Quentin Tarantino Interviewed on The Treatment

Quentin Tarantino is a well-known film director, writer and cinematographer. Some of the films he is know for is Jackie Brown, Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill Vol.1 and 2, Death Proof and plenty others. On the Treatment Show, Tarantino is interviewed for his 2009 film Inglorious Basterds. The interview took place on August 19, 2009, 2:30pm

I learned some interesting things about Quentin Tarantino and about the film Inglourious Basterds. I learned that Inglourious Bastards was Tarantino first original screenplay after Pulp Fiction. It took him ten years to finish writing the script. Instead of having writers block, Tarantino had the opposite. He couldn’t stop writing; he kept adding more and more characters to the script. He had no idea who was going to play the characters. He pointed out that in order for an actor to get a part in one of his roles an actor needs two things. The first one being intelligence, because in order for a character to get his jokes they have to be able to understand them. Second, the actor has to have the love for language, so they cannot be afraid of the dialogue. This is how Tarantino chooses his actors, especially for Inglourious Basterds because of the French and German dialogue.

Tarantino discusses how he couldn’t stop writing and he couldn’t see how this script was going to turn into a three-hour movie. He had a problem adding more and more characters. However he states, “If you write as many characters as I did, in the piece…you have no idea whose going to play them”. Tarantino is discussing how most of the characters in the film were not made for a specific actor. He said he had fun with this because the characters on paper had no limitations. Therefore when picking the actors he did not have to adjust the dialogue for the actors if they did not know how to read it how Tarantino wrote it. Instead, he chose actors that the language and dialogue would be organic for them.

Tarantino states, “I love the idea of the undesirable narrator” he is describing Shosanna, the theater owner in Inglourious Basterds. In the film, Tarantino introduces Shosanna’s character to the audience, as a Jew in hiding but not really describing what happened to her and how she survived the Nazi genocide. He said it would be boring describing what happen to her and that would be a whole movie in itself. Through out the movie Shosanna describes to the Nazi soldiers how she came to own a movie a theater. However, as in POV of audience we cannot trust what she is saying. So throughout the movie we are unsure of her background up until be she tells her black employee, “I love you and you love me and you’re the only one I can trust.”

Evils Mitchell and Tarantino are discussing what type of genre best describes Inglourious Basterds. Tarantino discusses how he adds a sudden twist in the genre of five guys who are absolutely essential in the scene to finish a mission. He is describing another movie where these men are doing a difficult task to complete the mission and then the mission is completed. However, in Inglourious Basterds, five guys are needed to complete the mission, although everything goes wrong. He describes this as,  “Really life, rearing its ugly head into genre.” He ends up describing the genre of Inglourious Basterds into an adventure type.  He described how the chapter structure in movies, the narrator could jump around throughout the film and eventually intertwine the charters and plot together. Although for the first time he is telling a story from beginning to end. Adding the big climax towards the end following the genre type by doing an adventure movie.

Overall I liked the interview with Elvis Mitchell and Quentin Tarantino in the Treatment show. I got more of a feel for Tarantino’s work. I am a big fan of Tarantino’s movies, so it was interesting hearing him talk about what he likes in characters and what he looks for when he is looking for a character to play the role. I like how Tarantino describes how he made Inglourious Basterds into an adventure movie. Tarantino work has a unique style, flavor and twist throughout his films, allowing the audience to noticing different ways a film director can change an average film into something gory, dark, humorous and entertaining.