Quentin Tarantino
Added 2024-04-30 00:34:26 +0000 UTCI forgot to ask this when the initial news dropped, but what do you guys think about Quentin abandoning his critic movie project? I have to admit, I felt a bit relieved to hear it. Not because I don't trust Quentin. I just feel the whole meta critic thing as an epilogue to the career felt a little too on the nose for me, especially after Once Upon A Time in Hollywood (a film I've revisited and still struggle with). But also, I've always taken issue with Quentin and his obsession with his legacy. His ego is part of what we find compelling about him, I think. But it also can be annoying, and it does not serve him in the best ways professionally. He wants his career and legacy to be as under his own control as possible it seems, which I don't think is his burden to carry as an artist. I feel like he should just make art and release it when it's ready, plan things a few years in advance, perhaps, have a visible trajectory in mind...but it doesnt necessarily have to be followed to a T. The danger of planning your career in such a detailed fashion, is the added pressure on yourself, and you run the risk of self-sabotage. I don't know if that's the case here. My instinct tells me that Quentin isn't necessarily creatively blocked. I have a feeling he merely lost interest in the project, and refuses to do things half-assed, which I admire. But even so, it feels as if it's putting unnecessary pressure on said final film. Too many eggs in one basket this time. What are your thoughts? Let's discuss.
Comments
As an aside, I don't think it makes sense for Tarantino to arbitrarily use age or number of films as a demarcation of his "legacy". If I were him, I'd consider thinking about packing it in when he becomes so indecisive about the quality of that legacy he cancels projects after months of preproduction, leaving backers and funders high and dry. This kind of thing sounds costly and wasteful - a younger, less precious director would likely be hungrier to shoot celluloid and get something out.
Matthew Ryder
2024-05-01 15:49:54 +0000 UTCAs a budding cinephile in the early 90s, I learned of a small cult film called Reservoir Dogs amidst the rubble of what passed for the internet in those days - on a Usenet newsgroup. A group of us organised a car and drove 2.5 hours from our small university town to a theatre that was playing it. We returned, stunned. Then I watched Pulp Fiction on opening night in a packed cinema. The atmosphere was electric. The audience was completely entranced. I left exhilarated. That remains by far the most intense and communal experience I've ever had at the movies. I'm biased, because these films were my LOTR or Star Wars. Non-linear, novelistic, blurring high and low culture, filled with homages and filmic references, tense, funny, discombobulating. My young mind was blown. Tarantino was a gateway drug for me to a new type of cinema. I started collecting bootleg VHS tapes. I got into Bergman and Kubrick and Leone and French New Wave flicks. Unfortunately, a new Tarantino film doesn't generate that same excitement in me now. I'm still a fan, but my enthusiasm is increasingly muted. I feel he now writes to a formula (albeit an iconclastic one): take the B-movie rape-revenge trope and dress it in genre or historical robes (the metaphorical rape victim can be a badass female assassin, or a freed slave, or even the entire Jewish nation in WW2 Germany), and then finally "restore order"/make things right/take revenge by reimagining history through the lens of cinema. Once Upon A Time in Hollywood took this idea to a new pomo meta-cinematic level, but was essentially a recapitulation of the same formula: in this case the would-be "rapists" were the Manson family and at the movie's close, the bad guys are vanquished in a B-movie fantasia version of events. Watching this, I thought it "clever" but felt a little queasy at this relatively recent real-life personal tragedy employed as Tarantino's fodder. I need to rewatch the film - I still haven't worked through all my feelings about it. Personally, I'm saddened to hear Tarantino abandoned this latest project. Sure it was a self-indulgent exercise, and a festival of ego. But self-indulgence and ego is and always has been Tarantino's fuel. This would likely have been his most personal film yet. And it seemed possible he'd break this time from that increasingly tired and reheated revenge narrative... might this have been Tarantino's Boogie Nights or his Sunset Blvd? We may never know. I'm sure we will learn all the reasons (Tarantino is too loquacious to keep anything under wraps for very long), but personally I hope he keeps making movies beyond some arbitrary, self-imposed 10 film boundary, and I hope he revisits this project when the stars align.
Matthew Ryder
2024-05-01 07:49:14 +0000 UTCHis being so precious about the 10 films thing is starting to elicit eye rolls, especially because most people already view him as making 10 films. (Few people besides QT really consider Kill Bill to be one five-hour movie.) I take his point about directors putting out bad movies late in their careers, but no one cares if that means QT stops at 10 or 11 or 13. Besides, I don’t think anyone thinks he will actually hold himself to 10 if he gets another idea he loves a few years later. I wonder if he truly cares about winning the best director Oscar and realized that The Film Critic would be too meta to be in consideration. He should do whatever he wants to do. His legacy is already secure as the most influential director post-1994, for better and worse, and he leaves behind a group of movies that will be discovered by young people for decades to come. He might not be as profound as some of the masters of film, but he has been relentlessly entertaining with lots of style. I’d be happy if he did a modern crime movie, harkening back to his first three movies, which I still think are his best three. Hell, bring Samuel L. Jackson back as Jules from Pulp Fiction to see how he has managed in his three decades walking the Earth. Bring Pam Grier back as Jackie Brown. Us children of the ‘90s who grew up with you, we love you. Just have fun. No need to obsess over legacy.
Jim Barnes
2024-04-30 14:57:48 +0000 UTCWe grew up with Quentins pop culture coolness and amazing frames of reference and want another Pulp fiction (co wrote lets not forget) . The things that have always bugged me are his need to act in some of his films !! He makes Crispin Glover look like Olivier. I remember the sunken feeling of the theatre when once upon a time in Hollywood finished and is this the problem that our expectations are so high and is this fair ? How many directors have this avid must see the next project. PTA is one for me but Quentin is blessed (or maybe cursed) by his legacy. Can do without the feet tho
Paul Duckitt
2024-04-30 07:20:04 +0000 UTCTarantino has said the biggest reason he's retiring is because everything is switching from film to digital. This may be true as nostalgia runs high with Tarantino. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is the perfect example of this. Jackie Brown, originally set in Miami (if I remember rightly), was switched to the Bay Area which is Tarantino's comfortable zone. His period pieces were inspired by 1960s television. His discomfort with the modern mediums of streaming services, social media and digital TV as well as his reluctance to let go of a specific 'golden' era of cinema needs to be tempered with an interest in newer movies etc, especially if he's styling himself as a film critic. As we know, the past should unite with the present to move towards the future, or whatever. I don't think Tarantino needs to worry about his legacy. The man practically became his own genre. His impact on cinema was easily as big as earlier movements. Whether this new development is a setback for him is anyone's guess. He may definitely have tried to bite off more than he can chew. He's certainly stubborn. But I'm sure he'll bounce back. Artists with egos usually do. It does help to have friends within the industry that can keep him current - if he will listen to them.
Matt C
2024-04-30 05:08:33 +0000 UTCI think now he’s going to focus his creativity more on writing, but I do admit, as an artist of any kind, you really have to be impulsive and not try to control your public persona. Whether he decides to make more films or not, he has made some of the best films of all time and he’ll be remembered as one of the greatest directors ever. I know you’ve said you struggle with most of his films post-90s. I personally think they’re all great in different ways.
Shane Palamara
2024-04-30 02:59:45 +0000 UTCDirector Luc Besson said Tarantino got the whole retire after 10 films idea from him. On a podcast, Besson said he came up with the idea after he made his 7th movie. The logic was that if he knew he only had 10 movies to make, it would make him careful or precious about the final 3 films he would make. Luc Besson came up with this concept at a time when Hollywood was throwing him money and scripts left and right. So I can see how this idea would help him pick the right project and avoid the more tempting commercial projects coming his way. When it comes to Tarantino and this 10 film theory, I agree with Deep Focus Lens. This feels more like an ego decision than an artistic decision. With Tarantino being a writer, I can see him struggling with what idea to commit his time to but I'm with Deep Focus Lens, he should be doing it all. I am glad Tarantino's last film isn't the movie critic. Once Upon A Time in Hollywood to me, is Tarantino's best directed film (Reel for reel, he should of won the Oscar over Bong Joon-ho). However the writing of the story and concept was probably the least interesting of his movies. It was set up and played out like a "day in the life" movie up until the story takes us to Italy. The movie would've jelled a lot better for me if it all played out in a day. Tarantino doesn't have to stick to his recipe of taking a Genre film, splicing it with French New Wave, adding a sprinkle of Revenge and a small side of German Expressional, but he does it the best. He should go out with one of those.
Fillmore Pockets
2024-04-30 02:59:28 +0000 UTCYeah definitely agree on hoping he gets to it sooner rather than later. Taking another 5 years wouldn’t be ideal.
Stephen
2024-04-30 01:54:30 +0000 UTCI rolled my eyes initially when he first announced that he would retire after making 10 films. I didn't quite believe it, because a lot of artists have said they're going to retire and didn't stick with it (Steven Soderbergh comes to mind). And even if he was serious, I thought it was the stupidest thing he could do. Why limit himself to 10 films? Why be so hung up on his legacy? But as time went on, I started to feel that retiring after 10 films was perhaps the smartest thing he could do. It's not out of any preciousness I share with him about his career. Personally, I admire any artist committed to doing what they do until the day they die, diminishing returns or not. It's just that, looking over his work, you realize that there are only so many films QT can do. He doesn't grow or mature at the rate of any of his contemporaries (though I do consider OUATIH to be the work of a man looking back, while Pulp Fiction is the work of a brash young talent looking to prove himself), therefore there is only so far he can go. He's like Godard and Orson Welles in that he is best defined, and thereby confined, by youthful exuberance. That can be a harder trick to pull off when you pass 60. Yeah, he's put a lot of pressure on himself. It's only when you pointed it out that I realized it. But I think that titanic ego you speak of only serves to burnish his confidence, to protect him from that pressure. He may have simply lost interest in The Movie Critic, felt that it was too similar to OUATIH (it was said to have Brad Pitt reprising his role as Cliff Booth). His countdown to the last film never bothered me because, up until now, he always seemed sure what his next movie was going to be. I only hope that whatever his final project is, he makes it sooner rather than later. His decision to retire also works because, due to the changing social climate, his transgressive '70s sensibility risks becoming outdated, the posturings and rantings of an old man past his time. I don't think he's gone that way yet, but if he waits any longer he could very well do so. And regardless of the movie, he'll go out with a whimper instead of a bang.
Bennett Oliver
2024-04-30 01:44:16 +0000 UTCFor sure, it would’ve been much more badass to end things the way Seinfeld did. And then not talk about it until years later.
Jared Angcanan
2024-04-30 01:30:01 +0000 UTCI was relieved too. The movie sounded interesting but I wouldn’t be surprised if it ended up being a complete train wreck.
Henri J. Mertens
2024-04-30 01:28:04 +0000 UTCYes I agree. I stand by that something about Once Upon A Time just doesnt' work for me. But I feel that way about everything he did post Jackie Brown with the exception of Death Proof. But that being his last big "epic" film to me is a total letdown. He has more in him, or at least I'd hope he would. But I was just saying that a looseness to a steady trajectory you have in mind is fine. But to spell it out to such a degree the way Quentin has, I think is a recipe for problems.
Deepfocuslens
2024-04-30 01:20:48 +0000 UTCYeah I will be too. We all will. But yes I agree. It would've been so much better if he had not said so much to us. Kept a little left to the imagination.
Deepfocuslens
2024-04-30 01:18:26 +0000 UTCI’m glad that he’s doing what makes him happy, and I agree with you on the meta-cinema point. It’d be nice if his last movie was something a bit more removed from #9. I don’t think I agree with you on the legacy bit. I actually think it’s admirable for someone to try and make their body of work as a whole into an artistic statement. It’s much more difficult to be in control of one’s “oeuvre”, but it’s very rewarding as a fan when you look at guys like Emerson and Tolkien and Prince, and there find a loose but graceful continuity throughout every piece. It’s tricky with filmmakers, but I think for Tarantino, the approach works, especially because his cinema style is such a close mirror to his worldview/past/personality. I don’t see it as being self-indulgent, I guess I see it as just another level of precision.
Jared Angcanan
2024-04-30 01:15:17 +0000 UTCI basically feel the same way. His ego gets in the way a lot and often clouds his judgement both regarding his career and sometimes even in interviews. I kinda wish he’d kept 10 picture thing to himself and then surprised us saying his 10th one was his final film or maybe come to realization that he didn’t want to stop after all. He’s said before that philosophically he goes by “how he feels today” and doesn’t like to pigeonhole himself and yet this long sworn 10 picture thing and repeatedly being adamant to it, is doing just that. Also, he’s said he wants it to be like an epilogue to his career believing OUATIH was his last big statement. But then again this QT and don’t quite believe him lol. Whatever he does you can bet I’ll be there opening weekend for sure. He may sometimes make me roll my eyes but he’s a character I’m definitely going to miss once he officially retires.
Stephen
2024-04-30 00:51:21 +0000 UTCCertain creators masterfully find the perfect ending to their career. David Bowie is perhaps the most amazing example I can think of. Someone like Derek Jarman is another great example. Even Coppola has had a very visible career trajectory that he's been vocal about. But none of them seem as adamant about it as Quentin. They can take some detours to get to the end of the rainbow. Quentin talks too much I think, like his scripts. He's too vocal about what he wants for himself. He's spoken about it far too much in interviews over the years.. Just like he spoke far too much about how much Harvey Weinstein made his career, lol. I think sometimes he might be better off with more mystique.
Deepfocuslens
2024-04-30 00:43:26 +0000 UTCI like Tarantino's work, not as much as my friends, but I've always found his Kanye-esque egotism pretty irritating. If he isn't satisfied with the final script then that's fine, but considering that he's giving all this pressure to himself to make some perfect send off when idk if he's even 60, is pretty crazy and unnecessary imo. (Plus, it's hard not to view the news from the lens of "oh, he's doing this not because he isn't satisfied with the script but he isn't satisfied with the script being his swan song, or whatever.) I understand the artist's desire to control their own legacy, but there's only so much you can control about other people's perception. Mostly a reductive exercise. If he wants to make a movie, he should make a movie without the pressures he's unnecessarily adding onto himself with the 10 movie gimmick.
vince2k
2024-04-30 00:39:43 +0000 UTC
