Last month, England's Far Out magazine ran a piece titled "Quentin Tarantino’s handwritten list of the 11 greatest films of all time." The article states, "It comes as little surprise that Tarantino has studied the significant moments of cinematic history with an unrelenting thirst to quench his artistic desire. So, when the filmmaker was asked to pick 11 films which he considered to be the greatest of all time, it will come as little surprise that he struggled to define it with precision."
Here is Tarantino’s handwritten list, as shown on the Far Out magazine website.
Not surprisingly, at least to me, is that it includes the G.W. Pabst directed Pandora's Box. The 1929 Louise Brooks film, in which the actress famously plays Lulu, is the only silent film to make the list.
I say not surprisingly, because Pabst and Pandora's Box have been lurking beneath the sheen of Tarantino's films for some time. For example, if you had the opportunity to see the director's most recent film, Once Upon a Time in ... Hollywood, which is set in 1960s Los Angeles, you may have noticed that shortly after the legendary L.A. nightclub Pandora's Box is shown in Tarantino's film, a character named Lulu is introduced. Coincidence? Perhaps. Cinematic nod? More likely. And then there is Uma Thurman's severe Louise Brooks-like bob in an earlier Tarantino film, Pulp Fiction (1994).
G.W. Pabst was also given a big shout out in an earlier Tarantino film, Inglourious Basterds. In that 2009 movie, a few characters in the film (who include members of the French underground who also happen to be cinephiles) talk about movies while dropping the names of various historical figures. Much of the later action in the film - including an attempt to kill Adolph Hitler - takes place in a small Parisian theater which had been showing a Pabst film, White Hell of Pitz Palu. That was the film Pabst shot in 1929 between making his two classic films with Louise Brooks, Pandora's Box and Diary of a Lost Girl.
Is all this coincidence, or a form of cinematic homage in the form of cinematic Easter eggs. You be the judge. For more on Quentin Tarantino, G.W. Past and Louise Brooks, see my earlier blog Once Upon a Time in... Hollywood - Quentin Tarantino & Louise Brooks. And Q., if you are reading this, drop me a line.
Here is Tarantino’s handwritten list, as shown on the Far Out magazine website.
Not surprisingly, at least to me, is that it includes the G.W. Pabst directed Pandora's Box. The 1929 Louise Brooks film, in which the actress famously plays Lulu, is the only silent film to make the list.
I say not surprisingly, because Pabst and Pandora's Box have been lurking beneath the sheen of Tarantino's films for some time. For example, if you had the opportunity to see the director's most recent film, Once Upon a Time in ... Hollywood, which is set in 1960s Los Angeles, you may have noticed that shortly after the legendary L.A. nightclub Pandora's Box is shown in Tarantino's film, a character named Lulu is introduced. Coincidence? Perhaps. Cinematic nod? More likely. And then there is Uma Thurman's severe Louise Brooks-like bob in an earlier Tarantino film, Pulp Fiction (1994).
G.W. Pabst was also given a big shout out in an earlier Tarantino film, Inglourious Basterds. In that 2009 movie, a few characters in the film (who include members of the French underground who also happen to be cinephiles) talk about movies while dropping the names of various historical figures. Much of the later action in the film - including an attempt to kill Adolph Hitler - takes place in a small Parisian theater which had been showing a Pabst film, White Hell of Pitz Palu. That was the film Pabst shot in 1929 between making his two classic films with Louise Brooks, Pandora's Box and Diary of a Lost Girl.
Is all this coincidence, or a form of cinematic homage in the form of cinematic Easter eggs. You be the judge. For more on Quentin Tarantino, G.W. Past and Louise Brooks, see my earlier blog Once Upon a Time in... Hollywood - Quentin Tarantino & Louise Brooks. And Q., if you are reading this, drop me a line.
"It comes as little surprise that Tarantino has studied the significant moments of cinematic history with an unrelenting thirst to quench his artistic desire."
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That's one of the corniest-written fan-boy sentences of all time. LOL