The mad cinema lover, the great filmmaker Quentin Tarantino is a master of the world of cinema. Fascinated by the seventh art since childhood, as if his fate were predetermined, he enjoyed a rich career as a director and screenwriter, twice winning the Academy Award for Best Screenplay. In his autobiography, now available in French, we discover a man who is passionate about the cinema universe and offers a behind-the-scenes look at Hollywood.
Photo courtesy of Editions Flammarion
While some people wander from one profession to another in a desperate search for their voice, others seem to have already mapped out their destiny without having to search for it or ask themselves any questions.
When director Quentin Tarantino saw his first film at the age of seven with his mother and stepfather Curtis at the legendary Tiffany Theater on Sunset Strip in West Hollywood, it was not only a milestone for him, but the beginning of a very long story. that of his life, which led him to produce nine feature films.
We can say that Tarantino quickly began to devour films. He dropped out of college as a teenager to work as a projectionist in a small porn cinema. Shortly thereafter, he got a job at a video store in the South Bay area of Los Angeles, selling and renting movies in VHS format.
The idea behind this is to spend most of your time watching all kinds of films, American of course, but also French. He will work there for five years, even sleep there and spend more time at the video club than at home.
Born in 1963 in Knoxville, Tennessee, his father of Italian origin, Tony Tarantino, is an actor and amateur musician, while his mother is a nurse. He will not know his father, who left his mother before he was born. She moves to suburban Los Angeles to marry a nightclub pianist.
This father figure does not remain present for long as the couple divorces. Nevertheless, Curtis, his stepfather, introduced him to cinema, as did his mother, who raised him practically alone and dragged him to the cinema to attend screenings, which were not always appropriate for his age, but gave him a certain maturity.
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A true autodidact, he learned his craft by watching films.
He will never take film school classes, but he does take private acting classes, which will serve him well in the few acting roles he has offered himself in his own films, and of course that will serve him well. Also in terms of management an enrichment.
He tries his luck at auditions a few times without much success. He quickly understands that his joy lies in writing screenplays.
Tarantino has a particular taste in cinema, often it’s extreme violence and martial arts films that grab his attention as much as Western films.
Having suffered from the absence of a father figure in his childhood, he is looking for male heroes. He also has an insatiable adoration for American films of the 1970s.
He’s learning his craft in his own way, writing a first screenplay with a friend who works at the same video store as he does. He’s only 21 years old, but he’s determined to succeed. Once the script is written, he rents a 16mm camera at a reduced rate and shoots his film every weekend. He will work on his project for three years, but the result does not live up to his ambitions and the work never sees the light of day.
A tenth film
After several more setbacks and disappointments, often due to lack of budgets, he finally rose to fame in 1992 with the film Les enrages (Les enrages), which won him several awards. 1995’s Fiction pulpeuse, starring John Travolta, earned him seven Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director.
Despite taking several breaks throughout his career, Tarantino just keeps getting stronger. A bit like waiting for the perfect idea to roll up his sleeves.
His last major film, his ninth, 2019’s Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt, is something of a consecration for him. The story is a mix of fiction and fact about guru cult Charles Manson and the murder of actress Sharon Tate who was brutally shot while pregnant.
In addition to being screened in competition at the Cannes Film Festival, the film won three Golden Globes and was nominated for ten Oscars.
Reading his book, we think that if Tarantino had not been a filmmaker, he would have become a film critic as he takes pleasure in analyzing all the films he sees.
In addition, we learn that his next film will have a film critic as the main character.
The director has claimed for several years that he will only make 10 films over the course of his career.
If he’s telling the truth, the next to have nine films to his credit will be his last.
His tenth film, The Movie Critic, is scheduled for release in 2024.
Some major awards have been received
- In 1992 he received the International Critics Award at the Toronto International Film Festival for “Reservoir Dogs”.
- In 1994 he received the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival for his film Pulp Fiction.
- In 1995, he won the Oscar and Golden Globe for Best Original Screenplay for Pulp Fiction.
- In 2013 he won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay for his film Django Unchained.
- In 2020 he won the Golden Globe for Best Screenplay for his film Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood.
- He realized his childhood dream in 2015 when he received his star on the famous Hollywood Walk of Fame.