It’s rare to hear a director be honest and point out a flaw in another director’s work. But Quentin Tarantino isn’t your average director.
Here’s a clip of Tarantino discussing “Bookie Nights,” a film he says he loves, directed by his friend Paul Thomas Anderson.
Tarantino discusses the Burt Reynold’s character, the obvious inspiration for his character and a line from the movie. What Tarantino says makes a lot of sense, and it’s a fair criticism of one small part of an otherwise great movie. And it’s refreshing to hear him be honest about it.
It is often assumed that prominent individuals in business or celebrities in the public eye fail to lead normal lives like the rest of us. This dehumanization almost makes it easier for the public to lay judgement upon famous people because they are perceived differently than the more average members of society. The reality is that fame does not mean that fun cannot be had, and by recognizing what these people do in their free time, they become more relatable and human.
Some famous people and their hobbies include:
• Mark Zuckerberg: the creator and CEO of Facebook, who is one of the world’s entrepreneur’s that the media is most intrigued by due to his low-key lifestyle, appears to enjoy traveling, and spending time with his dog and family at home. • Reed Cagle: Skiing on Vail Mountain is the preferred activity of the Founder, CEO, and President of HEI Resources. As a Colorado resident, the mountains are in Reed Cagle’s backyard and it is a great way for the busy oil and gas industry entrepreneur to unwind. • Justin Timberlake: the busy celebrity and entrepreneur is a musician and actor, a restaurant owner, fashion designer, and is involved with various other businesses. In his spare time he likes to golf, snowboard, and engage in other fitness-related activities, in addition to simply spending time at home with wife Jessica Biel. • Quentin Tarantino: the movie mogul may be behind a wide variety of R-rated action flicks, but his favorite hobby is much more family-friendly. Tarantino enjoys collecting board games; specifically those that have a TV show theme. • David Arquette: the actor may have given himself a “bad boy” image but his favorite hobby is certainly anything but. The actor, once married to Courtney Cox, likes to knit in his spare time.
The hobbies of famous people prove that while they may have made a big name for themselves in whatever business they’ve endeavored to be a part of, that they have the same basic interests and enjoy the types of things that everyone does. Take this into consideration next time you hear a news story about one of these celebrities, or anyone else that has found themselves in the limelight!
I’m not sure it’s possible to edit football footage so that it really looks like it was made by distinctive directors like Quentin Tarantino, David Lynch, Wes Anderson, and Werner Herzog, but that didn’t stop some guys over at Slate from trying.
In honor of the new class of fine filmmakers selected by the film writers of our mothership site, we start with a scene from the movie my colleague, Jason Zingale, accurately selected as Quentin Tarantino‘s most underrated.
Be forewarned that, typically enough for Mr. Tarantino, this scene — which features a brief appearance by the late Tony Curtis via TV — contains lots of NSFW language. In particular, Samuel L. Jackson as murderous arms dealer Ordell Robbie uses enough n-words here that some took umbrage — perhaps because it showed he hadn’t been dissuaded when Denzel Washington gave him a talking to about using the word on the set of 1995’s “Crimson Tide.” One difference: in Tarantino’s earlier films, he has low-life white criminals using the word, possibly accurate but definitely on the edge of acceptability in mainstream films, here he has low-life African-American crooks using the word, more or less de rigeur in the nineties. Personally, I doubt I could justify changing a single word here in any case.
Come to think of it, I don’t think there’s been a single n-word in a Tarantino film since 97’s “Jackie Brown.” Denzel Washington, however, did use the word repeatedly (though with an “a” instead of an “er” on the end) as an unsavory copper, and won an Oscar for it, in 2001’s “Training Day.”
I’ve rearranged previously-scheduled posts slightly this morning because of the very sad and unexpected death of editor Sally Menke at age 56. Ms. Menke was best known as the editor of all of Quentin Tarantino’s movies and, it was obvious from interviews, a hugely valued collaborator to the director. It appears she may have been a victim of the record heat yesterday. (It’s not unusual in Southern California for the highest temperatures to come right about this time.)
It’s sometimes hard for people to understand who’ve never worked on a movie to understand how important a good editor is and how much of a truly creative task it is. It’s also not that easy for outsiders to understand an editor’s contribution because we don’t see all the raw material they work with. I’ve seen editors take some pretty horrible stuff and make it usable and they can take good-to-okay material and make it near perfection. It’s a kind of alchemy. In any case, our sincere condolences to all of her friends and family, including Mr. Tarantino. I’m sure he’ll agree that his movies from this point forward will be inevitably somewhat different. I think you’ll get an of just how crucial Sally Menke was from what’s below.
