The actor Quentin Tarantino calls “queen of the skies”
Quentin Tarantino’s distinctive film education didn’t unfold within the walls of a prestigious film school. Instead, it began during his stint as a clerk in a video store—a fact that the director himself proudly acknowledges. This unconventional source of learning becomes evident when immersed in his films.
Perhaps only Edgar Wright is able to stand toe-to-toe with Tarantino when it comes to encyclopaedic knowledge of film, television, and pop culture history, and over the years, Tarantino has proven himself as the king of cinephilia. His deep trivia movie knowledge seeps into the films themselves, like when Sharon Tate, played by Margot Robbie, goes to watch herself in a movie theatre in his Hollywood western fairytale, Once Upon A Time In Hollywood. Let’s not forget, in that same film, Brad Pitt’s stuntman character, Cliff Booth, has a fight with Bruce Lee in the car park outside a studio.
Within Pulp Fiction, John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson, as two wise-cracking hitmen, discuss the difference between Dutch and US Burger King commercials. There are long stretches of Kill Bill that pay homage or directly copy scenes from old Kung Fu movies, a genre clearly very close to the director’s heart. In Tarantino’s spin on the blaxploitation genre, Django Unchained, the gun-slinging slave Django, played by Jamie Foxx, shares a moment with Franco Nero, who played Django in the original 1966 spaghetti western. The list could go on.
Recently, Tarantino shared his affection for romantic comedies, a genre some people might not quickly associate with the filmmaker. Appearing on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Tarantino said he particularly loved Mark Waters’ 2009 rom-com Ghosts of Girlfriends Past, starring Matthew McConaughey and Jennifer Garner. The movie tells the story of Connor, a young bachelor and hotshot photographer who endeavours to dissuade his younger brother from getting married. However, his plans take an unexpected turn when he finds himself haunted by three female ghosts. Tarantino said he found one scene so affecting that he “bawled his eyes out” on an aeroplane while watching it.
“(In the movie) There is a flashback when they were children and they are at a swing and it’s snowing. And she gives him a birthday gift, and it’s a camera. And it was exactly like the first camera I was ever given when I was a little kid,” Tarantino told Colbert. “And all of a sudden, I just start crying.”
Tarantino adds that watching films on an aeroplane is a unique experience and heightens one’s emotions. “There is something about watching a rom-com on an aeroplane that I think you become more emotional when you are three miles up in the air,” said the legendary filmmaker. “I have found myself crying, literally weeping on flights,” he continued.
Tarantino also cites Kate Hudson as the “queen of the skies” for her deft hand at starring in rom-com movies. Hudson has starred in some of the 2000s’ most popular romantic comedies, such as How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days, Bride Wars, You, Me and Dupree, and Something Borrowed, and for a time, she was the go-to Hollywood actress for a classic date night movie. It goes to show that there is no plethora of film genres or sub-genres that Tarantino doesn’t know like the back of his hand.
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.