Quentin Tarantino director
Chapter Six the FUTURE of film
“I hope to give you at least 15 more years of movies. I'm not going to be this old guy that keeps cranking them out. My plan is to have a theater by that time in some small town and I will be the manager - this crazy old movie guy.�
The director has described his next film as the final part of the Basterds-Django trilogy called Killer Crow. It will focus on black American troops in World War II. He had originally talked about plans to make a Kill Bill Vol. 3, focusing on daughters revenging their mothers, but now states that it is unlikely since he wishes to focus on other, unrelated projects. Tarantino plans to retire from filmmaking at age 60 to focus on writing novels and film literature. However, he is skeptical of digital film and has said that he will retire early if there comes a time when theaters stop using 35 mm film entirely.
AWARDS Tarantino’s work has been nominated for a total of 16 Academy Awards, 25 BAFTA awards, and 20 Golden Globes. Pulp Fiction received the most nominations from all three organizations—22 in all. However, Django Unchained won the most awards, receiving two from each organization.
Chapter Three pop culture cult CLASSICS
“Sure, Kill Bill’s a violent movie. But it’s a Tarantino movie. You don’t go to see Metallica and ask the fuckers to turn the music down.”
Pulp fiction Tarantino released Pulp Fiction in 1994. It was cowritten by frequent collaborator Roger Avery. It follows three distinct but interconnected storylines: the lives of two mob hitmen, a boxer, a gangster’s wife and a pair of diner bandits. Their lives intertwine in three tales of violence and redemption. The title refers to pulp magazines and crime novels of the 1950s, also known for their graphic violence and biting dialogue.
It is known for its eclectic dialogue,mix of humor and violence and cinematic allusions as well as Tarantino’s characteristic nonlinear storyline and numerous pop culture references. Once it was released nationally Pulp Fiction became the first independent film to gross over $100 million in the US. It received mostly postivie reviews from critics and has now become somewhat of a cult classic among viewers.
Kill bill vol. 1 & 2 The Kill Bill series follows an assasin known as “The Bride� as she seeks revenge against her former partners who massacred her wedding party and attempted to murder her as well. It was inspired by Hong Kong martial arts films, Japanese
chanbara films, Italian spaghetti westerns, girls with guns, and themes of rape and revenge. It also pays tribute to genres such as blaxploitation films, Chinese wuxia, Japanese yakuza and samurai cinema and kung fu movies of the 1960s and 1970s.
Volume 1 was released in late 2003, and Volume 2 was later released in early 2004 to complete the set. The series makes use of Tarantino’s now-trademark nonlinear storylines, especially with the implementation of flashbacks.
Both films stylizes some of the more violent scenes using silhouettes, animated action and use of black and white instead of full color. Most critics and viewers alike gave positive reviews of the movies; however some others criticized that it focused more on the style than storyline.
Chapter One back to the
BEGINNING of things
“When people ask me if I went to film school I tell them, ‘no, I went to films.’”
early LIFE Tarantino was born March 27, 1963, in Knoxville, Tennessee. He moved to California at age four where he was raised by his mother and grandmother. As a child he lways loved movies and storytelling. In fact, one of his earliest memories is of his grandmother taking him to a John Wayne movie. Since he was more interested in movies and comic books than his studies, the young Tarantino dropped out of high school at age fifteen and began working in an adult theater and taking acting classes. Eventually, he got a job at a movie rental store, Video Archives, in Manhattan Beach, where he made connections which would prove beneficial to him later in life.
Resevoir Dogs
While at Video Archives, he worked on several screenplays, including “Resevoir Dogs,” which drew inspiration from classic heist films Resevoir Dogs tells the story of a failed diamond heist but only shows the audience
the events before and after, not the heist itself. It was released in January of 1992, and although the film entranced viewers at the Sundance Film Festival, it faired much better in the box office overseas than in the US.
Resevoir Dogs lays the foundations for Tarantino’s trademark style of violent crime, pop culture references, profuse profanity and nonlinear story line. It was named “Greatest Film of All Time” by Empire Magazine.
Chapter Two
blaxploitation AND collaboration
In mainstream films, especially in the 1980s, the Los Angeles you saw wasn't the real one; it was a character with this back-lot sort of atmosphere. They tried to luxuriate it. In exploitation films, you see what the place really looked like, you see the bars and mom-and-pop restaurants.
In homage to “blaxploitation” films of the 1970s, such as Coffy and Foxy Brown, Tarantino released Jackie Brown in 1997. The film tells the story of a flight attendant who gets caught up in smuggling with an arms dealer. It was an adaptation of Elmore Leonard’s novel Rum Punch. Jackie Brown recieved positive reviews overall. Critic Roger Ebert named it as one of his favorite films in 1997, and Empire magazine included it in its list of The 500 Greatest Movies of All Time.
jackie brown
OTHER PROJECTS Four Rooms is a movie in four segments each with a different director. It tells the story of a hotel bellhop’s first night on the job and his encounters with different guests. Tarantino directed the section called “The Man from Hollywood.” Grindhouse is a double feature by Tarantino and frequent collaborator Robert Rodriguez. Tarantino’s section, Deathproof, focuses on a psychopathic, womanizing stuntman who murders young women with his “death proof” stunt car. The name originates from the American term for theaters that show
exploitation films such as the ones Tarantino is often inspired by. Grindhouse was also stylized, but in different ways. The film was intentionally damaged to look old, and at some parts a screen that simply stated “missing reel” was placed on the screen. Sin City only had a small contribution by Tarantino. He directed the scene in which two characters are riding in a car. As part of a trade with good friend and colleague Robert Rodriguez, who worked on the Kill Bill Vol. 2 soundtrack for $1, Tarantino directed the scene for the same salary.
Chapter Five REVIVAL
I'm never going to be shy about anything, what I write about is what I know; it's more about my version of the truth as I know it. That's part of my talent, really putting the way people really speak into the things I write. My only obligation is to my characters. And they came from where I have been.
Inglourious basterds
Inglourious Basterds was released in 2009. It tells the fictional alternate history of two plots to assassinate Nazi Germany’s political leadership: one planned by a young French-Jewish cinema proprietor and another by a group of Jewish-American soldiers. Tarantino spent over a decade perfecting and getting lost in the screenplay. It was extremely successful, becoming Tarantino’s second highest grossing film of all time.
Django unchained Following the success of Inglourious Basterds, Django Unchained was released in late 2012. Set in the deep South and old West during the antebellum period, it tells the story of a freed slave who teams up with a bounty hunter to rescue his wife from a cruel plantation owner. It received mostly positive reviews, but was criticized for the abundant use of profanity, specifically racial epithets. Two most notable critics of this choice were director Spike Lee and actor Denzel Washington. However, Samuel L. Jackson, who has a role in Django as well as many other Tarantino films was quick to defend the director’s choice. Django Unchained is Tarantino’s highest grossing film to date.
Chapter Four odds and ENDS
“If there is something magic about the collaborations I have with actors it's because I put the character first.�
Frequent collaborators
Tarantino often works with the same actors in multiple films. His most frequent collaborator, appearing five times, is Samuel L. Jackson. Next is Zoe Bell, who has acted in four films.
Actors Michael Becall, Linda Kaye, Harvey Keitel, James Parks, Michael Parks, Stevo Polyi, Tim Roth and Rich Turner have each worked with Tarantino three times.
recurring motifs In all of his films, Tarantino has a distinct style. This style is often revealed in the camera angles he uses, certain scenes that appear often and focus on particular objects. Some camera angles he uses frequently are point-of-view shots from within the trunk of a car, through the eyes of a corpse or from above, a godlike perspective. Other common scenes Tarantino uses include black and white sequences and characters looking into mirrors, dancing, driving, being tortured, meeting in a restaurant or bar or the classic “Mexican standoff.� Viewers will also notice that he often focuses on specific items such as lips, record players, tv sets and, most notably, feet.
“Movies are my religion and God is my patron. I’m lucky enough to be in the position where I don’t make movies to pay for my pool. When I make a movie, I want it to be everything to me; like I would die for it.”