Quentin Tarantino - Seminole Cinema: SEHS Film



IB Film: Year Two, W 42.2The Director’s Influence—Godard to TarantinoFrench New Wave InspiredWe have already seen how Quentin Tarantino's film?Kill Bill?(2003) was influenced by Francois Truffaut's?The Bride Wore Black?(1968).The French New Wave has influenced American film from at least the time of?Bonnie and Clyde?(1967) and inspired Directors as diverse as Arthur Penn, John Cassavetes, Oliver Stone, John Woo, and Francis Ford Coppola.But, probably no-one shows the influence of the French New Wave, and particularly the influence of Director Jean-Luc Godard, more than Quentin Tarantino.Quentin TarantinoIn our analysis of Marxist theory in Year 1, you can probably see how this form of theatre relates to Marxist artistic principals.By reminding the audience the Play is artificial, the Director moves the audience from consideration of whether or not a character?will achieve their goals, to a consideration of the goals themselves.Marxist PhilosophyWhy do the characters want what they want??How has society made them this way??Should society be structured this way??Although Quentin Tarantino's politics are less overt in his films, Godard champions Marxist philosophy in many of his films.?Regardless of the politics, however, both Directors are fond of reminding their audiences they are watching a movie.?Probably this is most true of Tarantino's?Death Proof?(2007), a film that is itself a reflection on another movie,?Vanishing Point?(1971), which is presented in the context of a cheap double-bill that might be playing at a seedy 1970's or 80's cinema, also knows as a 'Grindhouse'.?The film plays as a double-bill complete with trailers for movies that do not exist.?That?film, along with Robert Rodriquez's?Planet Terror?(2007), represents a highly artificial context that boasts both an accurate recreation of a kind of film no longer made and, if the audience is aware of what the context means, an examination of a period of American film history that no longer existsFilm as an IllusionTarantino once named his production company?A Band Apart,?which is the name of a film by Godard usually known in English as?Band of Outsiders?(?Bande à part?) (1964).Pulp FictionIn ?Band of Outsiders?(?Bande à part?) (1964), there is a moment when the main characters decide to share a moment of silence.?When they do, Director Godard silences the soundtrack for a minute, as if to show the audience how long an actual minute of silence really is.?In Tarantino's?Pulp Fiction?(1994), there is a moment when Uma Thurman's character Mia Wallace tells John Travolta's character Vincent Vega"Don't be a..."and uses her finger to draw a square.Tarantino emphasizes the square with an animated rectangle on screen.?In these moments and others, both Directors have shown a fondness for reminding their audiences they are watching a film, in short using film technique to point out to their audiences that film is - in fact - an illusion.The lack of sound or the presence of?animation on the screen highlights the fact film is, after all, artificial and not reality.?This technique actually originates with theatre theorist and Director Bertolt Brecht.?He felt an audience could get too caught up in a story, preoccupied with the emotional context of what was going on and forgetting what the social or thematic significance of the story was.?He used various techniques - such as the actors directly addressing the audience ( breaking the fourth wall ), projections of images, and highly artificial Art Design - to create what he called?epic?theatre, a form where the audience was?alienated?from events and essentially reminded they were watching a mon TraitsIn your viewing of?Breathless, you have probably noticed some other common traits Jean-Luc Godard and Quentin Tarantino share.You might notice the similarities in the kind of?dialogue that is written, particularly the character asides.Here, and elsewhere in the works of both filmmakers, characters address the audience,?Breaking the Fourth Wall, and reminding us again we are watching a movie, and not real life.ExistentialismOften the dialogue is not concerned with the immediate necessities of the plot, and instead focuses on a kind of philosophical longing the main characters are trying to express.?For Tarantino, this is particularly true in?Pulp Fiction, where the two hit men played by John Travolta and?Samuel L. Jackson seem to be more focused on their own lives than on their immediate concerns.?Godard was an?existentialist, and his dialogue and action often focuses on the meaning, or lack of meaning, of life. Tarantino uses his dialogue in very similar ways.?You have probably also noticed the use of jump cuts in?Breathless?and other moments when the rules of continuity editing ( such as the eyeline match ) are broken.?Again, both Directors are fond of unconventional storytelling.?For instance, like many of Akira Kurosawa's films, the narrative is frequently non-linear, with events being placed in sequence for their maximum effect on the audience rather than being placed in sequence to make clear the order of space and time in which they happened.Brechtian and Post-ModernistAll these techniques can be seen as Brechtian, using the structure of the film to focus the audience on?why events are important?rather than?when events happened and what was the result.?Finally, you probably noticed the very direct quotations from popular culture and American film in?Breathless, such as?Jean-Paul Belmondo's?Michel Poiccard's?obsession with?Humphrey Bogart.?There are visual quotations from other films throughout the film, and a dedication to Monogram Pictures, an American Poverty Row?studio closely associated with the development of?Film Noir.?Of course if you have watched many Tarantino films, you will be familiar with the Director's tendency to quote other films ( particularly in the film?Kill Bill, which is composed almost entirely of?quotations?from Japanese, Chinese, Italian, and American Revenge?films).?This tendency to use extensive?visual quotes?could be seen as Homage, an affectionate tribute to the creative artists who inspired both Godard and Tarantino.?Other analysts see it as an element of Post-Modernism, a philosophy that analyzes and critiques social constructs as it seeks to examine the problem of objective truth.Post-ModernismPost-Modern works - whether they be Film, Art, or Architecture - tend to reference earlier works as they look for?meaning, or?lack of meaning, in their specific contexts.With a concern about the role of Language, Power Relationships, and Motivations, Post-Modernism shares many concerns with, and grows out of, the earlier concerns of Marxist philosophy.Self-Expression - an evolving traditonCan Godard or Tarantino be considered Post-Modernist Directors?Are either Godard's or Tarantino's films serious critiques of Modernist?ideas like scientific objectivity and progress??This is the kind of theoretical question that can form an idea for an Independent Study, but, for now, we will simply observe that both Directors actively engage in creating films that specifically reference the films they themselves have seen.?Ultimately, one of the most important things to notice about the chain of influences we have traced - from Hitchcock to the French New Wave to Tarantino - is that filmmaking is an on-going dialogue between filmmakers from many different countries and many different times.?Narrative techniques, technical adaptations, visual style - all these things and more can serve as an inspiration and a guidepost when you express yourself in film terms.?As a filmmaker, you are part of an evolving tradition, and your own work can be built on the discoveries of the filmmakers who came before you, even as you express ideas that are uniquely your own. ................
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