Quentin Tarantino says that he’s going to stop directing after 10 movies . . . just like everyone says they can stop at just one Lays potato chip.
While it would normally be considered almost disrespectful to outright ignore what a visionary director says about the future of their own work, it’s pretty well justified here. Tarantino took to the stage of the Jerusalem Cinematheque on July 7th for the opening ceremony of the Jerusalem Film Festival, and gave a speech which included his saying “I’m planning on stopping at 10. So it’ll be two more.”
So why doesn’t anyone believe him?
Oh, maybe because he went on to say in the next sentence that “Even if at 75, if I have this other story to tell, it would still kind of work because that would make those 10. They would be there and that would be that. But the one he did when he was an old f—ing man, that geriatric one exists completely on its own in the old folks’ home and is never put in the same shelf next to the other 10. So it doesn’t contaminate the other 10.”
Ummm . . . OK . . . What?
Why does Quentin Tarantino think people would discount a film of his just because he made it as an old man? It sounds like he doesn’t think people respect the elderly. Or maybe he doesn’t respect the elderly.
In any case, making films with the kind of depth and meaning that Tarantino does is a whole lot of work. The amount of mental focus and acuity it takes to achieve what he has done is nothing short of astounding.
From that quote, though, it seems like Tarantino just wants to continue working his ass off for the next few years in order to be considered one of the most amazing directors of all time, then kind of just slack off and not take things too seriously, maybe take a vacation, maybe make a few crappy films, because who cares? That’s just crazy old Quentin Tarantino, not the vibrant young Quentin Tarantino who really shook things up.
Hopefully that’s not the case. But that’s what it looks like.
