With a friendship that dates back over two decades, around the time they each broke out onto the filmmaking scene with Reservoir Dogs and El Mariachi, respectively, writers/directors Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez paths would continue to intersect both off and on set. Throughout their collaborations on Grindhouse or Sin City, they’ve also always been open about their love for the history of the medium and today we have an extensive conversation between the two.
Premiering on the El Rey Network earlier this year, The Director’s Chair featuring Tarantino is now available online. In the two-part discussion, Tarantino talks his early days of making around $10,000 a year to using $30,000 for selling his True Romance script to help Reservoir Dogs come together, describing how he felt on the same level as the production assistants on set. He also describes utilizing his $13,000 music budget on a single song, and how it eventually led to the soundtrack. His relationship with the late Sally Menke is also discussed, particularly how she helped push things further in the editing room.
Tarantino also talks about the safety and general lack of narrative boldness in Hollywood around the time he came on the scene, which led to his fascination with non-chronological storytelling, comparing the structure to reading a novel. Going through his career and featuring vintage photos and corresponding footage of their references, it’s an informative and slickly put-together talk that’s worth a watch. Check it out below, which reveals that Kathryn Bigelow was Pulp Fiction’s earliest supporter after a director’s screening where few others appreciated it, and never-before-seen footage of a reading of the Kill Bill script.
What did you take away from the conversation?