Quentin Tarantino / Edward Gallafent.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Gallafent, Edward.

Series:

On directors series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Tarantino, Quentin--Criticism and interpretation.

Tarantino, Quentin.

Criticism and interpretation.

Physical Description:

viii, 128 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Harlow, England ; New York : Pearson Longman, 2006.

Summary:

Quentin Tarantino is one of the best-known living American filmmakers in the world, and the story of his career has been the subject of a number of books and articles. But what do his films mean? In this new study, Edward Gallafent does not look at Tarantino's story but at the films themselves. He asks to what extent Tarantino can be seen as a specifically American filmmaker, with the kinds of preoccupations and interests that have formed part of Hollywood's traditions, and also how he explores the expressive possibilities of current cinema.

The book concentrates on the main feature films of Tarantino's career so far: Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Jackie Brown, and the two volumes of Kill Bill. Apart from Kill Bill the films are not treated individually, but in terms of some of the subjects that connect them together, such as success and tradition, their notorious deployment of violence, and Tarantino's approach to storytelling: his interest in presenting events out of chronological order. The book also covers adaptations of Tarantino's work, looking at the screenplays of True Romance and Natural Born Killers as well as the films made from them, and compares Tarantino's approach to adapting Elmore Leonard with that of another important American filmmaker, Paul Schrader.

The aim of the book is to explore these topics and to take the reader back to what the American critic Robert Warshow called the 'actual, immediate experience of seeing and responding to the movies'. It is designed to appeal both to those who were excited by the films on first seeing them in the cinema and to those taking the opportunity of reconsidering them on the screen or on DVD.

Contents:

1 Tradition and modernity in Reservoir Dogs 7

2 Success and failure in Pulp Fiction and Jackie Brown 21

3 Exploring the medium: film violence in Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction 38

4 Tarantino as screenwriter: True Romance and Natural Born Killers 52

5 Landscapes 66

6 Adaptation: Tarantino, Paul Schrader and Elmore Leonard 85

7 Kill Bill: excursion into style 99.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 121-125) and index.

ISBN:

0582473047

OCLC:

61758669