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Quentin Tarantino in Interview: ‘I Expect Audiences to Have High Expectations’
With ‘Reservoir Dogs’, Quentin Tarantino attracted attention in Cannes. With ‘Pulp Fiction’, he won the Palme d’Or – and scored a $100 million hit in the US. Because of his graphic portrayals of violence, the former video store clerk remains somewhat controversial.
With ‘Inglourious Basterds’ Tarantino covered the atrocities committed by the Nazis. After ‘Django’, which took on slavery in the form of a Western, comes his next Western, ‘The Hateful 8’, also shot in 70mm and accompanied by the music of legendary composer Ennio Morricone. In Berlin, the cult director presented his work. [030] met with Quentin Tarantino.
Mister Tarantino, hand on heart: Can you cope with real blood?
Quentin Tarantino: I don’t have a meltdown when I see blood in real life. That said, watching an operation wouldn’t give me any pleasure. Emotionally, I’m probably somewhere in the middle: I’m neither bloodthirsty nor squeamish.
Good and evil are not so easily separated in your Western, at least at the start. How important are red herrings to your dramatic concept?
Quentin Tarantino: I like the idea of characters in a script being stripped back to the bone. In this story, there aren’t the usual heroes you can latch onto. You can’t trust anyone or anything here. At the same time, you can believe anything anyone says – it’s up to the audience to decide, as the author abstains from dictating the truth. Over the course of the film, hopefully the audience’s opinions shift – and in the end, each person has perhaps seen a completely different story. That’s exactly what gives me the kick!
What every viewer will probably see is the enormous hatred these characters develop over time. Where does this pessimistic vision come from?
Tarantino: In our film, hatred is a by-product of the American Civil War. The story could just as easily play out as an apocalyptic drama set in the Australian outback, with the characters as the last survivors of a catastrophe. The society people knew has crumbled to dust and now everyone is blaming each other for it. Our apocalypse is the Civil War, because that’s exactly how many people in America perceived it at the time. .
Don’t you see any hope for overcoming such divisions?
Tarantino: The only hope I see is in time. Later generations will handle it differently than those directly affected.
How do you deal with feelings of hatred in your private life?
Tarantino: I turn my hatred into a script and invest those emotions in developing my characters. In fact, I wrote this script at a time when I was personally very depressed and also very angry.
What were you angry about?
Tarantino: I’d rather not talk about that!
How does Tarantino generally come up with his subjects?
Tarantino: I certainly don’t find my topics by actively looking for them. Searching for a story isn’t comparable to looking for a woman you’d like to have coffee with or go to the cinema with. Ideas come to me when I’m writing my film studies. For example, I had the idea for ‘Django’ while writing my book about the director Sergio Corbucci.
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You shot your film in 70mm widescreen, even though most of it is set in a small cabin – isn’t that rather cinematic decadence?
Tarantino: With 70mm, you can perfectly capture barren Western landscapes, snow deserts, but also striking locations. I’m firmly convinced that widescreen formats also create greater intimacy. You’re closer to the characters. I don’t believe that this format is just suitable for travelogues.
Do you ever wish you could go back to the days when you just worked at a video shop and nobody always had expectations of you?
Tarantino: No, I like it when people have high expectations of me – in fact, I expect people to have big expectations of me. I’m proud that I have a solid filmography. Every new film has to fit into this strong chain; there can’t be a weak link, after all, I’ll be going to my grave with this chain of films.
How would you define ‘Tarantinoesque style’?
Tarantino: I’m probably the only one who doesn’t know what ‘Tarantinoesque’ is supposed to mean. I just write my stuff normally – obviously, it’s all ‘Tarantinoesque’, but only because it’s by me. Any deeper meaning to the word is unclear to me. It’s wonderful, though, that I have fans who like my work. And who look forward to new films from me, just as I always look forward to the next Scorsese film. Or the new work from Brian De Palma. Or the new novel from Stephen King. It’s nice when audiences follow an artist’s career.
In ‘Inglourious Basterds’, Til Schweiger had a part, and he’s since become one of the most successful directors in this country. Do you know his films?
Quentin Tarantino: Til gave me a copy of ‘Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door’ back then, and I’ve also seen ‘Barfuss’. But I don’t know his wild comedies, unfortunately. Unless Til sends me copies, I simply can’t see them because those films aren’t released in cinemas over here – and if they are, then without subtitles.