"Quentin Tarantino Interviewed on the Treatment"

For my interview I decided to chose a film personality who's style of film making and directing has always interested me going all the way back to his famous work in Pulp Fiction. Quentin Tarantino is a pioneer of his time and is not afraid to go outside the box of traditional film making and storytelling. His work is critically acclaimed and criticized, he isn't afraid of public opinion when it comes to creating his artistic vision. He is a film director, producer, screenwriter, and also an actor. His most famous works are Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Jackie Brown,Kill Bill Vol. I and II, Deathproof, and most recently Inglorious Bastards.

From this interview I learned that Quentin Tarantino is truly an artist and a visionary. He writes and directs films to be exactly as he envisioned it. With his first original script being Pulp Fiction, he set the stage for what can be called a "Quentin Tarantino film." He likes to structure his films in chapters with very strong characters with interesting personalities. His movies are often very violent and graphic and have characters that go through events that lead ultimately to their demise. His characters are not protected by the script so to say and can be ousted at any moment. I was surprised how long it took for him to cut down the script for Inglorious Bastards. He said he had so much material that it could have been a mini series because he had background on every character. True works of art are not made overnight, but rather a lengthy process that is constantly refined over time.

Tarantino had a lot of very insightful quotes into his film making style. The interview between him and Elvis Mitchell was about his new film Inglorious Bastards. He was discussing his two criteria for choosing actors to play in his film. He said "I look for two things in my actors: 1. Intelligence and 2. They have to love language." He was referring to the often complex, sophisticated, and lengthy dialogue that are in his films. In Inglorious Bastards there are long stretches of dialogue that have a poetic aspect to it. Dialogue that has a musical and comedic rhythm to it. As he says "language is a bitch you dominate." His way of saying that mastering language is vital in his films. In Bastards, the main character Hans Landa played by Christoph Waltz, spoke French, German, and English perfectly throughout the whole film and it was a defining characteristic of Hans Landa.

As I said early Quentin Tarantino spent 10 years writing the script to Inglorious Bastards. He said he refined it while he was making the Kill Bill volumes. He said some scripts are written for certain actors such as Uma Thurman. They fit the role and are modified to fit the actors strengths. In Inglorious Bastards the script was written from the ground up. He had no actors in mind for any of the role, they just had to capture the role as it was written. Tarantino was so fixed in what he wanted he said "I would have published the script and not made the movie had I not found what I was looking for." That one quote amazed me. He would have not made an academy award nominated film if he felt the actor was not what he envisioned. I also read that he turned down making Men In Black and Speed so he could go to Amsterdam to write Pulp Fiction. This sh0ws that he doesn't make films for the paycheck but because its a passion and an artistic expression. Hes doing what he loves and it must be done exactly as he sees it. I'm sure all great filmmakers had this same mentality.

"I love the idea of the unreliable character." This quote was kind of an eye opener as to how he tells his stories. His stories are told from the characters who most the time are unreliable in nature. Be it two hitman in Pulp Fiction, or story information told from a Jews perspective when interrogated by Nazi. The information cant really be taken at face value under the circumstances the characters are in or because the characters themselves are just shady in nature. In Inglorious Bastards he broke away from his normal story telling style and actually gave the audience a traditional climactic ending. Hes not one for tradition but in this case a climactic ending was appropriate.

This interview was very insightful and entertaining. Tarantino is not classical in any sense but rather a sarcastic foulmouthed who puts his own personality into his films. Elvis Mitchell asked very good questions that got him to open up into how he looks at film and whats important to him. He is known as one of the best directors today and his work is well respected and received. It made me appreciate him and his work more than I already did. The Treatment is very informative and I plan on listening to more interviews from my favorite film personalities.