Christopher Nolan Once Regretted Reading Quentin Tarantino’s ‘Pulp Fiction’ Script
Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction is widely seen as one of the director’s finest projects, and one of cinema’s most influential movies. But fellow filmmaker Christopher Nolan didn’t experience the same feeling as many Pulp Fiction fans after having read the script.
Why Christopher Nolan regretted reading Quentin Tarantino’s ‘Pulp Fiction’
Christopher Nolan’s movies typically generate high anticipation and expectations from his audience. His 2010 sci-fi feature Inception especially had eager cinema fans excited to visit the theater because of the mystery surrounding the film. In a resurfaced interview with The New York Times, however, Nolan disagreed with the notion that he hadn’t told fans ‘anything’ about the feature’s premise.
“I think we’ve actually been quite clear in a funny sort of way. It’s really, at its core, a big action heist movie, and it’s a movie that doesn’t try to bamboozle the audience continuously,” Nolan explained.
Still, Nolan understood that explanation might not have been enough for fans who wanted a little more detail on Inception. Nolan understood this mindset, as he experienced it at a time when Quentin Tarantino’s sophomore feature was gearing to come out. Which had a negative affect on Nolan’s own movie-going experience.
“I was interning at a film company years ago, and I read the script for Pulp Fiction before I saw the movie, and I always regretted it,” Nolan said. “I’m a huge Reservoir Dog fan, I was really excited to see [Quentin Tarantino’s] next film. Reading the script wasn’t the same as seeing the film. And then seeing the film, having read the script, wasn’t the same as seeing the film.”
Christopher Nolan gave Quentin Tarantino a cinematic experience he hadn’t felt since ‘The Matrix’
As much of a fan as Nolan is to Tarantino, Tarantino has been equally as high on the filmmaker. The Oscar-winning screenwriter has praised films such as Memento and the like. Tarantino even credited Nolan for providing a cinematic experience that hadn’t been felt in more than a decade. The sensation came when Tarantino saw Nolan’s 2014 film Interstellar.
“We’re waiting for the movie to start and it hit me. I realized that it hadn’t been since The Matrix that I was actually that interested in seeing a movie even though I didn’t know what I was going to see,” Tarantino once told The Guardian.
After seeing the film, Tarantino added it to the long list of Nolan projects that he enjoyed.
“It’s been a while since somebody has come out with such a big vision to things,” he said. “Even the elements, the fact that dust is everywhere, and they’re living in this dust bowl that is just completely enveloping this area of the world. That’s almost something you expect from Tarkovsky or Malick, not a science fiction adventure movie.”
Interstellar only reinforced Tarantino’s belief that Nolan was a director that would’ve succeeded in any era.
“Christopher Nolan would be just as good of a filmmaker as he is, just as a potent filmmaker as he is if he was making movies in 1975. Or, if he was making movies in 1965. I’d like to see Chris Nolan’s version of The Battle of Bulge. That would be f***ing awesome,” Tarantino said.
The 1 Christopher Nolan film that Quentin Tarantino didn’t get
There were a couple of Nolan films that Tarantino wasn’t too high on. At least at first. In an interview with The Rewatchables podcast, it took Tarantino a couple of viewings before he was sold on Dunkirk.
“The first time I saw it, I don’t know what I was thinking the first time. I just dealt with the spectacle of it all. I couldn’t deal with anything else but the spectacle of it all,” Tarantino said. “I liked the movie, but the spectacle almost numbed me to the experience. I don’t think I felt anything emotional. I was awed by it. But I didn’t know what I was awed by. … It wasn’t until the third time that I could see past the spectacle and into the people the story is about.”
Likewise, Nolan’s Tenet was also a film that Tarantino confided he didn’t get.
“I think I need to see it again,” he told ReelBlend.
