Official Homework and term-paper question topic

I’m doing a project on Tarantino, how would everyone describe his style as a director? I just want to hear everyone’s opinion.

Thats funny, cause I just did a report of him yesterday. It was a “Biograpghy of an American” for my English class and I had to present in front of my class. And since 80 % of people in this world are fuck heads, my class didn’t know who the fuck he was. dip shits. All the other people did theirs on either Bill Clinton, MArilyn Monroe, or Babe Ruth.

that’s cool, but i still wanted to hear your opinion on his artistic style.

Personally I dont think QT has a specific artistic style. Each of his films are different from the last. I think he utilizes artistic ideas from all genres of cinema. Hes sort of like a chameleon of filmmaking to me.



QT said he got his artistic aesthetic from a review he read about Godards A Bande Apart (1964). Something to the effect of “This film plays like a movie that a couple a Frenchmen made by taking a banal American Crime novel and making a film, not based on the book, but based on the poetry they read between the lines”. He said thats what I want to do with ALL my films. I think hes been doing just that ever since, thats why his films stand out so much from everyone elses. QT is coming from a different angle, hes not only trying to entertain us, but as he says hes trying to “fuck up genre conventions and reinvent them”.



His artistic influences include the films of: Sergio Leone, Godard, Melville, DePalma, Scorsese, Jack Hill, Mario Bava, Sam Fuller, Sam Peckinpah, Russ Meyer, Chang Cheh, Seijun Suzuki, Lucio Fulci, John Carpenter, Howard Hawks, John Woo and many more.

his style is that of a autodidact. his knowledge about film dominates his style of filmmaking and writing. his dialogue and narration are influenced by masses of books and scripts and movies he knows, and his filmmaking is influenced by the large ammounts of movie scenes the man knows.

he knows how to put an actor in scene and uses style merely to remember the audience of whatever movie he wanted to pay hommage to that way. he doesnt create a style, he RE-creates styles.



i think that’s an anchor you can base your work upon. email me if you need more.



i encourage others to post what you think how you would “define his style”

I don’t think he has a particular style. He certainly has particular tastes when it comes to dialogue: he apparently loves using hamburgers either as subjects of conversation, plot devices, or as props (In True Romance, Clarence buys hamburgers after killing Drexl and while Alabama is getting beaten up later on, he’s out buying hamburgers; in Reservoir Dogs, Mr. Blonde mentions going through a drive through and gave an allusion to having a burger and fries; in Pulp Fiction, a large chunk of the dialogue out of the first scene involves burgers and Sam Jackson EATS a hamburger…and I could really go on and on and on with this, but I’ll stop. He’s certainly fond of certain music that becomes very obvious while listening to his soundtracks.



But other than that, I don’t think he has a particular DIRECTING style. He just happens to be one of the most talented rip off artists in Hollywood - not that that’s a bad thing. In his own words on the True Romance commentary track for the Collector’s Edition, “True artists don’t pay homages to anyone, we rip them off,” and thats what he does. He’s studied a lot of the best filmmakers in American cinema very closely before reaching the big time, and he uses elements of their work that appealed to him or that he was particularly attracted to.

I think something unique about his style is his use of dialogue. In all his movies, his characters seem to halt the plot to talk about something that has nothing to do with anything. He develops the characters by making them talk in conversation. It’s almost like you get to know them by the way they talk and by watching them blab on about their vacation or something. So even though you’re not going anywhere plotwise, your’e still getting to know the character, and you’re still pulled into their world by knowing that “she had a boyfriend in Japan.” Clever use of dialogue. Comprende?

Hi, im doing a research piece for college in the UK studying women in films, particularly women in tarantino films. I would very much appreciate any of the views anybody in the forum has on this, in particular,


  • How the representation of women has changed since 4 rooms, pulp fiction up to kill bill
  • If any comparisons can be made between the bride and jackie brown
  • If you think Tarantino makes an effort to portray women in any particular way.



    Please help if you can, it would be really good and because im on a dedicated forum, i guess most people here know what they’re talking about. Please Post back or email at rbraddock@gmail.com :slight_smile:

You cannot compare women in Kill Bill to the ‘two’ women in Jackie Brown. Kill Bill was set in a totally different world.



The women were either violent assassins (Bea, Elle, Vernita and O-Ren) or corrupt lawyers (Sofie Fatale)



In Pulp Fiction the women are portrayed as drug users (Mia Wallace, Jodie and Trudy)



In Jackie Brown there was the typical blonde, brainless, bimbo, and again, drug user (Melanie) and Jackie seemed like only the redeeming women character in any Tarantino movie and yet she wasn’t on the right side of the law.



Beatrix Kiddo was still a murderer, despite what she suffered. She was still a murderer.



(I am going by Tarantino (written/directed) films rather then his written films.)



The only female character who was not a drug user or a murderer is Sofie Fatale, yet she worked for an organisation while practising law.





I totally love this discussion

I believe that all the women have a depth of character, even Melanie. She was far from brainless, she just sat back and watched, but she had people figured out (maybe not Louis!). There are no true redeeming characters in Tarantino’s movies, no one without some guilt, however, we are made to appreciate all of them. There has been some discussion about women not being portrayed as role models, etc. in these films, but is there a male role model? Why single out women? Are any of the characters similar enough to draw a comparison? I wonder if you are looking for some “this is sexist” kind of answer.

I believe Melanie was a pointless character and I am sorry but Bridget Fonda is no good. To me, while Melanie had people sussed out, it didnt tell me she was any decent sort of character. All the other Tarantino girls are fantastic

[quote=“Fatale”]
You cannot compare women in Kill Bill to the ‘two’ women in Jackie Brown.

[/quote]

What? There are more than 2 women in Jackie Brown (Sheronda and that one that dances and sings).



Anyways. I think Tarantino has allways portrayed women (the big characters) as ‘strong’ and quite intelligent in his movies. Mia had something to say and she wasn’t afraid to say it, she overpowered Vincent a lot. Jackie was also strong and cunning. She knew how to ‘play it’ and had people figured out, and even got someone to fall in love with her (not on purpose). All the women in Kill Bill were strong mentally and physically. Beatrix being the one that stands out. In fact, women are portrayed as stronger in Kill Bill than men. Budd couldn’t handle the situation he had participated in and didn’t know how he would overcome his personal problems and just took the easy way of living like a bum basically. Bill although appearing strong, just gave up towards the end of the film. He drank himself almost silly and accepted his fate.



I don’t think Tarantino sets out to portray women a certain way, the majority of the main characters he tends to use are male. He understands them better (obviously) and he had many men throughout his life whom he learned from (I think he once said “my mother would bring home a different boyfriend every week”) I do think he understands women though, and wrote Beatrix’ character beautifully.



Anyways, I gotta go eat…

[quote=“Ify”]
What? There are more than 2 women in Jackie Brown (Sheronda and that one that dances and sings).
[/quote]

She is not a significant character

[quote=“Fatale”]
[quote=“Ify”]
What? There are more than 2 women in Jackie Brown (Sheronda and that one that dances and sings).
[/quote]

She is not a significant character
[/quote]

I thought Sheronda was quite significant for the plot!

Hello again, thankyou everyone for your posts on this topic. They are make good reading and have some great points. I realise yo cannot draw direct comparisons between characters in kill bill & Jackie Brown. They are of course complettely different worlds with characters which are very much unlike each other (Jackie brown is closer to the real world). I too agree that most of the women in his films are strong minded and willed, even characters like melanie in some ways.



Does anybody else have opinions on the women in his films or how you think he prefers to portray them. Thanks again for your responses.

I think the biggest thing QT likes about his girls in his movies is the mystery. Mia Wallace was a mysterious creature, Melanie although a dumb blonde on the front, seemed worldy wised inside. O-Ren Ishii was quiet and studious until provoked to the extreme. GoGo and Sofie also. Very little lines but made for two fascinating characters.



Mia, I think, was his finest female character

There seems to be a split. Melanie could be perceived as being quite a strong, intelligent character or “dumb blonde”. Personally, although i feel she wasn’t integral to the story, she wasn’t just a compltely insignificant character. She helped to develop deniro’s characteer and it showed a lot about him when he killed her. What do you think? Was she incidental or a useful character?

Okay I am working at my English-project in school and so I wanted you to read this first part about QTs life… please tell me if I had missed something importand afterwards okay? And tell me how you did like it… plz



Oh yeah and I am from austria, and there are some german words and sentences in it… sry about that



CHAPTER 1





a) Child-hood and Youth



„Wenn es Quentin Tarantino nicht gäbe, dann müsste man ihn erfinden.�1. This is what CINEMA, a magazine for movies and cinema, said in their issue from July 1996.



Quentin Tarantino was born on 27th march 1963 in Knoxville/Tennessee as the only child of Connie, who was just 16 years old when she got pregnant, and Tony, who left her and Quentin very early. Usually Quentin was named Quint because Connie liked Burt Reynolds’ character in GUNSMOKE (1955-1975). “Ich wollte, dass der Junge einen Namen hat, der groß genug ist, eine ganze Leinwand zu füllen.�2.

When he was about 2 years old, they moved to the South Bay/Los Angeles and this is where Quentin grew up with cinema, TV and comics. His first movies in cinema were CARNEVAL KNOWLEDGE and DELIVERANCE, which he watched at the age of 8 years with his mother.



Although he’s said to have an IQ over 150 (!) Quentin hated school, because he was a LEGASTENIKER and a hyperactive kid.

The young Quentin hadn’t an easy childhood because he grew up with different fathers and little money so he went from school in his 10th year and started to work as a KARTENABREISSER in a porn-cinema called The Pussycat Theatre (in Torrance).

During this time he also went to an actor-school, but when he was about 22 years old, he got a job as video-clerk in Manhattan Beach/California.





b) The Video Archives



Quentin started to work in The Video Archives in 1985 and stopped in 1990 and during this time he met a lot of people who were as much in love with movies as he was: for example Roger Avary, who was to become very important to Quentin, because he co-wrote the Golden Watch episode in PULP FICTION and in 1994 his debut KILLING ZOE was produced by Quentin.



To make his Acting-debut in MY BEST FRIEND’S BIRTHDAY more attractive he told his friends that he had played in several movies like KING LEAR (Jean-Luc Godard) and KNIGHTRIDERS (George Romereo) - he said, that nobody in the USA had seen these movies, so he wouldn’t get caught.

While he worked in The Video Archives Quentin saw a lot of different movies from different countries and he also got influenced by Asian Kung-Fu movies and Spaghetti-Westerns, which he loves so much.



Quentin also wrote his first book, called The Open Road, which tells the story of a couple who kill a lot of people on their honeymoon, but even he recognized that the story was too long to be filmed (over 500 pages) and so he split it into two parts: Natural Born Killers and True Romance.

At first he wanted to film these scripts himself, but he was out of money and nobody wanted to produce his movies so Quentin had to sell Natural Born Killers to Oliver Stone and True Romance to Tony Scott (for about 50.000 Dollars).



Unfortunately The Video Archives had to close in 1994, because they moved to another Quarter and lost their regular customers but Quentin showed the connection to his job in TRUE ROMANCE, where Clarence is in love with his comic-store.

He also mentions the people who were around him: Nice Guy – Eddie (in RESERVOIR DOGS) was a regular customer and the boxers Vossler and Martinez (in PULP FICTION) were two co-workers.





c) My best Friend’s Birthday



During the years 1985-1987 Quentin and his friends and co-workers filmed MY BEST FRIEND’S BIRTHDAY, which was never finished.



Mickey Burnett (Craig Hamann) has a birthday and his best friend Clarence Pool (Quentin Tarantino) tries to make a party for him. He pays a prostitute called Misty Knight and invites some friends, but like in every Screwball-comedy everything goes wrong and the movie ends with Mickey’s fall into the birthday cake.



In the year 1981, while Quentin worked in The Video Archives he met Craig Hamann and after they became friends Hamann showed Quentin his story about a couple of friends who want to make a party for their friend who is very sad because his girlfriend left him.

Quentin wrote a script with 30 scenes for Craig and they decided to film it. Everybody in The Video Archives contributed some money and they started to make the movie - the set was the living room of Quentin’s mother Connie and there were often long breaks during filming, because they always had to rent a camera, which was very expensive.

Pity nearly the whole movie was destroyed in an accident and they had to give up, but in the year 2003 there the rest of MY BEST FRIEND’S BIRTHDAY appeared on web and so everyone could make his own experience with Quentin’s first attempts of film-making.

But just the scenes 1, 2, 3 and 17 have survived and so the rest of the movie is just about 36 minutes long.

The whole movie is played by non-professional actors, except for Allen Garfield, who plays the man who sells Clarence Pool the birthday cake. Mister Garfield was Quentin’s acting – teacher and he was the only real actor in the whole movie.



There are several connections between MY BEST FRIEND’S BIRTHDAY and TRUE ROMANCE: Misty Knight, the prostitute, who tells Clarence that she wants to be a really cool call-girl like Nancy Allen in DRESSED TO KILL (Brian De Palma) is a forerunner to Alabama Worley and Clarence Worley seems to be a mix between Clarence Pool and Mickey Burnett.

Hi there! i’m doing a dissertation on the representation of women in Tarantino’s films, particularly in Kill Bill 1 & 2. Can anyone help me!? Any knowledge or opinions you can share with me would be really helpful! Thank you! :slight_smile:

[quote=“copey302”]
Hi there! i’m doing a dissertation on the representation of women in Tarantino’s films, particularly in Kill Bill 1 & 2. Can anyone help me!? Any knowledge or opinions you can share with me would be really helpful! Thank you! :slight_smile:
[/quote]




Hi and welcome!

I moved yout topic from the KB review board and merged it with this topic, cuz it is about the same kinda question.
Maybe it would help, if you contact the topic starter via mail (is written in the first post).


Wish you a great day!