Quentin Tarantino-Retiring?-"Directors don't get better, they get worse"

[Ben]

Quentin Tarantino told GQ magazine: "Directors don't get better, they get worse. When you gotta go out and make a movie to pay for the kids' private school and for the three ex-wives, don't talk to me about your artistry. It's their job. I don't want to have to watch the movie I made to pay for my pool."

Look at Francis Ford Coppola. I can't believe for a man
who made Apocalypse Now -- cannot make another war masterpiece?

Is Quentin Tarantino right?

http://www.femalefirst.co.uk/enterta...ino-69289.html

[NikeeGoddess]

Re: Quentin Tarantino-Retiring?-"Directors don't get better, they get worse"

who cares?!

i remember when chris everett said she would continue to play tennis when she got old... in her 30s - ha! you don't quit doing what you love. by the time qt turns 60 he'll be thinking he's clint eastwood... getting better with age.

[Kevan]

Re: Quentin Tarantino-Retiring?-"Directors don't get better, they get worse"

Look at Francis Ford Coppola. I can't believe for a man
who made Apocalypse Now -- cannot make another war masterpiece?

I don't know about making another war masterpiece.. Most top director's tend not to cover old ground.. Once they've completed a movie and possibly made a masterpiece they very rarely repeat themselves making a movie about the same subject matter..

Francis Ford Coppola has made a lot of movies which are considered masterpieces either big budget epics like The Godfather, The Godfather II, and Apocalypse Now.. Some of his small-scale, smaller budget movies such as The Conversation and Rumble Fish can be seen to be masterpieces.. For sure they're amazing movies but not of the same scale as his larger budget movies..

Coppola returned to directing after a 10 year hiatus with a new movie in 2007:-

Youth Without Youth (2007)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0481797/

A love story wrapped in a mystery. Set in Europe before WWII, a timid professor is changed by a cataclysmic event and explores the mysteries of life.

This new movie from Coppola is a visually stunning feast from a master storyteller and confirms he is a master filmmaker and rather than making any steps back in his art shows that with age he has matured into a finer filmmaker than he was before..

An outstanding piece of work.. I was so impressed when I watched it on TV I had to go out and buy it on DVD... I managed to buy it from Blackbuster used but it looks great upscaled on my Sony Blu-Ray on a 40 inch Flatscreen.. Some of the visual ideas in Youth Without Youth are breathtaking. Tim Roth's performance in this movie is outstanding.. Youth Without Youth is a masterpiece..

So Coppola doesn't have to make another epic war movie he's already done that, been there.. Instead, he came back and directed Youth Without Youth and struck a chord about the meaning of life, the universe and everything... Doesn't get any bigger than that... If you haven't seen this movie you should.. I seriously recommend it.. It's a beautiful movie...

[WriteByNight]

Re: Quentin Tarantino-Retiring?-"Directors don't get better, they get worse"

They get worse? Tell that to Clint Eastwood.

[Kevan]

Re: Quentin Tarantino-Retiring?-"Directors don't get better, they get worse"

They get worse? Tell that to Clint Eastwood.

Well said... Eastwood is a fantastic director.. Each movie he makes he astounds with his experience and love for the craft..

There's only a handful of director's who's careers stumble for whatever reason.. Michael Cimino who directed THE DEER HUNTER probably falls into that category because he went over budget making HEAVEN'S GATE and his antics broke a studio.. Consequently, he doesn't seem to make many movies these days and when he does they tend to be fianced by foriegn money and have limited if at all release...

ROMAN POLANSKI suffered a similar fate albeit for different reasons.. Took him years to make a good enough commercial picture in TESS and then years later THE PIANIST to show he was still capable of directing masterpieces in the same vein as ROSEMARY'S BABY and CHINATOWN which were directed at an early part of his career..

Give a good director good material and they show what they're capable of.. Consistancy is the key.. It's a tough business... You're only as good as your last hit...

[docgonzo]

Re: Quentin Tarantino-Retiring?-"Directors don't get better, they get worse"

Coppola is not the best example to use, because APOCALYPSE NOW destroyed him. He's a shell of the man he used to be.

On the flip side, there are plenty of directors who made great films when they got older...

Hitchcock aged like a fine wine. NORTH BY NORTHWEST, THE BIRDS, VERTIGO, PSYCHO - all made late in his career.

John Ford made THE SEARCHERS - perhaps his best film - almost two decades after STAGECOACH.

Sergio Leone's epic masterpiece, ONCE UPON A TIME IN AMERICA, was the last film he ever made.

Ingmar Bergman - no more to be said there.

Kurosawa directed RAN when he was 75 years old.

The list could go on. I think Tarantino's problem is that he's limited in his vision, which is why his movies have been getting steadily more contrived and hackneyed. And I speak as a fan.

[SoCalScribe]

Re: Quentin Tarantino-Retiring?-"Directors don't get better, they get worse"

Quentin Tarantino told GQ magazine: "Directors don't get better, they get worse. When you gotta go out and make a movie to pay for the kids' private school and for the three ex-wives, don't talk to me about your artistry. It's their job. I don't want to have to watch the movie I made to pay for my pool."

Look at Francis Ford Coppola. I can't believe for a man
who made Apocalypse Now -- cannot make another war masterpiece?

Is Quentin Tarantino right?

http://www.femalefirst.co.uk/enterta...ino-69289.html

If you love what you do, why would you "quit while you're ahead"? To me, that sounds like someone who's afraid of not living up to their own hype, or is doing something for the recognition rather than for love of the work.

To me, I'd rather watch the movie that paid for my pool than live in an apartment without a pool because I never took a job doing what I loved in the first place. It must be nice to be able to turn down work that doesn't 100% live up to your artistic standards...

[Kevan]

Re: Quentin Tarantino-Retiring?-"Directors don't get better, they get worse"

Coppola is not the best example to use, because APOCALYPSE NOW destroyed him. He's a shell of the man he used to be.

On the flip side, there are plenty of directors who made great films when they got older...

Hitchcock aged like a fine wine. NORTH BY NORTHWEST, THE BIRDS, VERTIGO, PSYCHO - all made late in his career.

John Ford made THE SEARCHERS - perhaps his best film - almost two decades after STAGECOACH.

Sergio Leone's epic masterpiece, ONCE UPON A TIME IN AMERICA, was the last film he ever made.

Ingmar Bergman - no more to be said there.

Kurosawa directed RAN when he was 75 years old.

The list could go on. I think Tarantino's problem is that he's limited in his vision, which is why his movies have been getting steadily more contrived and hackneyed. And I speak as a fan.

I agree with everything you've said except the part about Coppola.. You're entitled to your opinion but I don't agree with your assumption regarding Coppola.. It's clear he wanted to do something else with his life and hence the vinyards and his resturaunts... He came back when he wanted and still made a masterpiece in Youth Without Youth.. What an utter load of tosh!

[instant_karma]

Re: Quentin Tarantino-Retiring?-"Directors don't get better, they get worse"

At his current rate of output, if he really intends to quit at 60, he'll probably only make 1 or 2 more movies.

[Writerperson12]

Re: Quentin Tarantino-Retiring?-"Directors don't get better, they get worse"

I don't think this is true at all as a general rule, but it's certainly true about Tarantino.

[Signal30]

Re: Quentin Tarantino-Retiring?-"Directors don't get better, they get worse"

Hitchcock aged like a fine wine. NORTH BY NORTHWEST, THE BIRDS, VERTIGO, PSYCHO - all made late in his career.

Love Hitchcock, but I've never made it all the way through any of his films made after 1963's The Birds:

Topaz, Frenzy or Family Plot. Haven't tried Marnie or Torn Curtain.

[SoCalScribe]

Re: Quentin Tarantino-Retiring?-"Directors don't get better, they get worse"

I think it's also interesting that Tarantino seems to draw a clear divide between artistry and doing something for a paycheck, as if they were some mutually exclusive arrangement where you couldn't possibly accept a paycheck and take pride in the artistry of your work at the same time.

If you're the director of a movie... you're basically calling the shots as far as the "artistry" of a project is concerned. Even if you do use the money to pay your kids' education or put in a pool at your house, how does that make your artistic endeavors as the director of a film any less... artistic?

If Tarantino views using a paycheck for those kinds of things as signs that a director has gotten worse, I wonder what he considers the appropriate way to spend the money he made directing INGLORIOUS BASTERDS or KILL BILL...

[Kevan]

Re: Quentin Tarantino-Retiring?-"Directors don't get better, they get worse"

Love Hitchcock, but I've never made it all the way through any of his films made after 1963's The Birds:

Topaz, Frenzy or Family Plot. Haven't tried Marnie or Torn Curtain.

Most of them are flawed but Frenzy is a masterpeice..

Frenzy contains all the Hitchockian motifs you'd expect in his thrillers..

Ripper-style serial killer

Greengroucer (homage to his father) also the killer

The wrong man

Wrongly imprisoned (Hitchcock's fear)

Protagonist having to prove his innocence

And the story/plot is set around Covent Garden where the grocery trade markets exist returning to the scenes of the original ripper..

Good stuff...

[Biohazard]

Re: Quentin Tarantino-Retiring?-"Directors don't get better, they get worse"

Torn Curtain, Marnie and Frenzy are all worth watching.

Haven't seen Family Plot or Topaz yet.

[Gwai Lo]

Re: Quentin Tarantino-Retiring?-"Directors don't get better, they get worse"

Coppola's new one, called Tetro, looks good