#CANNES: QUENTIN TARANTINO CANNES 2023 Q&A

Quentin Tarantino returned to Cannes, site of where he won the 1994 Palme d’Or with Pulp Fiction. He appeared as a guest of the Directors’ Fortnight competition, presenting a secret screening of the John Flynn classic ROLLING THUNDER. On why he chose this Film specifically, he tells the audience that he saw it opening night back in 1977 with his mom, the Film screening as part of a double-billing to ENTER THE DRAGON. He wound-up loving ROLLING THUNDER so much that he almost forgot about ENTER THE DRAGON!

Tarantino comments on political messages in his films. He spoke about how he can watch a buddy cop movie and not think about the political messages behind it, because he doesn’t know if there is one. But when I comes to the films he writes and directs, he says “If there are political messages in the film they are there because I put them there.”.

While Tarantino is known for graphic violence in his films, he does draw the line, stating, “I don’t agree with killing animals”. He adds, “I know I have seen some gruesome Horror films that didn’t have to be that way but almost always it’s not just the violence that I have a problem, with it’s usually badly done. There is an incompetent factor in there.”.

To this day, he cites Brian De Palma as his biggest influence. “I’m not gonna sign up for the most popular dude. That’s not my thing. Part of loving De Palma was getting into fights about him”. “The satire and comedy inside his thrillers even some of his action films are hysterical.”.

He also comments on re-writing history with revenge in his films. “In the case of Inglorious Basterds I didn’t think that I was going to kill Hitler at the end. That wasn’t the plan.”. “Then they’re in the theatre and I’m like ‘Hey, this is kinda working out. They actually might be successful at this. But I wrote myself in a corner…then all of a sudden a thought came to me ‘Just fucking kill him!’ and I’m like ‘Can I do that?’, then I’m like ‘Yea, it’s my story, I can do whatever the fuck I want!'”. “With Once Upon A Time in Hollywood… the reason I wrote the whole story was the save Sharon and kill those motherfuckers and have them go to the wrong house and REALLY THE WRONG HOUSE!“.

Lastly, on his tenth and final upcoming film, he is cryptic about it. “You’ll just have to wait and see…to be continued.”.

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