Quentin Tarantino interview on the Bret Easton Ellis Podcast (12/2015)
Quentin Tarantino and
Bret Easton Ellis discuss
The Hateful Eight,
Jean-Luc Godard,
Pauline Kael and finding humor in outrageous film violence.
Quentin Jerome Tarantino (born March 27,
1963) is an
American filmmaker and actor. His films are characterized by non-linear storylines, satirical subject matter, an aestheticization of violence, utilization of ensemble casts, references to pop culture, their soundtracks, and features of neo-noir film.
Tarantino grew up as a devoted 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 his second film,
Pulp Fiction (
1994), a black-comedy crime film that was a major success both among critics and audiences. Judged the greatest film from
1983–2008 by
Entertainment Weekly, many critics and scholars have named it one of the most significant works of modern cinema.[3] For his next effort, Tarantino paid homage to the blaxploitation films of the
1970s with
Jackie Brown (
1997), an
adaptation of the novel Rum
Punch.
Kill Bill, a highly stylized "revenge flick" in the cinematic traditions of
Kung fu films,
Japanese martial arts, spaghetti
Westerns and
Italian horror, followed six years later, and was released as two films:
Volume 1 in
2003 and
Volume 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. After that came
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. His eighth film, the mystery
Western The Hateful Eight, was released in its roadshow version
December 25,
2015, in
70 mm film format, complete with opening "overture" and halfway-point intermission, after the fashion of big-budget films of the
1960s and early 1970s.
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. Filmmaker and historian
Peter Bogdanovich has called him "the single most influential director of his generation". In
December 2015, Tarantino received a star on the
Hollywood Walk of Fame for his contributions to the film industry.
Bret Easton Ellis (born March 7, 1964) is an
American novelist, screenwriter, and short story writer. His works have been translated into 27 languages. He was at first regarded as one of the so-called literary
Brat Pack, which also included
Tama Janowitz and
Jay McInerney. He is a self-proclaimed satirist, whose trademark technique, as a writer, is the expression of extreme acts and opinions in an affectless style.
Ellis employs a technique of linking novels with common, recurring characters.
Though Ellis made his debut at 21 with the controversial
1985 bestseller
Less Than Zero, a zeitgeist novel about wealthy amoral young people in
Los Angeles, the work he is most known for is his third novel,
1991's
American Psycho. On its release, the literary establishment widely condemned the novel as overly violent and misogynistic. Though many petitions to ban the book saw Ellis dropped by
Simon & Schuster, the resounding controversy convinced
Alfred A. Knopf to release it as a paperback later that year. Four of Ellis's works have been made into films. Less Than Zero was rapidly adapted for screen, leading to the release of a starkly different Less Than Zero film in
1987.
Mary Harron's adaptation of American Psycho was released to predominantly positive reviews in
2000, and went on to achieve cult status. In later years, Ellis' novels have become increasingly metafictional. 2005's
Lunar Park, a pseudo-memoir and ghost story, received positive reviews, and
2010's
Imperial Bedrooms, marketed as a sequel to Less Than Zero, continues in this vein.