TABLE OF CONTENTS
/// INTRODUCTION ...... 02 DIRECTOR BIOGRAPHY ...... 04 FILMOGRAPHY ...... 06 RESERVOIR DOGS ...... 08 PULP FICTION ...... 16 KILL BILL vol.1 ...... 24 KILL BILL vol.2 ...... 32 INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS ...... 40 INTERVIEW ...... 48 LOCATION ...... 56 ///
/ I NTRODUCTION /
/// WELCOME TO THE WORLD OF QUENTIN TARANTINO WHERE THE WRONGED TAKE THEIR UNFINISHED BUSINESS ON A RAMPAGE OF REVENGE — AND GET SATISFACTION IN BLOODY PAYBACK.
THE RAW PAYBACK FILM FESTIVAL FEATURES FIVE OF TARANTINO’S MOST CELEBRATED FILMS: -
RESERVOIR DOGS (1992) PULP FICTION (1994) KILL BILL vol.1 (2003) KILL BILL vol.2 (2004) INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS (2009)
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QUENTIN TARANTINO WHEN PEOPLE ASK ME IF I WENT TO FILM SCHOOL, I TELL THEM “NO, I WENT FILMS.”.
/ BIOGRAPHY / Tarantino was born on March 27, 1963 in Knoxville, Tennessee. He is an American filmmaker and actor. His films are characterized by non-linear storylines, satirical subject matter, an aestheticization of violence, utilization of ensemble casts, references to pop culture, their soundtracks, and features of neo-noir film. His career began in the late 1980s, when he wrote and directed My Best Friend’s Birthday, the screenplay of which formed the basis for True Romance. In the early 1990s, he began his career as an independent filmmaker with the release of Reservoir Dogs in 1992; regarded as a classic and cult hit, it was called the “Greatest Independent Film of All Time” by Empire. Its popularity was boosted by his second film, Pulp Fiction (1994), a black comedy crime film that was a major success both among critics and audiences. Judged the greatest film from 1983–2008 by Entertainment Weekly, many critics and scholars have named it one of the most significant works of modern cinema. For his next effort, Tarantino paid homage to the blaxploitation films of the 1970s with Jackie Brown (1997), an adaptation of the novel Rum Punch.
Tarantino soon tackled Jackie Brown (1997), a crime thriller starring Pam Grier as a stewardess who gets caught smuggling money for an arms dealer (played by Samuel L. Jackson). A tribute to the blaxploitation films of the 1970s, the film was adapted from an Elmore Leonard novel. Grier herself had appeared in many blaxploitation classics, including Foxy Brown (1974). The film was well received, with many calling it a more mature work for Tarantino. Critic Leonard Matlin commented that there were “dynamite performances all around” for a cast that also included Michael Keaton, Robert De Niro, and Robert Forster. Not everyone loved the film, however. Fellow filmmaker Spike Lee objected to Tarantino’s overuse of a derogatory term for AfricanAmericans in Jackie Brown, publicly complaining in Army Archerd’s column in Variety.
/ DIREC TOR BIOGRAPHY /
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The 2nd film of Quentin Tarantino
/ PULP FICTION / 1994
The 4th film of Quentin Tarantino
/ KILL BILL vol.1 / 2003
/ RAW PA BA C K _ A FI LM FESTI VA L DEDICATE D TO QUE NTIN TARANTINO /
/ SELEC TED FIL MOGRAPHY /
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The 1st film of Quentin Tarantino
/ RESERVOIR DOGS / 1992
The 4th film of Quentin Tarantino
/ KILL BILL vol.2 / 2004
The 6th film of Quentin Tarantino
/ INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS / 2009
“THE EXAGGERATED RAW VIOLENCE OF ‘RESERVOIR DOGS’ LEAVES ONE FEELING CHEATED IN THE END.”
Kat hleen Carroll / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS /
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THE FILM, FOR ALL ITS MAYHEM AND FURY, IS TOO DISTANT TO BE TRULY DISTURBING; IT TREATS EVERYTHING WITH AN IMPATIENT, BORN-TOO-LATE SHRUG. – Terrence Rafferty / NEW YORKER / In 1992, Reservoir Dogs transformed Quentin Tarantino practically overnight from an obscure, unproduced screenwriter and part-time actor to the most influential new filmmaker of the 1990s. The story looks at what happens before and after (but not during) a botched jewelry store robbery organized by Joe Cabot (Lawrence Tierney). Mr. White (Harvey Keitel) is a career criminal who takes a liking to newcomer Mr. Orange (Tim Roth) and enjoys showing him the ropes. Mr. Pink (Steve Buscemi) is a weaselly loner obsessed with professionalism. Mr. Blonde (Michael Madsen) has just gotten out of jail after taking the rap on a job for Cabot; he’s grateful for the work but isn’t the same person he used to be. While Mr. Blonde goes nuts during the heist, the thieves are surprised by the sudden arrival of the police, and Mr. Pink is convinced one of their team is a cop.
So who’s the rat? What do they do about Mr. Blonde? And what do they do with Mr. Orange, who took a bullet in the gut and is slowly bleeding to death? Reservoir Dogs jumps back and forth between pre- and post-robbery events, occasionally putting the narrative on pause to let the characters discuss such topics as the relative importance of tipping, who starred in Get Christie Love!, and what to do when you enter a men’s room full of cops carrying a briefcase full of marijuana.
/ RESERV OIR DOGS /
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/ RESERVOIR DOGS / (1992)
/ PLOT /
1 HOUR 39 MIN CRIME, THRILLER
A group of thieves assemble to pull of the perfect diamond heist. It turns into a bloody ambush when one of the men turns out to be a police informer. As the group begins to question each other’s guilt, the heightening tensions threaten to explode the situation before the police step in.
/ DIRECTED & WRITTEN / QUENTIN TARANTINO
/ AWARDS / / MAIN CAST / HARVEY KEITEL – MR. WHITE / LARRY DIMMICK TIM ROTH – MR. ORANGE / FREDDY NEWANDYKE MICHAEL MADSEN – MR. BLONDE / VIC VEGA STEVE BUSCEMI – MR. PINK EDWARD BUNKER – MR. BLUE QUENTIN TARANTINO – MR. BROWN CHRIS PENN – NICE GUY EDDIE CABOT LAWRENCE TIERNEY – JOE CABOT
- AVIGNON FILM FESTIVAL / 1992 - INDEPENDENT SPIRIT AWARDS / 1993 - LONDON CRITICS CIRCLE FILM AWARDS / 1994 - SITGES_CATALONIAN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL /1992 - STOCKHOLM FILM FESTIVAL / 1992 - TORONTO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL / 1992 - YUBARI INTERNATIONAL FANTASTIC FILM FESTIVAL / 1993
/ RESERV OIR DOGS /
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MR. WHITE
MR. ORANGE
MR. BLONDE
MR. PINK
MR. BLUE
MR. BROWN
NICE GUY EDDIE
JOE CABOT
“THE TALK IS DIRTY AND FUNNY, THE VIOLENCE ALWAYS WAITING JUST AROUND THE CORNER.”
Anthony Lane / NEW YORKER /
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IF YOU SMILE AT DAVID MAMET’S DIALOGUE, YOU’LL LAUGH OUT LOUD AT THE WORDS OF QUENTIN TRARNTINO. – Gene Siskel / CHICAGO TRIBUNE /
What is the movie’s purpose exactly? I’m not sure, but it does deal a lot with the theme of power. Marsellus is the sort of character who looms over the entire film while being invisible most of the time. The whole point of the big date sequence, which happens to be my favorite section of the film, is the power that Marsellus has over his men without even being present. This power is what gets Vincent to act in ways you would not ordinarily expect from a dumb, stoned gangster faced with an attractive woman whose husband has gone away. The power theme also helps explain one of the more controversial aspects of the film, its liberal use of the N-word. In this film, the word isn’t just used as an epithet to describe blacks: Jules, for instance, at one point applies the term to Vincent. It has more to do with power than with race. The powerful characters utter the word to express their dominance over weaker characters. Most of these gangsters are not racist in practice. Indeed, they are intermingled racially, and have achieved a level of equality that surpasses the habits of many law-abiding citizens in our society. They resort to racial epithets because it’s a patter that establishes their separateness from the non-criminal world.
There’s a nice moral progression to the stories. We presume that Vincent hesitates to sleep with Mia out of fear rather than loyalty. Later, Butch’s act of heroism could be motivated by honor, but we’re never sure. The film ends, however, with Jules making a clear moral choice. Thus, the movie seems to be exploring whether violent outlaws can act other than for self-preservation. Still, it’s hard to find much of a larger meaning tying together these eccentric set of stories. None of the stories are really “about” anything. They certainly are not about hit-men pontificating about burgers. Nor is the film really a satire or a farce, although it contains elements of both. At times, it feels like a tale that didn’t need to be told, but for whatever reason this movie tells it and does a better job than most films of its kind, or of any other kind.
/ P ULP FI CTION /
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/ RESERVOIR DOGS / (1994)
/ PLOT /
2 HOUR 34 MIN CRIME, DRAMA
Vincent Vega (John Travolta) and Jules Winnfield (Samuel L. Jackson) are hitmen with a penchant for philosophical discussions. In this ultra-hip, multi-strand crime movie, their storyline is interwoven with those of their boss, gangster Marsellus Wallace (Ving Rhames) ; his actress wife, Mia (Uma Thurman) ; struggling boxer Butch Coolidge (Bruce Willis) ; master fixer Winston Wolfe (Harvey Keitel) and a nervous pair of armed robbers, “Pumpkin” (Tim Roth) and “Honey Bunny” (Amanda Plummer).
/ DIRECTED & WRITTEN / QUENTIN TARANTINO ROGER AVARY
/ MAIN CAST /
/ AWARDS /
UMA THURMAN – MIA WALLACE TIM ROTH – PUMPKIN / RINGO AMANDA PLUMMER – HONEY BUNNY / YOLANDA JOHN TRAVOLTA – VINCENT VEGA SAMUEL L. JACKSON – JULES WINNFIELD BRUCE WILLIS – BUTCH COOLIDGE VING RHAMES – MARSELLUS WALLACE HARVEY KEITEL – THE WOLF JIMMIE – QUENTIN TARANTINO
- ACADEMY AWARDS, UAS / 1995 - GOLDEN GLOBES, USA / 1995 - BAFTA AWARDS / 1995 - ACADEMY of SCI-FI, FANTASY & HORROR FILMS, USA / 1995 - BLUE RIBBON AWARDS / 1995 - BRIT AWARDS / 1995 - CANNES FILM FESTIVAL / 1994
/ P ULP FI CTION /
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/ ROLES IN THE MOVIE /
VINCENT
JULES
MIA
MARSELLUS
HONEY BONNY
PUMPKIN
BUTCH
THE WOLF
“A STRANGE, FUN AND DENSELY TEXTURED WORK THAT GETS BETTER AS IT GOES ALONG.”
Todd McCarthy / VARIETY /
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VOL.1 IS A CANDY STORE RAMPAGE, CHEERING ON TARANTINO’S FETISHES AS HE BUILT A COLORFUL WAR MACHINE OF IDEAL DOUBLE-FEATURE DEMENTIA. – Brian Orndorf / MODAMAG.COM / The movie is really a combination of Tarantino’s love for the 70’s over-dramatized Kung-Fu movie era and story of revenge with rich dialog. Yes, this movie is violent, but in a cheesy way. This created some controversy and really had audiences stirred up, failing to realize it was supposed to be over the top without no sense of realism. Like I said, it was supposed to be a tribute more so than a gruesome action flick. With all cheesiness aside, I can understand how some people could feel a little woozy after seeing someone lose an arm and having 4 gallons of Kool-Aid red blood shoot out of the body like a whale’s blow hole. What really There are various plot holes in the story, but we are makes this movie is Tarantino ability to make bad to really meant to ignore them unlike most movies. Just like mediocre actors seem like good ones, a smart and the gory scenes, come to grips to the fact that the most hilarious dialog and a good storyline. Of course, this is of the implausibilities are there just to fill in the gaps of what he does in pretty much in all of his movies. the movie. The movie also features a couple of classic Tarantino showdowns, including an unforgettable one with the Japanese infamous crime lord, O-Ren Ishii (Lucy Lui.) Once again, Tarantino puts his imagination at work again in his story telling by using some of his old techniques like jumping timelines and some new ones like adding Japanese animation for character backgrounds. Kill Bill vol.1 involves a nameless woman (Uma Thurman) who is slowing seeking revenge on her former hit squad the Viper Squad and her boss Bill (David Caradine.) Her former hit squad wronged her by gunning down her closest friends and family during her wedding and putting her into a coma while being pregnant. A few years later she awakens in a hospital, without child, and tries to track down each member of the squad. As the story progresses (through this film and the sequel), you find out who she really, why Bill wanted her dead and the fate of her daughter.
/ KI LL BI LL vo l.1 /
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/ KILL BILL vol.1 / (2003)
/ PLOT /
1 HOUR 51 MIN ACTION
QUENTIN TARANTINO
A former assassin, known simply as The Bride (Uma Thurman), wakes from a coma four years after her jealous ex-lover Bill (David Carradine) attempts to murder her on her wedding day. Fueled by an insatiable desire for revenge, she vows to get even with every person who contributed to the loss of her unborn child, her entire wedding party, and four years of her life. After devising a hit list, The Bride sets off on her quest, enduring unspeakable injury and unscrupulous enemies.
/ MAIN CAST /
/ AWARDS /
UMA THURMAN – THE BRIDE LUCY LIU – O-REN ISHII VIVICA A. FOX – VERNITA GREEN DARYL HANNAH – ELLE DRIVER DAVID CARRADINE – BILL MICHAEL MADSEN – BUDD JULIE DREYFUS – SOFIE FATALE CHIAKI KURIYAMA – GOGO YUBARI SONNY CHIBA – HATTORI HANZO
- ACADEMY of SCI-FI, FANTASY & HORROR FILMS, USA / 2004 - EMPIRE AWARDS, UK / 2004 - GOLD DERBY FILM AWARDS / 2004 - INTERNATIONAL CINEPHILE SOCIETY AWARDS / 2004
/ DIRECTED & WRITTEN /
/ KI LL BI LL vo l.1 /
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/ ROLES IN THE MOVIE /
THE BRIDE
VERNITA
ELLE
BILL
BUDD
SOFIE
O-REN ISHII
GOGO
HATTORI HANZO
“THE TARANTINO STYLE HAS BEEN COPIED A THOUSAND TIMES OVER SINCE PULP FICTION, WHAT KILL BILL vol.2 PROVES IS THAT HE’S STILL THE MASTER.” Joe Lozito / BIG PICTURE BIG SOUND /
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IF KILL BILL vol.1 WAS LIKE A ROUNDHOUSE KICK TO THE HEAD, vol.2 IS PRACTICALLY A WARM HUG. – Christy Lemire / ASSOCIATE PRESS /
In “Volume 2,” she meets another Asian legend, the warrior master Pai Mei, played by Gordon Liu. Pai Mei, who lives on the top of a high, lonely hill reached by climbing many stairs, was Bill’s master, and in a flashback, Bill delivers his protege for training. Pai Mei is a harsh and uncompromising teacher, and the Bride (whose real name, by the way, is Beatrix Kiddo) sheds blood during their unrelenting sessions. The training with Pai Mei, we learn, prepared The Bride to begin her career with Bill (“jetting around the world making vast sums of money and killing for hire”), and is inserted in this movie at a time and place that makes it function like a classic cliffhanger. In setting up this scene, Tarantino once again pauses for colorful dialogue; The Bride is informed by Bill that Pai Mei hates women, whites and Americans, and much of his legend is described. Such speeches function in Tarantino not as long-winded detours, but as a way of setting up characters and situations with dimensions it would be difficult to establish dramatically.
“Kill Bill Vol. 2” is slow-moving, and needs “Vol. 1” in a way few sequels do, since it assumes you know nearly all the characters coming in. That’s a weakness. So are some undeniably pointless bits, including the entire sequence with Bill’s father figure, Esteban Vihaio, and some business at a bar involving Michael Madsen, who plays a former assassin now gone to seed.
/ KI LL BI LL vo l.2 /
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/ KILL BILL vol.2 / (2004)
/ PLOT /
2 HOUR 17 MIN ACTION, CRIME, THRILLER
QUENTIN TARANTINO
The Bride (Uma Thurman) picks up where she left off in volume one with her quest to finish the hit list she has composed of all of the people who have wronged her, including ex-boyfriend Bill (David Carradine), who tried to have her killed four years ago during her wedding to another man. Leaving several dead in her wake, she eventually tracks down Bill in Mexico. Using skills she has learned during her assassin career, she attempts to finish what she set out to do in the first place.
/ MAIN CAST /
/ AWARDS /
UMA THURMAN – THE BRIDE DARYL HANNAH – ELLE DRIVER DAVID CARRADINE – BILL MICHAEL MADSEN – BUDD GORDON LAU – PAI MEI PERLA HANEY-JARDINE – BB
- ACADEMY of SCI-FI, FANTASY & HORROR FILMS, USA / 2005 - CENTRAL OHIO FILM CRITICS ASSOCIATION / 2005 - HOLLYWOOD FILM AWARDS / 2004 - JUPITER AWARDS / 2005
/ DIRECTED & WRITTEN /
/ KI LL BI LL vo l.2 /
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/ ROLES IN THE MOVIE /
THE BRIDE
BILL
PAI MEI
BB & MOMMY
ELLE
BUDD
“IT’S A LOT TO TAKE IN. BUT IN THE END, TARANTINO LEAVES YOU WANTING MORE.”
Clint O’Conner / CLEVELAND PLAIN DEALER /
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IF YOU REALLY LIKE MOVIES, CHANCES YOU LIKE TARANTINO. AND IF YOU LIKE TARANTINO, CHANCES ARE YOU’LL LIKE INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS. – Kirk Baird / TOLEDO BLADE / Inglorious Basterds makes no apologies, asks for no forgiveness, it’s a no holds barred assault on the senses. Tarantino doesn’t care if he offends, if he steps all over stereotypes and clichés, this is film making at it purest. It’s great to see a film maker whose work clearly isn’t interfeared with by the powers that be. Tarantino is a master of effortlessly cranking up immense tension and suddenly mixing it with laugh out loud moments; you’re not sure if you should be looking away in disgust or rolling around laughing, either way it’s a roller coaster and one not to be missed! It’s not for everyone, certainly if you’re not a fan of Tarantino’s style, this may be a little hard to swallow, but never-the-less, it is a film which simply has to be seen. No self respecting film fan should miss this. In Nazi-occupied France, young Jewish refugee Shosanna Dreyfus witnesses the slaughter of her family by Colonel Hans Landa. Narrowly escaping with her life, she plots her revenge several years later when German war hero Fredrick Zoller takes a rapid interest in her and arranges an illustrious movie premiere at the theater she now runs. With the promise of every major Nazi officer in attendance, the event catches the attention of the “Basterds”, a group of Jewish-American guerrilla soldiers led by the ruthless Lt. Aldo Raine.
As the relentless executioners advance and the conspiring young girl’s plans are set in motion, their paths will cross for a fateful evening that will shake the very annals of history. A team of jewish american soldiers, are tasked to kill Adolf Hitler. But in Nazioccupied France a young woman who escaped the slaughter of her entire jewish family, is trying to figure out a way to kill Hitler and most of all a brutal Nazi Colonel. In Nazi-occupied France during World War II, a plan to assassinate Nazi leaders by a group of Jewish U.S. soldiers coincides with a theatre owner’s vengeful plans for the same.
/ INGLOURI OUS BASTE RDS /
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/ INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS / (2009)
/ PLOT /
2 HOUR 33 MIN ADVENTURE, DRAMA, WAR
QUENTIN TARANTINO
It is the first year of Germany’s occupation of France. Allied officer Lt. Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt) assembles a team of Jewish soldiers to commit violent acts of retribution against the Nazis, including the taking of their scalps. He and his men join forces with Bridget von Hammersmark, a German actress and undercover agent, to bring down the leaders of the Third Reich. Their fates converge with theater owner Shosanna Dreyfus, who seeks to avenge the Nazis’ execution of her family.
/ MAIN CAST /
/ AWARDS /
BRAD PITT – LT. ALDO RAINE MELANIE LARENT – SHOSANNA CHRISTOPH WALTZ – COL. HANS LANDA ELI ROTH – SGT. DONNY DONOWITZ MICHAEL FASSBENDER – LT. ARCHIE HICOX DIANE KRUGER – BRIDGET VON HAMMERRSMARK DANIEL BRUHL – FREDRICK ZOLLER TIL SCHWEIFER – SGT. HUGO STIGLITZ AUGUST DIEHL – MAJOR HELLSTROM SYLVESTER GROTH – JOSEPH GOEBBELS
- ACADEMY AWARDS, USA / 2010 - GOLDEN GLOBES, USA / 2010 - BAFTA AWARDS / 2010 - ACADEMY OF SCI-FI, FANTASY & HORROR FILMS, USA / 2010
/ DIRECTED & WRITTEN /
/ INGLOURI OUS BASTE RDS /
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/ ROLES IN THE MOVIE /
LT. ALDO RAINE
COL. HANS LANDA
BRIDGET VON HAMMERRSMARK
SHOSANNA
FREDRICK ZOLLER
SGT. DONNY DONOWITZ
MAJOR HELLSTROM
LT. ARCHIE HICOX
“VIOLENCE IS ONE OF THE MOST FUN THINGS TO WATCH.”
— QUENTIN TARANTINO
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/ INTERVIE W /
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QUENTIN TARANTINO, A ‘PULP’ HERO / by Roger Ebert /
So thank God for tape recorders, because in the old pen-and-paper days, this would be the act of a desperate man, trying to keep up with Quentin Tarantino, who talks like he’s being paid by the word and starts every sentence in the middle of the previous one. We’re sitting in the corner of this cavernous ballroom on the top floor of the Carlton Hotel at the Cannes Film Festival. Way cool. Tarantino’s got the biggest hit at the festival, “Pulp Fiction,” and in a couple of days, they’re going to give it the Palme d’Or, which is the Grand Prize in any language.
He’s 31. I met him the first time when he was 29. Two years ago, when he brought “Reservoir Dogs” to Cannes, he was happy to sit at a table on the beach and eat spaghetti. Now the whole top floor of the Carlton has been roped off for him.
Bruce Willis and John Travolta, two of the stars of “Pulp Fiction,” are also at the festival, angling to get a word in edgewise, because Tarantino is a joyous, arm-waving, headshaking, table-pounding cascade of cinematic theory and big plans. This is the only man I know who makes Jay Leno look like he has an ordinary chin. Tarantino’s jaw juts out like “Five years ago about now, yeah, was the last a figurehead, parting the waves in advance of year in the video store,” he is remembering. his opinions. And he has all these . . . theories. It is part of the folklore that Tarantino worked in a video store, devouring movies by the If you ever get a chance to see a movie thousands, by the pound, by the yard, letting named “Sleep With Me,” you’ll understand them churn in his imagination and then writing what I mean. This is a low-budget film made lurid, violent, macho screenplays that were by a friend of Tarantino’s, and in a cameo role, born to be called “Pulp Fiction” or “Reservoir Tarantino plays a party guest. He plants himself Dogs” or “True Romance,” titles like that. in the middle of the floor and loudly explains why “Top Gun” is actually a homosexual love story. How the Navy pilots love one their jet planes are phalluses, and when one flies upside-down right above another one, well, how plain can it get? “Come over to the GAY SIDE!” he shouts. “That’s the message!”
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/ CONTINUE… / Tarantino’s theory actually makes a certain amount of sense. I wonder if he talked it over with Tony Scott, who directed not only “Top Gun,” but also “True Romance,” last fall’s crimefest, which was written by Tarantino. Doesn’t matter. The point is, Tarantino is always loudly explaining a theory. He talks so much, he’d be a bore if he weren’t so interesting. I ask him whether he thinks there is any correlation between violence on the screen and violence in society. Not an original question, but a conversation opener when a guy has just directed a movie with some of the more unique forms of mayhem ever seen on the screens of Cannes. Here is every word of his answer, because I want you to understand how he talks: “OK! My answer is the easiest answer in the world, to me: It’s just a movie and that’s the way I feel! However, while I do not believe there is absolutely any correlation of people seeing a movie and going out and acting it out in real life, and as an example, people go, ‘Well, what about the Borgias? There were no movies back then.’ Well, even more important, what about Tokyo? It’s the safest city I’ve ever been in, and they have the most violent cinema I’ve ever seen. However, how much society and the image we see go hand-in-hand, I don’t know the answer to that. However, I do know that I’m a good person, yet I grew up watching ‘The Wild Bunch’ and ‘Deliverance’ on a double-feature when I was 11 years old. All right, you know?”
“Reservoir Dogs,” and then jumped the budget to $400,000 - still peanuts - on the strength of Keitel’s participation. How before he even finished that film, he had already sold the screenplays to “True Romance” and “Natural Born Killers.” How “Pulp Fiction” was the most eagerly awaited film at Cannes last May simply because Tarantino made it.
“REVENGE IS BEST SERVED COLD” The movie (which opens Friday in Chicago) tells several interlocking stories - three main ones, and then a couple of framing stories. The framing story stars Tim Roth and Amanda Plummer as a couple of lovey-doveys (he calls her “Honey Bunny”) who sit in a restaurant and talk themselves into holding it up. The there’s a story involving John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson as enforcers for a mobster. And then Travolta is ordered to take the mobster’s wife (Uma Thurman) out to a nightclub. And then that leads to a scene that will feel like a needle straight through your heart.
Meanwhile, Bruce Willis is a boxer who does not throw a fight he was supposed to throw, which means the mob wants to kill him so he has to get out of town, fast, with his girlfriend. But he and the mob boss, the last man he wants to see, run into each other and end up in All right. You begin to sense how a video store the basement of a gun shop, where some very clerk turned himself into a movie director. How weird stuff is going on. Meanwhile, Travolta he talked an established actor like Harvey and a buddy end up with a body accidentally Keitel into appearing in a $24,000 movie like on their hands, and Harvey Keitel is a Mr. Fix-it “So the bottom line is, my No. 1 responsibility is not to society at large; it’s to my characters. And to be true to them. If you had to stop and think what some idiot might do after seeing the movie, you’d never do anything.”
/ INTERVIE W /
who specializes in cleaning up other people’s messes. And in the middle, Christopher Walken delivers a speech to a little boy that starts slowly and builds into the biggest laugh of the year. None of this even touches the genius of the movie, which resides in its humor, its invention, its crazy energy, its peculiar dialogue, and its headlong rush through a loop-the-loop plot. It’s got interlocking stories that seem to double back on themselves, like a Mobius band, so that in the final scene of the movie the characters walk in on what was earlier the first scene in the movie. It might seem that the movie has contradicted itself somehow, ending before it began - that characters are now alive who were earlier dead.
with their guns pointing at one another. And if they all pull their triggers, then everybody dies. That was how you ended “Reservoir Dogs” and “True Romance,” and sure enough, it’s sort of how you end “Pulp Fiction.” A Western showdown. Tarantino’s head was pumping up and down. “I loved it when ‘True Romance’ came out and people were saying they couldn’t believe I ended it the same way I did ‘Dogs.’ (It’s) the modern-day equivalent of the Western showdown. I never felt gypped when Sergio Leone ended every Western he did with a showdown; that’s just the way they ended. But every single one of them was different.”
“OK,” I told Tarantino, “I was just talking to your agent and he explained the time line to me and then he found out he was wrong. And then two of us started in and we both got confused. So is there a time paradox in the plot? Does the chronology involve an impossibility?” “No, there’s not an impossibility,” he said. “I know that for a fact. I’m very careful about that. I mean, it’d be kinda silly, and the worst kind of sloppy, if you did a movie the way I did it and then tripped it up.”
“And every single one of my stories is different. He was drinking coffee, and he spilled some, One of the things I kinda like is my stuff leads to a volatile conclusion. Everything’s been and began to mop it up with a napkin. building and building and building and then, “It’s all carefully written. It’s like when Bunuel it’s like, how can I stretch this out the most? I cast two different actors to play the same part. want to send you out the door like you’ve seen But if you’re going to do that, you’ve got to a movie. So often these days movies have bad be totally clear. The worst things you can do endings. I almost don’t expect a movie to have is confuse an audience. With ‘Pulp,’ you might a good ending anymore.” momentarily be confused, but you’ve been given enough hints as you’ve been watching “I remember when I watched John Woo’s ‘A Better Tomorrow II,’ “ he said, mentioning the the movie that you can catch up with it.” legendary Hong Kong action director whose One thing I was waiting for, I said, was the films were obviously an influence back when scene where everybody is standing in a circle he was carrying home armloads from the store.
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/ CONTINUE… / “I was watching it with a buddy of mine, and it’s all building to this big climax. We hadn’t seen this movie before, so we didn’t know they were going to have the biggest shootout in the history of film. “My friend turns to me and goes, ‘If they don’t get naked and boogie at the end of this movie, this has been for nothing.’ He was right! Doesn’t matter that we enjoyed everything leading up to the end, it had to end in like a big way or it was all nothing!”
Making a bad movie would be going backward.”
You really love movies, don’t you?
“When I’m writing a movie,” Tarantino said, “I hear the laughter. People talk about the violence. What about the comedy? ‘Pulp Fiction’ has such an obviously comic spirit, even with all the weird things that are happening. To me, the most torturous thing in the world, and this counts for ‘Dogs’ just as much as ‘Pulp,’ is to watch it with an audience who doesn’t know they’re supposed to laugh. Because that’s a death. Because I’m hearing the laughs in my mind, and there’s this dead silence of crickets sounding in the audience, you know?”
“I’ll walk outside and if it’s raining, if I just fell in love with a girl, I might go do the Gene Kelly dance in the rain. When I was a little kid, I’d see a Charles Bronson movie and I’d stand in the mirror and, like, pretend I was Charles Bronson talking down the bully. If I see an action movie and the guy’s wearing a cool jacket or something in it, I want to buy that jacket.” An anarchic energy. He can buy a lot of jackets. You’re represented by the William Morris Agency, I said. You’re king of the festival, big stars are working with you, and it’s all happened so quickly. Will you still have this anarchic energy in your films, after you get embraced by the Hollywood mainstream? “My integrity will always be the same. I mean, I might fail. But I find it almost impossible to believe that I’ll ever do a movie for the wrong reasons because - it’s just too hard to make a movie! It takes too long! It’s a year of your life! And I can’t believe I’ll ever do something completely for money because I’m making enough money now. I never want my overhead to get so big that I gotta do stuff I don’t care about. “In a way, doing a movie you didn’t care about would be worse than working behind a counter. It world be a death! When I was working behind a counter, I was going forward.
Talking like this, he had hardly noticed the storm gathering around him. A publicist was tugging at his chair, trying to angle Tarantino in front of some TV cameras. Fans had somehow infiltrated as far as a glass door, and were pounding on it. Bruce Willis was edging in on the other side, suggesting they go get some lunch.
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NEW BEVERLY CINEMA / 7165 BEVERLY BLVD, LOS ANGELES, CA 90036 /
In December 2007, to save the property from redevelopment, filmmaker Quentin Tarantino bought the building that houses the New Beverly Cinema, effectively making him the theater’s landlord. The Hollywood Reporter reported that Tarantino would allow the Torgan family to continue operating the theater, while making programming suggestions from time to time. Tarantino was quoted as saying “As long as I’m alive, and as long as I’m rich, the New Beverly will be there, showing double features in 35mm.”
In October, Tarantino’s new programming began with a double feature of Paul Mazursky films, Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969) and Blume in Love (1973).[5] Midnight screenings are programmed on Friday and Saturday. Kiddee Matinees take place on weekend afternoons, and admission includes a small popcorn.
In January 2016 the double-feature programming was suspended again, this time for a month long run of the 35mm roadshow version of Tarantino’s latest film The Hateful Eight. February 2016 then followed with From December 2007 until September 2014, The double features each consisting of The Hateful Eight New Beverly was managed full-time by Michael Torgan, and a film which influenced Tarantino in its production. Sherman’s son. Michael renovated the theater by Features are usually preceded by a curated collection replacing all the seats. of vintage cartoons, shorts, and trailers. The theater’s usual double-feature programming was suspended in December 2012 for an extended run of Tarantino’s own Django Unchained, projected in 35mm. In September 2014, seven years after acquiring the theater, Quentin Tarantino took over the programming duties. The cinema will continue showing double features exclusively in 35mm (or 16mm, depending on print availavility). Some films will be screened from Tarantino’s private collection.
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I’VE KILLED A HELL OF A LOT OF PEOPLE TO GET TO THIS POINT, BUT I HAVE ONLY ONE MORE. THE ONE I’M GOING TO RIGHT NOW. AND WHEN I ARRIVE AT MY DESTINATION, I AM MEANT TO KILL, THE PAYBACK WITH BLOODY SATISFACTION THAT I DESERVED.
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