The romantic comedy that made Quentin Tarantino weep
For three decades now, Quentin Tarantino has delivered his unique take on the cinematic medium. Leaning heavily into movies with some of the most brutal violence of the late 20th century and early 21st century, weaving narratives of criminal enterprise with a truly personal quest for how the film medium ought to be tackled, Tarantino is a true master of the art of filmmaking.
With intense movies of the highest order, including Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Jackie Brown, Kill Bill and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood to his name, it’s no wonder Tarantino is widely considered one of the greatest directors to ever sit in the chair. He’s built a legacy that we stretch far beyond his time on Earth.
While Tarantino has indeed delivered some of the most shocking and visceral moments of cinema of the last thirty years, he once revealed something of a softer side. When talking with Stephen Colbert, the iconic director admitted that he has a penchant for a romantic comedy or two.
“Oddly enough, I guess this might be confessional time here; romcoms are kind of a guilty pleasure of mine, especially on aeroplanes,” Tarantino said. “Kate Hudson is the queen of the skies as far as I’m concerned. But there’s something about watching a romcom on aeroplane flight that I think is something to the fact that you become more emotional when you’re like three miles a-high in the air.”
It was at that point at which he revealed the romcom that moved him the most, so much so that he was brought to the point of tears. We cannot often conceive of Tarantino crying, especially not because of watching a cheesy romantic comedy aboard an aeroplane, but stranger things have admittedly happened.
“I have found myself crying, literally weeping at the only embarrassing confession movies,” Tarantino went on before pointing out the film that struck him the hardest. “For instance, I was coming back on a flight, and I saw that movie with Matthew McConaughey and Jennifer Garner, Ghosts of Girlfriends Past.”
The film arrived in 2009 and was directed by Mark Waters. Based on Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, the movie focuses on a wedding day and the day before rather than Christmas Day and Christmas Eve.
“In that movie, he’s like this sexy famous fashion photographer, has tons of girlfriends,” Tarantino elucidated upon the narrative. “He’s a real jerk; he’s known her for a while, but then it goes to a flashback when they knew each other when they were children.”
“And they’re swaying, and it’s snowing in a park, and she gives him a birthday gift,” he continued, explaining the moment which brought him to tears. “He opens it up, and it’s a camera. And it’s actually like the first kind of camera I was ever given when I was a little. And all of a sudden, I start crying like, ‘She gave him his first camera!’”
Tarantino was then asked whether he felt manipulated by the narrative to make him cry, but he admitted that he’s actually a fan of such an act. He noted, “I feel like that’s half of my job as a director, so while I might be a little embarrassed about mentioning it, at that moment, I was genuinely touched, and I was having a good time, sitting in A1 of first class.”
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