Quentin Tarantino American Riviera Award

Written by Jacob Dekker.  Viewed at the Santa Barbara Film Festival 2013.

Just as much of a fan as he is filmmaker, on Wednesday January 30th at 8pm, the legendary Quentin Tarantino received the American Riviera award.  This man definitely has a stage presence.  While many people were disappointed that Leonardo DiCaprio had to cancel they could not have found a better person to take his place.

Fans flocked in front of the Arlington almost three full hours before Tarantino showed just to have the opportunity to see the auteur in person.  Once the masses started to settle in, L.A. Times journalist, John Horn began the Q and A session with Tarantino.  Only after a few minutes it’s easy to see how much of a character Quentin truly is.  Her curses like a sailor, he cracks jokes, and he is very opinionated.  The questions were primarily focused on how Quentin writes a screenplay, with clips from his previous work intertwined with the interview.  Quentin talked about how he writes characters like Vincent Vega from Pulp Fiction to characters like Django from Django: Unchained.  During all of this we watched clips from his filmography like Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Jackie Brown, Kill Bill, Kill Bill Volume 2, Inglorious Basterds, and of course Django: Unchained.

A lot of people were thrown off when John Horn announced that the Q and A would primarily be focused on Tarantino’s writing rather than his directorial and production processes.  He talked about his writing process, while giving some useful information to future screenwriters.  From some this probably came as a nice surprise, while others who were eager to hear about what went on behind scenes of his newest feature film were slightly disappointed.  But, one of the great things about Quentin is that he is very fun and entertaining to listen to no matter what he talks about.

As the Q and A started to wrap up Horn asked some questions about what Quentin has in store for us in the future, and he hinted to another period film similar to Inglorious Basterds and Django, maybe even a mini series.  While none of this was officially confirmed, it’s safe to say that this was probably the most exciting part of the night for some Tarantino’s die-hard fans.

After a about two hours, the interview came to a close and Roger Durling came on stage to award Quentin Tarantino, and to finish up the tribute for the legendary American filmmaker.