers, Tarantino has been lucky enough to attract a wealth of acting talent over the years. Over his nine films to date – with the two Kill Bill volumes counting as one – Tarantino has collaborated with acting royalty, including Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Samuel L. Jackson, Robert De Niro, Uma Thurman, Harvey Keitel, Kurt Russell, Tim Roth, Christoph Waltz and Michael Madsen.
Naturally, one might expect Tarantino to name one of his loyally recurring acting stars, such as Jackson, Thurman or Waltz, as his number-one collaboration. However, when speaking in an interview for the Grindhouse (Death Proof) DVD, Tarantino singled out Sally Menke, his longtime film editor.
Tarantino described her as “hands-down my number one collaborator”, before adding: “I write by myself, but when it comes to the editing, I write with Sally. It’s the true epitome, I guess, of a collaboration because I don’t remember what was her idea, what was my idea. We’re just right there together.”
Tragically, Menke passed away in September 2010, aged 56, after hiking near the Hollywood Hills in extreme heat. Until then, Menke had been the only editor Tarantino had worked with. The pair first collaborated on Reservoir Dogs and continued to do so on each of Tarantino’s productions until 2009’s Inglourious Basterds.
In the documentary The Cutting Edge: The Magic of Movie Editing, Tarantino reflected that he had expected a female editor to be “more nurturing to the movie and to me. They wouldn’t be trying to win their way just to win their way, all right? They wouldn’t be trying to shove their agenda or win their battles with me. They would be nurturing me through this process.” Tarantino grew particularly fond of Menke’s more active role as an editor.
Menke also commented on this aspect of their working relationship: “I think editors play a big role with directors in giving them support, making them feel like they can look at something that may have trouble or problems and be comfortable enough so that they can approach those problems.”
She once described the role of the editor to the Observer as “the quiet heroes of movies. We have a very private relationship with our directors, most often conducted in dark rooms”. It could be “so intense”, she added in The Cutting Edge, that “I see [Tarantino] more than my husband”. In return, Tarantino playfully added, “sometimes I get annoyed with her for not reading my mind 100%. It’s not good enough that she reads it 80% of the time.”
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