Quentin Tarantino

Quentin Tarantino

Quentin Tarantino in Paris at the 39th César Awards, March 2014
Born Quentin Jerome Tarantino
March 27, 1963
Knoxville, Tennessee, United States
Occupation Film director, film producer, screenwriter, actor
Years active 1988–present

Quentin Jerome Tarantino[1] (/ˌtɛrənˈtiːnoʊ/; born March 27, 1963) is an American film director, screenwriter, cinematographer, producer, and actor. His films are characterized by non-linear storylines, satirical subject matter, and an aestheticization of violence, as well as features of neo-noir film[2] and spaghetti Westerns.

Tarantino grew up an obsessed film fan and worked at Video Archives, a video rental store while training to act. 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 the release in 1994 of his second film, Pulp Fiction, a neo-noir crime film that became a major critical and commercial success and judged the greatest film of the past 25 years (1983-2008) by Entertainment Weekly.[3] Paying homage to the blaxploitation films of the 1970s, Tarantino released Jackie Brown in 1997, an adaptation of the novel Rum Punch.

Kill Bill, a highly stylized "revenge flick" in the cinematic traditions of Japanese martial arts, spaghetti westerns and Italian horror, followed six years later, and was released as two films: Vol. 1 in 2003, and Vol. 2 in 2004. Tarantino directed Death Proof (2007) as part of a double feature with friend Robert Rodriguez, under the collective title Grindhouse. His long-postponed Inglourious Basterds, which tells the fictional alternate history story of two plots to assassinate Nazi Germany's political leadership, was released in 2009 to positive reviews. His most recent work is 2012's critically acclaimed Django Unchained, a western film set in the antebellum era of the Deep South. It became the highest-grossing film of his career so far, making over $425 million at the box office.

Tarantino's films have garnered both critical and commercial success. He has received many industry awards, including two Academy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, two BAFTA Awards and the Palme d'Or, and has been nominated for an Emmy and a Grammy. He was named one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World by Time in 2005,[4] and filmmaker and historian Peter Bogdanovich has called him "the single most influential director of his generation".[5]

Early life

Tarantino was born in Knoxville, Tennessee in 1963.[6] He is the son of actor and amateur musician Tony Tarantino and nurse Connie McHugh.[7][8] He has a younger half-brother named Ron. Tarantino's father, from Queens, New York, is of Italian descent, while his mother has Irish and Cherokee ancestry.[9][10][11] His stepfather was Curt Zastoupil, a musician.[7] Tarantino was raised by his mother, as his parents separated before his birth.[12] Tarantino has stated that his mother dated NBA star Wilt Chamberlain.[13] When he was four years old, they moved to Torrance, California and later to the Harbor City neighborhood of Los Angeles, where he attended Fleming Junior High School.[12] He attended Narbonne High School in Harbor City for his first year, but dropped out of school when he was 15[14] to attend an acting class full-time at the James Best Theater Company in Toluca Lake.[15] In an interview with NPR in 2013, Tarantino talked about how his mother's boyfriends would take him to blaxploitation movies.[16]

Tarantino grew bored with the James Best Acting School and left after two years, although he kept in touch with all of his acting friends. He then landed a job which threatened to interfere with his long-term acting ambitions.[17] As an employee of Video Archives, a now-defunct video rental store in Manhattan Beach, he and fellow movie enthusiasts (including Roger Avary) discussed cinema and customer video recommendations at length. He paid close attention to the types of films people liked to rent and has cited that experience as inspiration for his directorial career.[18] Tarantino has been quoted as saying: "When people ask me if I went to film school I tell them 'no, I went to films.'"[9]

Film career

1980s

After Tarantino met Lawrence Bender at a Hollywood party, Bender encouraged him to write a screenplay. Tarantino co-wrote and directed a movie called My Best Friend's Birthday in 1987. The final reel of the film was almost completely destroyed in a lab fire that occurred during editing, but its screenplay later formed the basis for True Romance.

1990s

In January 1992, Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs was screened at the Sundance Film Festival. It was an immediate hit, with the film receiving a positive response from critics. The dialogue-driven heist movie set the tone for Tarantino's later films. Tarantino wrote the script for the film in three-and-a-half weeks and Bender forwarded it to director Monte Hellman. Hellman helped Tarantino to secure funding from Richard Gladstein at Live Entertainment (which later became Artisan, now known as Lionsgate). Harvey Keitel read the script and also contributed to the funding, taking a role as co-producer and also playing a part in the movie.[19]

Tarantino has had a number of collaborations with director Robert Rodriguez.

Tarantino's screenplay True Romance was optioned and the film was eventually released in 1993. The second script that Tarantino sold was for the film Natural Born Killers, which was revised by Dave Veloz, Richard Rutowski and director Oliver Stone. Tarantino was given story credit and in an interview stated that he wished the film well.[20][21] The film engendered enmity, and the publication of a 'tell all' book titled Killer Instinct by Jane Hamsher—who with Don Murphy had an original option on the screenplay and produced the film—led to Tarantino physically assaulting Murphy in the AGO restaurant in West Hollywood, CA in October 1997. Murphy subsequently filed a $5m lawsuit against Tarantino, which was eventually settled out of court.[22] Following the success of Reservoir Dogs, Tarantino was approached by Hollywood and offered numerous projects, including Speed and Men in Black, but he instead retreated to Amsterdam to work on his script for Pulp Fiction.

In Pulp Fiction (1994), Tarantino maintained the aestheticization of violence, for which he is known, as well as his non-linear storylines. Tarantino received an Academy Award in the Best Writing (Original Screenplay) category, which he shared with Roger Avary. He also received a nomination in the Best Director category. The film received another five nominations, including for Best Picture. Tarantino also won the Palme d'Or for the film at the Cannes Film Festival. The film has grossed over $200 million and was met with outstanding reviews.

After Pulp Fiction was completed, Tarantino directed episode four of Four Rooms, "The Man from Hollywood", a tribute to the episode "Man from the South" from the television show Alfred Hitchcock Presents, which starred Steve McQueen in an adaptation of a Roald Dahl story. Four Rooms was a collaborative effort with filmmakers Allison Anders, Alexandre Rockwell and Robert Rodriguez. The film was very poorly received by critics.

Tarantino appeared in and wrote the script for Robert Rodriguez's From Dusk till Dawn (1996), which saw mixed reviews from the critics. It nevertheless quickly reached cult status, spawning a continuing saga of two sequels, for which Tarantino and Rodriguez only served as executive producers.

Tarantino's third feature film was Jackie Brown (1997), an adaptation of Rum Punch, a novel by Elmore Leonard. An homage to blaxploitation films, it starred Pam Grier, who starred in many of the films of that genre in the 1970s. Leonard considered Jackie Brown to be the favourite of the 26 different screen adaptations of his novels and short stories.[23]

2000s

Tarantino had next planned to make Inglourious Basterds, as it was provisionally titled, but postponed this to write and direct Kill Bill, a highly stylized "revenge flick" in the cinematic traditions of Wuxia (Chinese martial arts), Jidaigeki (Japanese period cinema), spaghetti westerns and Italian horror. It was originally set for a single theatrical release, but its 4-hour plus running time prompted Tarantino to divide it into two movies. Vol. 1 was released in late 2003 and Vol. 2 was released in 2004. It was based on a character called The Bride and a plot that he and Kill Bill‍ '​s lead actress Uma Thurman had developed during the making of Pulp Fiction.

In 2004, Tarantino attended the Cannes film festival, where he served as President of the Jury. Although Kill Bill was not in competition, Vol. 2 had an evening screening, and was also shown on the morning of the final day in its original 3-hour plus version, with Tarantino himself attending the full screening. Tarantino went on to be credited as "Special Guest Director" in Robert Rodriguez's 2005 neo-noir film Sin City, for his work directing the car sequence featuring Clive Owen and Benicio del Toro.

Tarantino in 2009

In May 2005, Tarantino co-wrote and directed Grave Danger, the 5th season finale of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. For this episode, Tarantino was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series on the 57th Primetime Emmy Awards.[24]

Tarantino's next film project was Grindhouse, which he co-directed with Rodriguez. Released in theaters on April 6, 2007, Tarantino's contribution to the Grindhouse project was titled Death Proof. It began as a take on 1970s slasher films,[25] but evolved dramatically as the project unfolded. Ticket sales were low despite mostly positive reviews.

Among Tarantino's producing credits are the horror film Hostel, which included numerous references to his own Pulp Fiction; the adaptation of Elmore Leonard's Killshot, for which Tarantino was credited as an executive producer, although he was no longer associated with the film after its 2009 release;[26] and Hell Ride, written and directed by Larry Bishop and Jonny Lane, who both appeared in Kill Bill Vol. 2.

Tarantino's film Inglourious Basterds, released in 2009, is the story of a group of Jewish-American guerilla soldiers in Nazi-occupied France during World War II. Filming began in October 2008.[27] The film opened on August 21, 2009 to very positive reviews[28] and reached the No. 1 spot at the box office worldwide.[29] It went on to become Tarantino's highest-grossing film until it was surpassed by Django Unchained three years later.[30]

2010–present

Tarantino in Paris in January 2013, at the French premiere of Django Unchained.

In 2011, production began on Django Unchained, a film about the revenge of a slave in the U.S. South in 1858. The film stemmed from Tarantino's desire to produce a spaghetti western set in America's Deep South. Tarantino called the proposed style "a southern",[31] stating that he wanted "to do movies that deal with America's horrible past with slavery and stuff but do them like spaghetti westerns, not like big issue movies. I want to do them like they're genre films, but they deal with everything that America has never dealt with because it's ashamed of it, and other countries don't really deal with because they don't feel they have the right to".[31] The film was released on December 25, 2012. During an interview with Krishnan Guru-Murthy about the film on Channel 4 News, Tarantino reacted angrily when, in light of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, he was questioned about an alleged link between movie violence and real-life violence.[32]

The Hateful Eight Live Reading at the Ace Hotel Los Angeles, as part of LACMA's Live Read series on April 19, 2014.

In November 2013, Tarantino said he was working on a new film and that it would be another Western. He stated that it would not be a sequel to Django.[33] On January 12, 2014, it was revealed that the film would be titled The Hateful Eight. The production of the western would most likely have begun in the summer of 2014, but after the script for the film leaked in January 2014, Tarantino considered dropping the movie and publishing it as a novel instead.[34][35] He claimed to have given the script to a few trusted colleagues, including Bruce Dern, Tim Roth and Michael Madsen.[36][37]

On April 19, 2014, Tarantino directed a live reading of the leaked script at the United Artists Theater in the Ace Hotel, Los Angeles. The event was organized by the Film Independent at LACMA, as part of the Live Read series.[38] Tarantino explained that they would read the first draft of the script, and added that he was writing two new drafts with a different ending. The actors who joined Tarantino included Samuel L. Jackson, Kurt Russell, Amber Tamblyn, James Parks, Walton Goggins and the first three actors to be given the script before the leakage, Bruce Dern, Tim Roth and Michael Madsen.[39] In October 2014, Jennifer Jason Leigh was in talks to join as female lead for the film.[40] On November 7, 2014, it was announced that Leigh, Channing Tatum, and Demián Bichir would join the cast.[41]

As producer

In recent years, Tarantino has used his Hollywood power to give smaller and foreign films more attention than they might have received otherwise. These films are usually labeled "Presented by Quentin Tarantino" or "Quentin Tarantino Presents". The first of these productions was in 2001 with the Hong Kong martial arts film Iron Monkey, which made over $14 million in the United States, seven times its budget. In 2004 he brought the Chinese martial arts film Hero to U.S. shores. It ended up having a No. 1 opening at the box office and making $53.5 million. In 2006, the latest "Quentin Tarantino presents" production, Hostel, opened at No. 1 at the box office with a $20.1 million opening weekend, good for 8th all time in January. He presented 2006's The Protector, and is a producer of the 2007 film Hostel: Part II. In 2008 he produced the Larry Bishop-helmed Hell Ride, a revenge biker film.

In addition, in 1995 Tarantino formed Rolling Thunder Pictures with Miramax to release or re-release several independent and foreign features. By 1997, Miramax had shut down the company due to "lack of interest" in the pictures released. The following films were released by Rolling Thunder Pictures: Chungking Express (1994, dir. Wong Kar-wai), Switchblade Sisters (1975, dir. Jack Hill), Sonatine (1993, dir. Takeshi Kitano), Hard Core Logo (1996, dir. Bruce McDonald), The Mighty Peking Man (1977, dir. Ho Meng-Hua), Detroit 9000 (1973, dir. Arthur Marks), The Beyond (1981, dir. Lucio Fulci) and Curdled (1996, dir. Reb Braddock).

Other potential films

Before Inglourious Basterds, Quentin Tarantino had considered making The Vega Brothers. The film would have starred Michael Madsen and John Travolta reprising their roles of Vic (Mr. Blonde) from Reservoir Dogs and Vincent from Pulp Fiction. In 2007, because of the age of the actors and the onscreen deaths of both characters, he claimed that the film—which he intended to call Double V Vega—is "kind of unlikely now".[42]

In 2009, in an interview for Italian TV, after being asked about the success of the two Kill Bill films, Tarantino said, "You haven't asked me about the third one", and implied that he would be making a third Kill Bill film with the words, "The Bride will fight again!"[43] Later that year, at the Morelia International Film Festival,[44] Tarantino announced that he would like to film Kill Bill: Vol. 3. He explained that he wanted ten years to pass between The Bride's last conflict, in order to give her and her daughter a period of peace.[45]

In a 2012 interview for the website We Got This Covered, Tarantino said that a third Kill Bill film would "probably not" happen. He also said that he would not be directing a new James Bond film, saying that he was only interested in directing Casino Royale at one point.[46] In a late 2012 interview with the online magazine The Root, Tarantino clarified his remarks and described his next film as being the final entry in a "Django-Inglourious Basterds" trilogy called Killer Crow. The film will depict a group of World War II-era black troops who have "been fucked over by the American military and kind of go apeshit. They basically – the way Lt. Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt) and the Basterds are having an 'Apache resistance' – [the] black troops go on an Apache warpath and kill a bunch of white soldiers and white officers on a military base and are just making a warpath to Switzerland."[47]

A long-running rumor in the industry is that Tarantino is interested in filming a new version of Bret Easton Ellis′ 1985 novel, Less Than Zero. His friend Roger Avary adapted Rules of Attraction, another novel by Ellis, to film in 2002, and since both he and Tarantino like the works by Ellis, Tarantino has been eyeing the possibility of adapting Less Than Zero. Ellis recently confirmed, in an interview for Vice magazine, that Tarantino had been "trying to get Fox to let him remake it".[48] At a Q&A session at Harvard Book Store in 2012, in reply to a question asking whether Less Than Zero would be remade, Ellis once again confirmed that Tarantino "has shown interest" in adapting the story.[49] At the 2014 Comic-Con, Tarantino revealed he is contemplating a possible science-fiction film.

Personal life

Tarantino has been romantically linked with American actress Mira Sorvino,[50] directors Allison Anders and Sofia Coppola,[51] actress Julie Dreyfus,[52][53] and comedian Margaret Cho.[54] There have been rumors about his relationship with Uma Thurman, whom he has referred to as his "muse".[55] However, Tarantino has stressed that their relationship is strictly platonic.[56]

Tarantino has described himself as non-religious yet has often stated a belief in divine inspiration, which he has admitted confuses him. He believes in reincarnation.[57]

Tarantino has also said, "I'm not saying that I'll never get married or have a kid before I'm 60. But I've made a choice, so far, to go on this road alone. Because this is my time to make movies."[58]

His best friend is fellow filmmaker and frequent collaborator Robert Rodriguez who, in the credits of Kill Bill Volume 2, he refers to as his brother. He is also close friends with Fiona Apple, Paul Thomas Anderson, Kevin Smith, Edgar Wright and Harvey Keitel.

Tarantino has said that he plans to retire from filmmaking when he is 60, in order to focus on writing novels and film literature. He is skeptical of the film industry going digital, saying, "If it actually gets to the place where you can't show 35 mm film in theatres anymore and everything is digital projection, I won't even make it to 60."[59] He has then stated that he has a plan, although "not etched in stone", to retire after making his tenth movie: "If I get to the 10th, do a good job and don’t screw it up, well that sounds like a good way to end the old career.”[60]

On February 18, 2010, it was announced that Tarantino had bought the New Beverly Cinema. Tarantino has allowed the current owners to continue operating the theater, but he will be making programming suggestions from time to time. He was quoted as saying: "As long as I'm alive, and as long as I'm rich, the New Beverly will be there, showing films shot on 35mm."[61]

Influences and style of filmmaking

An awards ceremony in the Critics Choice Awards celebrated Tarantino, citing his start in filmmaking when he was in his twenties. Music is an important part of Tarantino's filmmaking style, and he said that he would listen to music in his bedroom and create scenes which correlated to the music that was being played.[62][63]

In the 2012 Sight & Sound directors' poll, Tarantino listed his top 12 films: Apocalypse Now, The Bad News Bears, Carrie, Dazed and Confused, The Great Escape, His Girl Friday, Jaws, Pretty Maids All in a Row, Rolling Thunder, Sorcerer, Taxi Driver and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, with the last being his favorite.[64] In 2009, he named Kinji Fukasaku's violent action film Battle Royale as his favorite film released since he became a director in 1992.[65] He is also a fan of the 1981 film Blow Out directed by Brian De Palma, so much so that he used the main star of the film, John Travolta, in Pulp Fiction.[66] Tarantino praised Mel Gibson's 2006 film Apocalypto, saying, "I think it's a masterpiece. It was perhaps the best film of that year.".[67] In August 2007, while teaching in a four-hour film course during the 9th Cinemanila International Film Festival in Manila, Tarantino cited Filipino directors Cirio Santiago, Eddie Romero and Gerardo de León as personal icons from the 1970s.[68] He referred to De Leon's "soul-shattering, life-extinguishing" movies on vampires and female bondage, citing in particular Women in Cages; "It is just harsh, harsh, harsh", he said, and described the final shot as one of "devastating despair".[68] Upon his arrival in the Philippines, Tarantino was quoted in the local newspaper as saying, "I'm a big fan of RP [Republic of the Philippines] cinema."

Tarantino often uses graphic violence that has proven seductive to audiences, and he has been harshly criticised for his use of gore and blood in an entrancing yet simultaneously repulsive way. His films have been staunchly criticised and scorned for their use of violence, blood and action as a "colour" within cinema, and rebuked for allegedly using human suffering as a punchline.[69]

Actor Steve Buscemi has described Tarantino's novel style of filmmaking as "bursting with energy" and "focused",[70] a style that has earned him many accolades worldwide. According to Tarantino, a hallmark of all his movies is that there is a different sense of humor in each one, which gets the audience to laugh at things that are not funny.[71] However, he insists that his films are dramas, not comedies.[72] Michael Winner, while appearing on an episode of Piers Morgan's Life Stories, a British ITV production, stated that Quentin Tarantino was a "big fan" of his own film Death Wish.

Tarantino has stated that the celebrated animation-action sequence in Kill Bill (2003) was inspired by the use of 2D animated sequences in actor Kamal Hassan's Tamil film Aalavandhan.[73] He often seeks to harness, manipulate and ultimately imitate the aesthetic elements and conventions typically used in the cartoon medium. More specifically, he often attempts to meld comic strip formulas and aesthetics within a live action film sequence, in some cases by the literal use of cartoon or anime images. Tarantino's cinematic ambition to marry artistic expression via live action and cartoonism is yet another example of his ability to morph genres and conventions to produce a new and authentic style of his own.[74]

Tarantino often manipulates the use of commodities in order to propel plot development or to present an intriguing juxtaposition that ultimately enhances his notorious combination of humor and violence, equating a branded genre with branded consumption.[2] He often pairs bizarre props with an equally bizarre scene, in which the prop itself develops into something of higher substance. Likewise, he often favors particular brand names of his own creation to make promotional appearances. The typical brands he uses within his films are "Acuña Boys Tex-Mex Food", "Big Kahuna Burger", "G.O. Juice", "Jack Rabbit Slim's", "K-Billy", "Red Apple cigarettes", "Tenku Brand Beer" and "Teriyaki Donut".[75]

On the biopic genre, Tarantino has said that he has "no respect" for biopics, saying that they "are just big excuses for actors to win Oscars. ... Even the most interesting person – if you are telling their life from beginning to end, it’s going to be a fucking boring movie.”[76] However, in an interview with Charlie Rose, he said:

There is one story that I could be interested in, but it would probably be one of the last movies I [ever make] ... My favorite hero in American history is John Brown. He's my favorite American who ever lived. He basically single-handedly started the road to end slavery and ... he killed people to do it. He decided, 'If we start spilling white blood, then they're going to start getting the idea.'[77]

Tarantino has stated in many interviews that his writing process is like writing a novel before formatting it into a script, saying that this creates the blueprint of the film and makes the film feel like literature. About his writing process he told website The Talks:

[My] head is a sponge. I listen to what everyone says, I watch little idiosyncratic behavior, people tell me a joke and I remember it. People tell me an interesting story in their life and I remember it. ... when I go and write my new characters, my pen is like an antenna, it gets that information, and all of a sudden these characters come out more or less fully formed. I don’t write their dialogue, I get them talking to each other.[76]

In 2013, a survey of 17 academics was carried out to discover which filmmakers had been referenced the most in essays and dissertations on film that had been marked in the previous five years. It revealed that Tarantino was the most-studied director in the UK, ahead of Christopher Nolan, Alfred Hitchcock, Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg.[78]

Controversies

Gun violence

Tarantino does not believe that violence in movies inspires acts of violence in real life. In an interview after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012, he expressed "annoyance" at the suggestion that there is a link between the two, saying, "I think it's disrespectful to [the] memory of those who died to talk about movies. ... Obviously the issue [here] is gun control and mental health."[79] When asked in 2013 by Britain's Channel 4 News reporter Krishnan Guru-Murthy, "Why are you so sure that there's no link between enjoying movie violence and enjoying real violence?", Tarantino responded by saying, "I have explained [my view on this] many times over the last 20 years, I just refuse to repeat myself over and over again."[80]

Racial epithets

Spike Lee questioned Tarantino's use of racial epithets in his films, particularly the word "nigger". In a Variety interview discussing Jackie Brown, Lee said, "I'm not against the word...And some people speak that way. But Quentin is infatuated with that word. What does he want to be made–an honorary black man?"[81] Tarantino responded on Charlie Rose by stating:

As a writer, I demand the right to write any character in the world that I want to write. I demand the right to be them, I demand the right to think them and I demand the right to tell the truth as I see they are, all right? And to say that I can't do that because I'm white, but the Hughes brothers can do that because they're black, that is racist. That is the heart of racism, all right. And I do not accept that ... That is how a segment of the black community that lives in Compton, lives in Inglewood, where Jackie Brown takes place, that lives in Carson, that is how they talk. I'm telling the truth. It would not be questioned if I was black, and I resent the question because I'm white. I have the right to tell the truth. I do not have the right to lie.[82]

In addition, Tarantino retaliated on The Howard Stern Show by stating that Lee would have to "stand on a chair to kiss my ass".[83] Samuel L. Jackson, who has appeared in both directors' films, defended Tarantino's use of the word. At the Berlin Film Festival, where Jackie Brown was being screened, Jackson responded to Lee's criticism by saying:

I don't think the word is offensive in the context of this film ... Black artists think they are the only ones allowed to use the word. Well, that's bull. Jackie Brown is a wonderful homage to black exploitation films. This is a good film, and Spike hasn't made one of those in a few years.[84]

Tarantino has defended his use of the word, arguing that black audiences have an appreciation of his blaxploitation-influenced films that eludes some of his critics, and indeed, that Jackie Brown was primarily made for "black audiences".[85]

According to a 1995 Premiere magazine article, actor Denzel Washington also confronted Tarantino on his usage of racial slurs in his pictures, but mentioned that Tarantino was a "fine artist".[86]

Django Unchained was the subject of controversy because of its use of racial epithets and depiction of slavery. Many reviewers[87] have defended the use of the language by pointing out the historic context of race and slavery in America.[88] Spike Lee, in an interview with Vibe magazine said that he would not see the film, explaining, "All I'm going to say is that it's disrespectful to my ancestors. That's just me...I'm not speaking on behalf of anybody else."[89] Lee later tweeted, "American Slavery Was Not A Sergio Leone Spaghetti Western. It Was A Holocaust. My Ancestors Are Slaves. Stolen From Africa. I Will Honor Them."[90] Writing in The Los Angeles Times, journalist Erin Aubry Kaplan noted the difference between Tarantino's Jackie Brown and Django Unchained: "It is an institution whose horrors need no exaggerating, yet Django does exactly that, either to enlighten or entertain. A white director slinging around the n-word in a homage to '70s blaxploitation à la Jackie Brown is one thing, but the same director turning the savageness of slavery into pulp fiction is quite another".[91]

Gawker Lawsuit Over “Hateful Eight”

In January 2014 the popular American news and gossip blog known as Gawker, leaked a copy of the script for Tarantino’s upcoming movie titled “The Hateful Eight”. After the script was released online Quentin decided to scrap the project all together and chose to use the story for a novel instead.

The controversy did not stop there; Tarantino filed a copyright lawsuit against Gawker, and stating in the lawsuit that "Gawker Media has made a business of predatory journalism, violating people's rights to make a buck" (quote from The Hollywood Reporter). The lawsuit also demanded compensation to the amount of 1 million dollars. Tarantino later dropped the lawsuit but his statements have led many to believe that he will be refiling the lawsuit at a later date. Tarantino stated in his motion “This dismissal is made without prejudice, whereby plaintiff may later advance an action and refile a complaint after further investigations to ascertain and plead the identities of additional infringers”(the Hollywood reporter). Tarantino has yet to refile a claim but retains the legal rights to do so in the future.[92]

In the 2014 San Diego Comic-Con International, Tarantino finally confirmed the film, and stated that he was working on a third draft of the film, set for a potential release in 2015. This retracted his earlier statements which suggested that the film was not going to be made.

Filmography

Title Release date Studio Budget Box office
Reservoir Dogs October 23, 1992 Miramax Films $1.2 million $22 million
Pulp Fiction October 14, 1994 $8.5 million $213 million
Jackie Brown December 25, 1997 $12 million $84 million
Kill Bill Volume 1 October 10, 2003 $30 million $180 million
Kill Bill Volume 2 April 16, 2004 $30 million $152 million
Death Proof April 6, 2007 Dimension Films $53 million (as Grindhouse) $25,422,088 (as Grindhouse)
Inglourious Basterds August 21, 2009 The Weinstein Company
Universal Studios		 $75 million $321.5 million
Django Unchained December 25, 2012 The Weinstein Company
Columbia Pictures		 $100 million $425 million
The Hateful Eight November 13, 2015 The Weinstein Company $44 million

Frequent collaborators

Like many directors, Tarantino has built up an informal "repertory company"[93] of actors who have appeared in multiple roles in films that he has directed.[94] Most notable of these is Samuel L. Jackson,[95] who has appeared in five films directed by Tarantino, and a sixth that was written by him, True Romance.[96] Other frequent collaborators include Uma Thurman, whom Tarantino has described as his "muse",[96][97] Christoph Waltz[98] and Zoë Bell.[99]

Editor Sally Menke, who worked on all Tarantino films until her death in 2010, was described by Tarantino in 2007 as "hands down my number one collaborator".[100][101]

Actor Reservoir Dogs Pulp Fiction Four Rooms Jackie Brown Kill Bill Death Proof Inglourious Basterds Django Unchained The Hateful Eight Total
Michael Bacall No No No 3
Zoë Bell No No No No No 5
Michael Bowen No No No 3
Steve Buscemi No No 2
Paul Calderón No No 2
Laura Cayouette No No 2
Bruce Dern No No 2
Omar Doom No No 2
Julie Dreyfus No No 2
Walton Goggins No No 2
Kathy Griffin No No 2
Dana Gourrier No No 2
Sid Haig No No 2
Lee Horsley No No 2
Samuel L. Jackson No No No No No No 6
Keith Jefferson No No 2
Linda Kaye No No 2
Harvey Keitel No No No 3
Helen Kim No No 2
Jonathan Loughran No No 2
Michael Madsen No No No 3
Belinda Owino No No 2
James Parks No No No No 4
Michael Parks No No No 3
Stevo Polyi No No 2
Tina Rodriguez No No 2
Eli Roth No No 2
Tim Roth No No No No 4
Kurt Russell No No 2
Craig Stark No No 2
David Steen No No 2
Shana Stein No No 2
Bo Svenson No No 2
Uma Thurman No No 2
Rich Turner No No 2
Venessia Valentino No No No 3
Christoph Waltz No No 2
Bruce Willis No No 2

Awards

Academy Awards

Year Nominated work Category Result
1994 Pulp Fiction Best Director Nominated
Best Original Screenplay Won
2009 Inglourious Basterds Best Director Nominated
Best Original Screenplay Nominated
2012 Django Unchained Best Original Screenplay Won

BAFTA Awards

Year Nominated work Category Result
1994 Pulp Fiction Best Director Nominated
Best Original Screenplay Won
2009 Inglourious Basterds Best Director Nominated
Best Original Screenplay Nominated
2012 Django Unchained Best Director Nominated
Best Original Screenplay Won

Golden Globe Awards

Year Nominated work Category Result
1994 Pulp Fiction Best Director Nominated
Best Screenplay Won
2009 Inglourious Basterds Best Director Nominated
Best Screenplay Nominated
2012 Django Unchained Best Director Nominated
Best Screenplay Won

Film Independent Spirit Awards

Year Nominated work Category Result
1992 Reservoir Dogs Best First Feature Nominated
Best Director Nominated
1994 Pulp Fiction Best Director Won
Best Screenplay Won

Saturn Awards

Year Nominated work Category Result
1993 True Romance Best Writing Nominated
1996 From Dusk Till Dawn Best Supporting Actor Nominated
Best Writing Nominated
2004 Kill Bill Vol. 1 Best Director Nominated
Best Writing Nominated
2006 Kill Bill Vol. 2 Best Director Nominated
Best Writing Nominated
2010 Inglourious Basterds Best Director Nominated
Best Writing Nominated
2013 Django Unchained Best Writing Won

Primetime Emmy Awards

Year Nominated work Category Result
2005 CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. Episode Grave Danger Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series Nominated

Cannes Film Festival

Year Nominated work Category Result
1994 Pulp Fiction Palme d'Or Won
2007 Death Proof Palme d'Or Nominated
2009 Inglourious Basterds Palme d'Or Nominated

Other lifetime honors

Reception

Critical, public and commercial reception to films Tarantino has directed as of January 6, 2015.

Film Rotten Tomatoes[106] Metacritic[107] CinemaScore[108] Budget Box office[109]
Reservoir Dogs 92% 78 N/A $1.2 million $2.8 million
Pulp Fiction 94% 94 B+ $8 million $213.9 million
Jackie Brown 86% 64 B $12 million $39.7 million
Kill Bill Volume 1 85% 69 B+ $30 million $180.9 million
Kill Bill Volume 2 84% 83 A- $30 million $152.2 million
Death Proof 67% N/A N/A N/A N/A
Inglourious Basterds 88% 69 N/A $70 million $321.4 million
Django Unchained 88% 81 A- $100 million $425.4 million

See also

References

  1. ↑ Quentin Tarantino Biography (1963-. Advameg, Inc. Retrieved August 20, 2012.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Bertelsen, E. (1999). ""Serious Gourmet Shit": Quentin Tarantino' sPulp Fiction". Journal of Literary Studies 15: 8–0. doi:10.1080/02564719908530214.
  3. ↑ "The New Classics: Movies". Entertainment Weekly. June 8, 2007. Retrieved September 29, 2013.
  4. ↑ Corliss, Richard (April 18, 2005). "Quentin Tarantino – The 2005 Time 100". TIME.
  5. ↑ Ryzik, Melena (December 4, 2012). "Tarantino Unveils 'Django,' the Shortest Long Western". The New York Times. Retrieved February 26, 2013.
  6. ↑ "Monitor". Entertainment Weekly (1252): 30. March 29, 2013.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 "Quentin Tarantino Biography (1963–)". Film Reference. Retrieved January 9, 2008.
  8. ↑ Barr, Susan (February 18, 2002). "FACE OF THE DAY: Quentin Tarantino; Thrills and blood spills". The Herald (Glasgow). p. 25.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 "Faces of the week". BBC News. May 14, 2004. Retrieved October 17, 2008.
  10. ↑ "Entertainer 3: Quentin Tarantino". Entertainment Weekly. December 30, 1994.
  11. ↑ The Man and his Movies. New York: Harper Collins|Harper Perennial. p. 12. ISBN 978-0-06-095161-0.
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Quentin Tarantino biography at yahoo.com
  13. ↑ "Quentin Tarantino says his mom dated Wilt Chamberlain: ‘She was one of the thousand’". Daily News. January 8, 2013.
  14. ↑ Howard Stern – Quentin Tarantino Interview, 1997 (1/3)'s channel on YouTube
  15. ↑ "Quentin Tarantino: 'Inglourious' Child Of Cinema". National Public Radio. December 28, 2009. Retrieved March 2, 2010.
  16. ↑ "Quentin Tarantino, 'Unchained' And Unruly". National Public Radio. January 2, 2013. Retrieved August 26, 2013.
  17. ↑ Clarkson, Wensley (1995). "Quentin Tarantino Shooting From The Hip, pg. 61. The Overlook Press Woodstock, New York ISBN 0-87951-676-3
  18. ↑ Strong, Danny (19 May 2003). "An Interview with Danny Strong". IGN. Retrieved 28 February 2013.
  19. ↑ Keitel heard of the script through his wife, who had attended a class with Lawrence Bender (see Reservoir Dogs special edition DVD commentary).
  20. ↑ Fuller, Graham (1998). "Graham Fuller/1993". In Peary, Gerald. Quentin Tarantino: Interviews. University Press of Mississippi. pp. 57–59. ISBN 1-57806-051-6.
  21. ↑ "Outside the Box [Office] presents: While She Was Out". 'USC School of Cinematic Arts. April 17, 2009. Retrieved August 29, 2014.
  22. ↑ McCann, Paul (November 18, 1997). "Quentin Tarantino in $5M Assault Claim". The Independent. Retrieved October 5, 1997. Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  23. ↑ Hudson, Jeff (July 30, 2004). "Detroit spinner". The Guardian. Retrieved July 17, 2014.
  24. ↑ 57TH ANNUAL PRIMETIME EMMY AWARDS Awards Broadcast Live From Los Angeles' Shrine Auditorium on September 18 on the CBS Television Network
  25. ↑ Lauchlan, Grant (September 3, 2007). "Quentin Tarantino: defending Death Proof". Grant's Film Club (stv.tv). Archived from the original on June 18, 2008. Retrieved October 23, 2008.
  26. ↑ "Killshot riding back on Rourke's Oscar vehicle?". The Quentin Tarantino Archives. November 17, 2008.
  27. ↑ Stephenson, Hunter (July 9, 2008). "Script Reviews for Quentin Tarantino's Inglorious Bastards Hit Web! "Masterpiece" is the Buzz Word". SlashFilm.
  28. ↑ "Inglourious Basterds (2009)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved March 2, 2010.
  29. ↑ Gray, Brandon (August 24, 2009). "Weekend Report: 'Inglourious Basterds' Scalps the Box Office". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved March 2, 2010.
  30. ↑ Gray, Brandon (September 21, 2009). "Weekend Report: Moviegoers Feast on ‘Meatballs,’ Slim Pickings for ‘Jennifer’". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved September 27, 2009.
  31. ↑ 31.0 31.1 Hiscock, John (April 27, 2007). "Quentin Tarantino: I'm proud of my flop". The Daily Telegraph.
  32. ↑ "Quentin Tarantino yells at interviewer when asked about movie violence". Fox News. January 11, 2013. Retrieved January 20, 2013.
  33. ↑ "Tarantino Reveals Plans For Next Movie". Yahoo: Nighttime in No Time. Retrieved November 27, 2013.
  34. ↑ "Quentin Tarantino Plans to drop 'Hateful Eight' after the Script Leaked". Movies that Matter. January 22, 2014. Retrieved August 29, 2014.
  35. ↑ Fleming Jr., Mike (January 21, 2014). "Quentin Tarantino Shelves ‘The Hateful Eight’ After Betrayal Results In Script Leak". Deadline.com. Retrieved August 29, 2014.
  36. ↑ "Quentin Tarantino sues Gawker over Hateful Eight script leak". CBC News. January 21, 2014. Retrieved August 29, 2014.
  37. ↑ Gettell, Oliver (January 22, 2014). "Quentin Tarantino mothballs 'Hateful Eight' after script leak". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved January 27, 2014.
  38. ↑ World Premiere of a Staged Reading by Quentin Tarantino: The Hateful Eight, April 19, 2014, retrieved August 29, 2014
  39. ↑ Anderton, Ethan (April 21, 2014). "Tarantino's 'Hateful Eight' Live-Read Reveals Script Still Developing". FirstShowing.net. Retrieved January 27, 2014.
  40. ↑ http://variety.com/2014/film/news/jennifer-jason-leigh-hateful-eight-1201326206/
  41. ↑ Denham, Jess (November 7, 2014). "The Hateful Eight cast: Channing Tatum and Samuel L Jackson join Quentin Tarantino film". The Independent. Retrieved November 7, 2014.
  42. ↑ Sciretta, Peter (April 7, 2007). "Quentin Tarantino talks Vega Brothers, the Pulp Fiction & Reservoir Dogs sequel/prequel". SlashFilm.
  43. ↑ Quentin Tarantino Talks Kill Bill 3: The Bride Will Fight Again!, BadTaste.it, October 1, 2009. Retrieved October 2, 2009.
  44. ↑ Festival Internacional de Cine de Morelia
  45. ↑ "Tarantino Teases 'Kill Bill Volume 3'". Bloody-disgusting.com. October 4, 2009. Retrieved March 2, 2010.
  46. ↑ "Quentin Tarantino Says No To Kill Bill Vol. 3 And James Bond". wegotthiscovered.com. December 11, 2012. Retrieved December 26, 2012.
  47. ↑ "Django Unchained Trilogy and More: Tarantino Talks to Gates". theroot.com. December 23, 2012. Retrieved December 31, 2012.
  48. ↑ Pearson, Jesse (May 2, 2010). "Bret Easton Ellis". Vice. Retrieved February 26, 2013.
  49. ↑ "Bret Easton Ellis – Imperial Bedrooms". YouTube. September 10, 2012. Retrieved February 26, 2013.
  50. ↑ Ryan, Joal (March 5, 1998). "Quentin and Mira Call It Quits". eonline.com.
  51. ↑ Secher, Benjamin. "Quentin Tarantino interview: 'All my movies are achingly personal'". The Telegraph. Retrieved 30 June 2014.
  52. ↑ "Mira Sorvino".
  53. ↑ "İki yıllık ilişkisi bitti! – Sabah – 26 Şubat 2013". Sabah. Retrieved February 26, 2013.
  54. ↑ I'm the One That I Want.
  55. ↑ "Quentin Tarantino Biography – Yahoo! Movies". Movies.yahoo.com. March 27, 1963. Retrieved March 2, 2010.
  56. ↑ Hedegaard, Erik (April 29, 2004). "A Magnificent Obsession". Rolling Stone. Retrieved July 2, 2014.
  57. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpOyEnMNOtI
  58. ↑ "Tarantino Sacrificed Love For His Career". Contactmusic.com. July 28, 2009. Retrieved March 2, 2010.
  59. ↑ Reynolds, Simon (December 16, 2009). "Tarantino: 'I'm going to become a novelist'". Digital Spy. Retrieved March 2, 2010.
  60. ↑ "Quentin Tarantino still wants to retire after his tenth film". Wow Dude. Wow Dude. 2014-11-11. Retrieved 2014-11-11.
  61. ↑ Scott Lewinski, John (February 18, 2010). "Quentin Tarantino saves L.A. theater". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved February 5, 2011.
  62. ↑ Critics Choice Award award ceremony about Quentin Tarantino. Telecast January 15, 2011 on VH1.
  63. ↑ "Quentin Tarantino Will Receive Special Recognition For His Use Of Music In Film At The Critics’ Choice Movie Awards". VH1 Blog. January 11, 2011. Retrieved September 10, 2014.
  64. ↑ "The Greatest Films Poll - 2012 - Quentin Tarantino". British Film Institute. Retrieved September 10, 2014.
  65. ↑ Quentin Tarantino's Top 20 Favorite Films. comcast.net
  66. ↑ "BAFTA – Quentin Tarantino: A Life in Pictures". Youtube.com. January 27, 2010. Retrieved February 26, 2013.
  67. ↑ Interview with Quentin Tarantino, FILMINK Magazine, August 2007.
  68. ↑ 68.0 68.1 Constantino Tejero (August 12, 2007). "Tarantino raves over Pinoy B-movies". Philippine Daily Inquirer.
  69. ↑ Childhood Living James and Tarantino Patrick O'Donnell (bio) Michigan State University, The New Centennial Review, Volume 9, Number 2, Fall 2009
  70. ↑ Tarantino, Quentin (1993). "Steve Buscemi by Quentin Tarantino". BOMB 42 (Winter). Retrieved September 20, 2011.
  71. ↑ There is a sense of humor in all of my movies. gomolo.in (October 1, 2009)
  72. ↑ "Quentin Tarantino: My Films are Spaghetti Westerns". UKScreen. January 3, 2013. Retrieved February 26, 2013.
  73. ↑ "Kamal Haasan inspired director Quentin Tarantino". ibnlive.in.com. Retrieved 2014-11-06.
  74. ↑ "Réseau de bibliothèques – Library Network". Resolver.scholarsportal.info.proxy.bib.uottawa.ca. Retrieved February 26, 2013.
  75. ↑ "The Quentin Tarantino Archives". Tarantino.info. Retrieved February 26, 2013.
  76. ↑ 76.0 76.1 Quentin Tarantino: “It's a corrupted cinema”; The Talks
  77. ↑ "An hour with Filmmaker Quentin Tarantino about his film 'Inglourious Basterds'". August 21, 2009.
  78. ↑ "Quentin Tarantino is most-studied director in the UK". Digital Spy. November 6, 2013. Retrieved November 6, 2013.
  79. ↑ January 4, 2013, 12:56 GMT (January 4, 2013). "Quentin Tarantino: 'Movie violence discussion is disrespectful' – Movies News". Digital Spy. Retrieved February 26, 2013.
  80. ↑ "Quentin Tarantino refuses to answer question from Krishnan Guru-Murthy–video". The Guardian. 11 January 2013. Retrieved 26 February 2013.
  81. ↑ Allen-Taylor, J. Douglas (April 9, 1998). "New Word Order". Metroactive.com. Retrieved October 23, 2008.
  82. ↑ "Quentin Tarantino defends himself against Spike Lee for criticizing him in using the 'n-word'.". CharlieRose.com. December 26, 1997. Retrieved January 30, 2011.
  83. ↑ Schnakenberg, Robert. "Secret Lives of Great Filmmakers: Spike Lee".
  84. ↑ Samuel L. Jackson Blasts Spike Lee For Criticizing Him For Using 'N-Word' in 'Jackie Brown'.
  85. ↑ "Quentin Tarantino interview (III) with Pam Grier, Robert Forster and Lawrence Bender". The Guardian. 5 January 1998.
  86. ↑ "Denzel Washington". Celebrities-Pictures.Com. Retrieved 5 September 2010.
  87. ↑ McCarthy, Todd (December 11, 2012). "Django Unchained: Film Review". The Hollywood Reporter.
  88. ↑ "Django Unchained and Race: Here's What Drudge Doesn't Tell You". Village Voice. Retrieved December 18, 2012.
  89. ↑ "Spike Lee slams Django Unchained:'I'm not Gonna See It'". Vibe. December 21, 2012. Retrieved December 24, 2012.
  90. ↑ "Spike Lee Twitter". Retrieved December 24, 2012.
  91. ↑ Kaplan, Erin Aubry (December 28, 2012). "'Django' an unsettling experience for many blacks". The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved December 31, 2012.
  92. ↑ Eriq Gardner. "Quentin Tarantino Suing Gawker Over Leaked 'Hateful Eight' Script (Exclusive)." The Hollywood Reporter. N.p., 27 Jan. 2014. Web. 08 Feb. 2015.
  93. ↑ Tarantino XX: 8-Film Collection Review | TotalFilm.com
  94. ↑ Recurring actors
  95. ↑ Samuel L. Jackson Can't Wait For The 5 Hour Cut Of 'Django Unchained'; Dreams Of Nick Fury Cameo In 'Breaking Bad' Quashed | The Playlist
  96. ↑ 96.0 96.1 Quentin Tarantino - Film4
  97. ↑ Kennedy, Lisa (April 23, 2010). "Special chemistry between directors and actors has produced some of Hollywood's best movies". Denver Post.
  98. ↑ Rosen, Christopher (March 15, 2013). "'Django Unchained' Composer Blasts Quentin Tarantino". Huffington Post.
  99. ↑ Django Unchained Mystery Woman: Zoë Bell Spills on Her Cameo and the Sneaky Secret Under Her Mask | E! Online UK
  100. ↑ "Tarantino editor Sally Menke dies in LA heat wave". BBC News. 29 September 2010.
  101. ↑ "Sally Menke: the quiet heroine of the Quentin Tarantino success story". The Guardian. Retrieved 29 August 2014.
  102. ↑ "Tarantino rides pedicab to escape traffic to Philippine presidential palace". International Herald Tribune. August 15, 2007.
  103. ↑ "56-os dokumentumfilmért kapott magyar kitüntetést Tarantino és Lucy Liu (in Hungarian)". origo.hu. March 16, 2010.
  104. ↑ "Polanski and Tarantino feted at French film awards". BBC News. 26 February 2011. Retrieved 27 February 2011.
  105. ↑ Lyman, Eric J. (January 3, 2013). "Quentin Tarantino Honored by Rome Film Festival". Hollywoodreporter.com. Retrieved February 26, 2013.
  106. ↑ "Quentin Tarantino". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 30 June 2014.
  107. ↑ "Quentin Tarantino". Metacritic. Retrieved 30 June 2014.
  108. ↑ "CinemaScore". cinemascore.com. Retrieved March 29, 2015.
  109. ↑ "Quentin Tarantino Movie Box office". boxofficemojo.com. Amazon.com. Retrieved April 8, 2015.

Further reading

External links

Awards and achievements
Preceded by
Jane Campion		 Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay
1994 		Succeeded by
Christopher McQuarrie
Preceded by
Woody Allen		 Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay
2012 		Succeeded by
Spike Jonze