TARANTINO'S TOP 20 FILMS OF 2010
…Or maybe the man just likes graphic action scenes?
Oh, sorry, I forgot I was on Mubi. Western = bad!!! Anything that makes money = bad!!! QT and his family should be stood up against a wall an executed. HEGEMONY!!!!!
Or maybe, just maybe, Tarantino likes this movies for his own reasons that don’t have anything to do with appeasing other people. I know it’s a strange concept. But it’s worth consideration.
not enough asian movies on his list.
I actually like Tarantino and don’t get the hate thrown his way. He’s directed some great films, acted as a cultural gatekeeper for Asian cinema that would be otherwise unknown to certain Western audiences (the fact that he helped distribute Sonatine alone gives him my eternal “Get Out of Jail Free” pass) and is also seemingly a genuinely nice person that’s still excited about films and filmmaking as opposed to some self-important douchebag directors who act like we should be honored that they even bother to still make movies for the uncomprehending masses.
That being said the only films that I have to seriously question on this list is Robin Hood and Jackass 3-D. But to each his own.
“acted as a cultural gatekeeper for Asian cinema”
To certain Japanese and maybe Hong Kong films, genre probably? That’s no “gatekeeping” to me, more like bargains in the sack or what-you-prefer. If he decides to be a gatekeeper of Asian cinema, I suggest he starts promoting Chinese and Indonesian and Vietnamese and Lebanese and Iranian cinema of the 60’s and 70’s (because Asia does not mean East Asia)
“Anything that makes money = bad!!! QT and his family should be stood up against a wall an executed.”
Tarantino is roaming like a silly cow and Panahi is unable to make more films. Where’s justice?
Can we put L’il Quentin and Lars in a steel cage and at least solve one problem?
“Tarantino is roaming like a silly cow and Panahi is unable to make more films. Where’s justice?”
it’s served, that is justice :)))
Well Doinel, I’d say there IS a difference between the likes of Quentin and Lars, maybe we should switch Lars for…Bret Ratner or maybe some other Hollywood pricks?
Well, his distribution company is now defunct anyway but his main interests were in East Asian film. Some national cinemas/directors don’t resonate with everyone.
Moderated
Didn’t need L’il Quentin to become aware of East Asian cinema.
Having the little clowns taste taken as gospel has probably inhibited free exploration of Asian cinema.
Well Dimitris, Lars’ anti-Americanism does get to me. Not that we aren’t clumsy bumblers but Lars hasn’t had anything useful to say about it. His oedipal issues bore me to tears.
“Japan ALWAYS resonates with EVERYONE though.”
Is that true? I have classmates that are completely uninterested in Japanese cinema and have seen only Tokyo Story and Seven Samurai because we watched them in class.
Your point that Japan is overrepresented in Asian cinema studies is certainly well taken though. Most people (I forget sometimes) don’t know that Lebanon and Iran are even in Asia and definitely don’t know that they have their own vibrant cinemas which is a shame because Kiarostami, Ghobadi, and Panahi are true artists. One of my best experiences last year was showing Through the Olive Trees to my undergrads
^ I know it doesn’t, I just tried being ironic through my comment but irony is unfortunately impossible to achieve all the time due to the….writing constraints, we don’t have magic mirrors, hehe.
However, I am also considering the fact that Japanese cinema’s appreciation throughout respected critics and academics is not just well-known but expertly analyzed and for what it’s worth, there have been enough subtitling options for a good load of Japanese films whereas the amount of subtitled films in Iran is tragic to say the least, limited to the post-90’s era. That notion stands for many non-Western European countries too and I’d say Iran is funnily enough in a much better subtitling condition than….Romania!
I don’t see reason why you consider yourself non-conservative. maybe cause of your “open-minded”
thoughts on graphic sex in mainstream films. :)))
Having the little clowns taste taken as gospel has probably inhibited free exploration of Asian cinema.
I’m sorry, that’s retarded. Congrats for discovering Asian cinema on your own, really. But I grew up in a community where Asian DVDs were fairly scarce (pre-internet torrents!) and Rolling Thunder brought the first few titles to my local video stores when I was a young teenager. Those film’s successes in turn convinced the store owners to build a bigger foreign selection. It’s plain snobbish to expect everyone to come to film in some pure way compelled by their own passions, research and privileged access. I don’t see what difference it makes if it was Tarantino or Noel Burch who influenced someone’s decision to pick up a Mizoguchi film.
Where is QT’’s interest in East Asian cinema now? Judging by his US-centric list, it can’t have gone very deep. And his “gatekeeping” (did QT fans really flock en masse to Asian films?) was more to a certain type of violent cool. There’s enough of that already dominating our screens, and the usual pandering to young men and teens. There speaks an old fogey. Japan may overshadow other Asian countries in film studies but within that certain directors get a lot more attention than others. I was glad to see the recent Scorsese/Rosenbaum 50 films selection had Mizoguchi (x2 if memory serves), but Scorsese is a more serious film lover than QT (i’m presuming it wasn’t simply Rosenbaum’s judgment). I’m surprised QT’s 2 lists here haven’t had lots of fans. Perhaps many people haven’t noticed? Not that i’m most eager to publicise. I’m hardly his biggest fan but i ended up on this thread too. Takamine Hideko instead should have had masses of people on her thread
^ Haha, don’t judge Doinel too much R., truth be told I had zero help from either Tarantino or Burch or anyone else about my film discovery beyond the American mainstream. It’s really not about Tarantino’s brainwashing influence or whatever the case maybe but the herd mentality that’s been left onto his following. We’re talking about a huge following from anywhere you may see it and this is where the problem lies, this is how canons are “secured”. We’ll soon be chatting about Lady Gaga and Amalia Rodrigues as two similar identities and we’ll be laughing about it like it’s something to joke about.
Kenji, it’s not just the Takamine thread, most of my thread revivals that have been compiled into my best threads lists have met minimum success since the day I’ve started reviving them.
When asked who his mother is, Elton’s new baby Zach is said to have replied “Gaga”
“Can we put L’il Quentin and Lars in a steel cage and at least solve one problem?”
^ Please don’t compare von Trier to Tarantino, he is much more engaging than Tarantino will ever be.
R Citizen, i wasn’t aware QT had promoted Mizoguchi (Burch, yes)
QT probably just went nuts over Asian cinema in the early 90’s because that’s what most cinephiles were doing at that point. i’m not saying he wasn’t sincere about it, but timing was perhaps everything in that case, and all the films he liked were ‘hip’ in some sort of way. i’ll give him credit for trying to break Kitano into America earlier though.
His list is terrible btw. I wasn’t a huge fan of Enter The Void, but i’d take that over just about every film on his list, easily.
“One of my best experiences last year was showing Through the Olive Trees to my undergrads”
NIce work R.C! keep it up ;-)
“because that’s what most cinephiles were doing at that point.”
Once again: EAST ASIAN CINEMA and specifically, Japanese / Hong Kong GENRE productions. I doubt “most” cinephiles were exploring Indonesia for that matter.
^^Yes Dim, you are right, it was East Asian Cinema, but having said that, cinema from that part of the world hadn’t really excited the West for a while though. probably since Bruce Lee ;-)
I demand a QT conspiracy theory thread were we can make a catalog of all the theories and personal attacks towards him.
Jackie Brown and Pulp Fiction are better than every film on his list…I think he’s playing himself up.
I don’t see how Jackass 3-D is a surprise being on that list the first Jackass was a major influence in the Elle Driver/Beatrix Kiddo fight in Kill Bill vol. 2
I think QT never wrote this list or, more presumably, never wrote previouses.
By the way he often quoted asian 60s-70s-80s cinema, just like he did with
american b-movie. But he finally grown up and let everything behind. He doesn’t
need to rate or not even watch Uncle Boonmee, Hahahah, Poetry or everything else Asia
produced during 2010 because he’s a bored cinephile whit a bias for entertainment who
finally prefers mainstream movies.
Don’t lose heart, he’ll soon grow old, maybe he’ll turn into an art patron again.
I am disappoint. That is all.
Charles Deckert
I think it’s interesting that a man who was once so favoring of obscure, foreign and low key movies (ala City on Fire, Chungking Express and Sonatine) has a knack for praising many mainstream commercial moneytraps and films that would be better suited to one of his fans than he himself…must have to due with keeping a firm hold on his own investments than it does with any type of cinematic sense of value.