Quentin Tarantino

Quentin Taratino:

Quentin Jerome Tarantino was born in Knoxville, Tennessee, to Connie (McHugh), a nurse, and Tony Tarantino, an Italian-American actor and musician from New York. Quentin moved with his mother to Torrance, California, when he was four years old.

In January of 1992, first-time writer-director Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs (1992) appeared at the Sundance Film Festival. The film garnered critical acclaim and the director became a legend immediately. Two years later, he followed up Dogs success with Pulp Fiction (1994) which premiered at the Cannes film festival, winning the coveted Palme D'Or Award. At the 1995 Academy Awards, it was nominated for the best picture, best director and best original screenplay. Tarantino and writing partner Roger Avary came away with the award only for best original screenplay. In 1995, Tarantino directed one fourth of the anthology Four Rooms (1995) with friends and fellow auteurs Alexandre Rockwell, Robert Rodriguez and Allison Anders. The film opened December 25 in the United States to very weak reviews. Tarantino's next film was From Dusk Till Dawn (1996), a vampire/crime story which he wrote and co-starred with George Clooney. The film did fairly well theatrically.

Since then, Tarantino has helmed many critically and financially successful films, including Jackie Brown (1997), Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003), Kill Bill: Vol. 2 (2004), Inglourious Basterds (2009), and Django Unchained (2012).

Trademark:

• (The Mexican Standoff) All his movies feature a scene in which three or more characters are pointing guns at each other at the same time.

• Often uses an unconventional storytelling device in his films, such as retrospect (Reservoir Dogs (1992), non-linear (Pulp Fiction (1994), or "chapter" format (Kill Bill: Vol.1 ( 2003).

• His films will often include one long, unbroken take where a character is followed around somewhere.

• Widely imitated quick cuts of character's hands performing actions in extreme close-up, a technique reminiscent of Brian De Palma.

• Long close-up of a person's face while someone else speaks off-screen (closeup of The Bride while Bill talks, of Butch while Marsellus talks).

• Extreme violence, much of which is suggested off-screen. Often times the violence in his films is over exaggerated and rooted in a darkly comic context.

• Often frames characters with doorways and shows them opening and closing doors.• Prefers to start most of his films with a scene before the main titles are shown.• Revenge is a common theme in his films.• Frantic scenes are often intercut with a character taking their time and behaving

methodically.