One of the most celebrated writer-directors of 1990s
Hollywood !
Full name: Quentin Jerome Tarantino
Date of birth: March 27, 1963, Knoxville, Tennessee
Residence: Hollywood, Los Angeles, California
Family Mother (Connie Tarantino), Father (Tony Tarantino), Stepfather (Curt Zastoupil)
Contact
William Morris Agency
A Band Apart Productions
6525 Sunset Blvd. #G-12
Los Angeles, CA 90028
USA
From Baseline's Encyclopedia of Film
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"Pulp Fiction" posters
One of the most celebrated writer-directors of 1990s Hollywood. After laboring (and learning) in a Manhattan Beach video store for four years, Tarantino made a brilliant feature directorial and screenwriting debut with RESERVOIR DOGS (1992), a brutally violent yet elegantly scripted crime drama.
Originally budgeted for a mere $35,000, the production grew to $1.5 million
when Harvey Keitel became enamored of the script and agreed to star. The result was a cleverly structured and stylized caper
dealing with themes of masculinity, loyalty and betrayal that was
further bolstered by top notch tough-guy performances. RESERVOIR
DOGS premiered at the 1992 Sundance Film Festival, where it was
pointedly snubbed by the jury. Nonetheless Tarantino was
subsequently courted by the industry and lionized by some critics
as the next Martin Scorsese, albeit with liberal sprinklings of
John Woo and Samuel Fuller.
Tarantino lived up to his praise with
his next project, TRUE ROMANCE (1993). Written around the same
time as RESERVOIR DOGS, TRUE ROMANCE was an adolescent boy's
daydream fueled by pop culture, violence, and testosterone.
Slickly directed by top gun-for-hire Tony Scott, the film offered
grandstanding performances and many disturbing yet comical scenes
a la RESERVOIR DOGS, but the glossy commercial sheen made the
ample violence less affecting than in his previous outing.
NATURAL BORN KILLERS (1994) was again written by Tarantino at the
same time as RESERVOIR DOGS and TRUE ROMANCE. Directed by Oliver
Stone, the film was largely rewritten with Tarantino receiving
only a story credit.
Tarantino returned to the director's chair with PULP FICTION (1994), to revisit
a familiar urban landscape characterized by trust, betrayal, and gangsters given
to low-level postulating. Boasting another cast including Bruce Willis, John
Travolta, Tim Roth, Harvey Keitel, Uma Thurman and Christopher Walken, PULP
FICTION premiered to acclaim and some controversy at the 1994 Cannes Film Festival
where it received the Palme d'Or. The film went on to surprising box-office
success, taking in over $100 million domestically. Later that year, Tarantino
received a richly deserved Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. |
