DIRECTOR CASE STUDY
Who is?
Style
Quentin Tarantino
Mark Sison
Works
Influences
Who is Quentin Tarantino?
Creating the director
Mark Sison
‘When people ask me if I went to film school
I tell them, 'no, I went to films’’ - Quentin
Tarantino
Quentin Jerome Tarantino was born in Knoxville, Tennessee on March 27, 1963 (Aged 47)
and is probably one of the most renowned directors due to his unique style upon films,
such as nonlinear plotlines and stylistically excessive violence depicted in his films.
Tarantino was a dropout from both college and acting school, citing interest more into the
directors rather than the actors. The video rental store where he worked with another
known director, Roger Avary, would allow Tarantino and Avary to express their interest of
films to one another and to customers. Tarantino paid close attention to the films people
rented, claiming the experience was an inspiration for his directorial career.
One of Tarantino ‘s first projects was a low budget black and white amateur film, which he
directed and co-wrote, called My Best friend’s birthday.
It was from a film producer, Lawrence Bender, who had convinced Tarantino to try writing
a screenplay, which would go on be Reservoir Dogs, a critically acclaimed piece establishing
his general style. This allowed him to write screenplays to True Romance and Natural Born
Killers, though, his screenplay for Natural Born Killers was later heavily revised by the
director and Tarantino was only given story credit. The success of these screenplays had
Tarantino approached by Hollywood offering him to write screenplays. However, he turned
them down to concentrate on his next project which would dramatically heighten his career
and popularity, Pulp Fiction. Hereon, Tarantino’s career would flourish producing Jackie
Brown, the Kill Bill series and Inglourious Basterds and winning several awards including an
Academy Award, a Golden Globe, a BAFTA and a Palme d'Or.
The style of Tarantino
The unique approach to filmmaking
Mark Sison
(Kill Bill: Vol.1) Death of Gogo Yubari
The violence in Tarantino films are usually extremely
violent, bloody and graphic. He is known for his
‘aestheticization of violence’. In Kill Bill, the blood is
exaggerated throughout to an almost comedic and arduous
effect. Whereas, in Reservoir Dogs he almost avoids
showing violence to enhance the effect by violence by our
imagination. Either way, violence is Tarantino’s way to
engage his audience whether by fear, disgust or curiousity.
(Reservoir Dogs) The ‘Ear-cutting’ scene
(Pulp Fiction) ‘Nobody's gonna hurt anybody. We're gonna be like three little
Fonzies here. And what's Fonzie like? Come on Yolanda what's Fonzie like?’ - Jules
With dialogue, Tarantino usually likes to refer to popular
culture. It allows audiences to relate and develop some
form of relationship with it’s audience.
As well as referring to popular culture, Tarantino usually has
tributes around other films, a shot or mise-en-scene
referring to a past time film.
The style of Tarantino(Continued)
The unique approach to filmmaking
Mark Sison
(Reservoir Dogs) ‘Do you know what this is? It's the world's smallest violin playing
just for the waitresses.’– Mr.Pink
(Kill Bill: Vol.1 & Vol.2) Nonlinear & split into chapters
Tarantino’s films are known for the witty and smart dialogue from
his robust characters. Especially in Reservoir Dogs where it’s the
dialogue that truly make it shine.
Tarantino allows dialogue to be highly witty and has stated ‘One of
the things is there is a sense of humour in all of my movies that I′m
trying to bring out…I′m trying to get you to laugh at things that
aren′t funny’ seen here in The Tipping scene of Reservoir Dogs from
(Pulp Fiction) The Narrative Sequence
Mr. Pink who mocks underpaid waitresses.
The Kill Bill franchise is split into two volumes, each having five chapters.
Whereas, Pulp Fiction is in divided into sequences. In both films, before
each sequence or chapter is identified, ‘inter-titles’ against a black
screen are shown beforehand and, a common convention in Tarantino’s
films, are never in chronological order. The Pulp Fiction image shows the
sequences in the order shown in the film, but aren’t chronologically
placed. In addition, the Kill Bill image reveals the chronological structure
of the two films despite actual narrative structure of the film.
The style of Tarantino(Continued)
The unique approach to filmmaking
Mark Sison
Recurring collaborators
Tarantino is known for reviving the careers of older and washed out actors.
John Travolta ‘s career was at its low, a downturn for Travolta’s career who was type casted into
dancing films due to his previous success of ‘Saturday Night Fever’. After Pulp Fiction, Travolta
had won an Oscar and was shifted into A-list status once again and broadened his acting canvas.
Pam Grier had been type casted as a ‘woman in jail’ character and was part of several
Blaxploitation films, Jackie Brown was not only an adaption of Rum Punch by Elmore Leonard
but a homage towards Grier’s career and had her nominated for a Golden Globe.
Other notable actors are:
Robert Forster as Max Cherry – Nominated for a Golden Globe
Kurt Russel as Stuntman Mike
Harvey
Keitel–
Pulp
Fiction
,Reservoir
Dogs,
Inglorious
Basterds.
Samuel L. Jackson – Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill
Vol.2, Inglorious Basterds.
Michael
Madsen–
Reservoir
Dogs, Kill
Bill series.
Uma Thurman – Pulp
Fiction, Kill Bill Series.
Tim Roth– Pulp Fiction,
The Works of Tarantino
Notable works from the director
Mark Sison
Concentrating on the films that Tarantino had directed, the majority of them have been
critically successful.
(1992)
(1994)
(2005)
(1997)
(2007)
(2003)
(2004)
(2009)
The two films Reservoir Dogs and Jackie Brown are Tarantino’s takes on Heist
films. Both hold relatively similar and different styles of Tarantino’s and stay
humble to certain Heist conventions.
The Works of Tarantino(Continued)
Notable works from the director
Mark Sison
Conventions of Heist
A team to perform
the heist
A team (or a pair) to
do the heist
Valuable loot
(Diamonds)
Valuable loot
(Money)
Hostages
Stealing from the
corrupt
A botched or uneasy
plan
A dodgy transaction
Characters with
specialized skills
Typical ending of
Heist
Twist or variation of the
conventions
Reservoir Dogs was Tarantino’s first
mainstream film setting the tone and overall
style of Tarantino. It views the aftermath of a
professional team’s bloody bank heist due to
a ‘rat’, unfolding the backstory of each
character unravelling the traitor and reaching
it’s tragic and bloody ending. The narrative
structure is not chronological providing
variation over the Heist plot. It is perhaps the
one of the pioneers of the heist genre
displaying none of the actual heist.
Variation of structure,
No actual Heist
shown
A woman leading
No Chronology
Isn’t directly a heist
film for the first half
Jackie Brown was Tarantino’s homage to the
Blaxploitation genre, enticing a heist plot. It
was an adaptation of Rum Punch by
American novelist Elmore Leonard, but
Tarantino had changed the heroine to a
black female. A fierce female protagonist
who attempts to steal $500,000 of a gun
runner holds typical conventions a heist film.
The sassy and cool dialogue from Ordell,
Brown and Cherry and several tributes to
other films such as the panning side shot at
the start paying tribute to The Graduate.
Analysis of style and influence
Understanding the tools of Quentin Taratino
Mark Sison
Aestheticization of violence
Aestheticization of violence is the depiction of violence in high culture mass media and art, where it is utilized as a form of
representation. For violence to be portrayed in this manner allows audiences to connect to its gory, yet sublime nature. The
exploration of violence in this manner engrosses audiences feeding their curiosity due to the significance of its explicitness,
exaggeration and applied style.
Margaret Bruder, a film studies professor, establishes the differences between ‘aestheticized violence’ and just excessive use
of violence in films. Films with ‘aestheticized violence’ differentiate as the ‘standard realist modes of editing and
cinematography are violated in order to spectacularize the action being played out on the screen’ where cinematography
would revel on guns, blood splatter or an action is editing to be in slow motion to place emphasis on the violence.
Tarantino’s most evident use of the ‘aestheticization of violence’ is in Kill Bill series and was compared to A Clockwork
Orange by Stanley Kubrick, seen as ‘violence as a form of expressive art…physically graceful, visually dazzling and
meticulously executed that our instinctual, emotional responses undermine any rational objections we may have’.
A screenshot of the violent restaurant fight in
‘Kill Bill Vol.1’
Analysis of style and influence
Understanding the tools of Quentin Taratino
Mark Sison
Intertextuality
Tarantino‘s films are known to pay homages, tributes and references to other films that have
inspired him. Notably, the homages are usually to old films or directors displaying specific miseen-scene, dialogue and cinematography altered into Tarantino’s overall style.
Examples:
Reservoir DogsTarantino had called it his version of Stanley Kubrick’s The Killing. He claimed he ‘didn't go out of
my way to do a rip-off of The Killing, but I did think of it as my Killing, my take on that kind of heist
movie’
The infamous ear cutting scene was inspired by Joseph H.
Lewis’s The Big Combo. (Left)
Moreover, the colour identities of the characters in
Reservoir Dogs were first seen in the 1974 version of The
taking of Pelham 123.
An extract from a BFI poll revealing Tarantino’s
top twelve films
Analysis of style and influence
Understanding the tools of Quentin Taratino
Mark Sison
Intertextuality (Continued)
Another example would be:
Pulp Fiction
Initially, the structure of Pulp Fiction was inspired by the three-part horror anthology film called
Black Sabbath (1963) by Mario Bava.
Tarantino thought the boxer character, Butch Coolidge, was to be ‘like Ralph Meeker as Mike
Hammer in Aldrich's Kiss Me Deadly [1955]’
Harvey Keitel’s character had been inspired by a short ‘Curdled’ that Tarantino saw at a film
festival.
The dance sequence of the character, Vincent Vega, had many assume it was a reference to
Travolta’s star-making perfomance as Tony Manero in Saturday Night Fever (1977).
However, it was actually the Jean-Luc Godard film Bande à part (1964) that had inspired the films
scene.
The scene in Kiss Me Deadly in which Lily Carver, aka Gabrielle (Gaby Rodgers), gazes into the
glowing case and Pulp Fiction where Vincent Vega (John Travolta), gazes into a glowing case.
Conclusion
In a nutshell…
Mark Sison
Quentin Tarantino can be considered one of the most influence modern directors due to his
proficient work on films as a director, writer and producer. Tarantino has been defined by his
specific style which is notable in all his films and his vast exploration into techniques and themes
in films. He can be considered as a post-modern director with each of his films due to the
constant intertextuality, playfulness, homages and style over content.
Source
Material used
Mark Sison
http://www.pg.ru/actors/tarantino/
http://www.gomolo.in/features/article.aspx?A
rticleID=202
http://www.hlrecord.org/2.4464/kill-billbeauty-and-violence-1.580055
http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/
archive/?date=19921029&slug=1521437