The filmmaker Quentin Tarantino called his favourite writer-director of the 1970s
Quentin Tarantino has always talked as highly of his inspirations as he talks of himself, awarding glowing praise to those who have influenced his work and shaped his voice as a director, describing his love for the blaxploitation films of the sixties, Jean-Luc Godard and Sergio Leone. He has famously proclaimed, “I steal from every movie ever made… Great artists steal; they don’t do homages”, an idea that is scattered across his filmography with tidbits from westerns and the work of Federico Fellini.
However, while he has endlessly discussed his love for all of these genres and how they have infiltrated his mind during the creative process, he has highlighted his love for one particular decade, which became the focus of his ninth feature film, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. And from this decade, he discovered his love for one filmmaker in particular.
The 1960s were a time to be alive, something that was not lost on anyone around during the decade, with the era bringing in a new-page philosophy and era of enlightenment, with people embracing a new kind of creative freedom and liberation. From the civil rights and women’s liberation movements that had just passed, everything was changing as people welcomed a more modern way of living.
This was explored in a myriad of ways in the movies, whether it be the rise of sex comedies in the late ’60s or the exploitation movies that subsequently followed. However, while many artists explored this through their work, one director became an overlooked symbol of the times, capturing the emergence of progressive values and sexual freedom in a way that no one else was.
Paul Mazursky was a writer and director who became known for his comedic dramas that often explore weighty moral and social issues, whether it be through his soaring 1978 film An Unmarried Woman or the Academy Award-nominated Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice, directed in 1969. Through both films, he captures the changing nature of the nuclear family and the freedom offered by destroying these typical infrastructures, highlighting women who are discovering new parts of their sexual and personal identities by disrupting the norms that have previously ruled their lives.
In particular, Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice had a huge influence on Tarantino, with the director discussing it at length and how the socio-political mood of the film’s 1969 setting influenced Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. However, he is most enamoured by Mazursky himself, even going so far as to describe him as “my favourite of the writer-directors of the ’70s”.
It is perhaps slightly surprising that Tarantino is so fond of Mazurksy’s work given that his films are very intimate and slice-of-life type portraits, offering a nuanced exploration of the inter-personal dynamics between his characters and how they reflect the changing values of the world around them.
However, when looking more closely, you can see how he would resonate with the setting of Mazrusky’s films as a die-hard fan of everything related to the ’60s and ’70s and the change that occurred during the infamous year of 1969, which is the focus of Mazursky’s masterpiece and Tarantino’s ninth feature.
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