Regardless of your opinion of Inglourious Basterds, there’s no denying Quentin Tarantino’s cinematic knowledge. Watching one of his movies is akin to taking a class on genre history, with Quentin as the ultimate professor. Furthermore, the filmmaker clearly loves talking about movies just as much as making them. Case in point: Sky Movies Indie, a British TV channel, recently let Tarantino “take over” their programming for a weekend. Tarantino selected six movies that he admired and filmed 10-minute introductions for each. Watching these “mini-reviews” is a blast. You get both sides of Tarantino’s personality — snobbish film connoisseur and impressionable fanboy — filtered through his astute observations and undying enthusiasm.
Below is Tarantino’s video commentary on There Will Be Blood, and after the jump are his intros for Taxi Driver, Sunshine, McCabe & Mrs. Miller, and his own Death Proof (he also filmed a segment on Gus Van Sant’s 1998 Pscyho remake, but sadly, I couldn’t find it online). PopWatchers, should Tarantino host more intros like these? And would you ever sign up for a film class taught by the director?
Taxi Driver
Sunshine
McCabe & Mrs. Miller
Death Proof
He is SUCH a geek! Except for one thing… It’s Montgomery Clift not “Cliff”. Geeeez– and I’m not even an old movie buff.
QT is my hero. He’s spot on with everything he says.
I loved the movie. I actually stood up and clapped and hooted at the end. The characters were glorious, the story line a fantasy come true, the blood was in context. Thank you Quentin for making the movie.
Brad Pit was remarkable. He was made for the role..Can not wait for it to come out on DVD as I want to have it for my house.
He is SUCH a genius! Except for one thing…he doesn’t make enough movies. I’m a huge movie buff myself, so I know film…and Quentin is a flat-out movie genius…regardless of what that dopey character above me said! Go back to watching your “Armageddon”‘s mindless MOVIES of the world and leave the FILM-watching to the rest of us!
HAHAHA. Thanks for the laugh. I find Michael Bay’s movies to be unwatchable. But, I think QT makes great films. It’s not his content I think is silly, it’s his personal style. Could I listen to him pontificate about movies? No. Do I think his film knowledge rivals Scorsese’s? Yes. And by the way, “genius” is such an overused cliche. He’s spent his life studying film and stands on the backs of the true pioneer filmmakers before him. That doesn’t make someone a genius.
He was spot on with his review of Sunshine.
Huh. I just saw Twilight Samurai – fantastic film, BTW – two weeks ago, and sure didn’t recognize its lead from Sunshine. Though, coincidentally, Kaneda was my favourite thing about that picture.
Tarantino’s critique of Sunshine is excellent, no doubt about it… but in four years of art school, I had profs like that, masters of their craft who are also extremely hard to get along with or rebel artistically against. In 5-minute exposures, artists like that are great; but if you ever have the chance to have a full-semester or full-year CLASS from someone like that…well, it could wind up an experience that hurts your love of the medium for a long time.
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good intros but try looking at the alex cox intros on youtube for moviedrome, the auteur’s intro to a series of cult movies that were shown each summer on bbc2 in the. search youtube for moviedrome
ok this is scary… i just happened to see sunshine this afternoon. and i’ve been watching every recent quentin interview or tv spot. he is my favorite filmmaker. so spot on about sunshine, the third act is a different movie, idk what they were thinking
I love There Will Be Blood, and I’ve only seen it once, so I do need to see again, like Tarantino said. But I wish he would’ve corrected himself; Plainview breaks his leg digging up silver–not gold. But I do agree that Dano wasn’t up to par w/ Day-Lewis (I wish someone like Ryan Gosling or James McAvoy would’ve played Eli and Paul Sundays) and that Plainview’s suffering in the beginning of the film does relate well to the evil he later displays in the film.
On the hand, I don’t think QT pays PTA much compliment when he compares himself to Brando and PTA to Clift. Yes Clift was a great actor, but Brando was significantly better.
*On the other hand
This man is God – though he did mispronounce Clift – some people have weird things like that.
Tarantino’s talk about the Psycho remake is online at http://movies.sky.com/video-tarantino-introduces-psycho
Haven’t had a chance to watch it yet, but I’m looking forward to hearing how he defends the film, and what merits he finds in the film that weren’t inherent in Hitchcock’s original.
Quite brilliant analysis of Gus Van Sant’s “Psycho” remake.
Indeed. As a Hitchcock fan, I saw the remake (because I felt I should if I was too criticise its existence), but I hated it as I expected to. But now I want to go back and rewatch it again.
Although I do want to disagree with QT on one point – not everyone knew the twists in the original. Certainly when I first saw the film (in 1996, at the age of 18) I knew there was a “shower scene” but didn’t know what happened in it (in fact, a misunderstanding of something I read years earlier had me expecting blood to come from the shower head). Similarly, I was surprised by what happened to Marion, and by the film’s big reveal. So it’s not necessarily a universally known fact.
I wanna hear what QT would say about Speed Racer!