Quentin Tarantino isn’t just known for making movie. He’s known for making tough guy movies. Like it or hate it, his movies generally contain several guys doing terribly violent things to each other. But, on the whole, Tarantino is a fan of all kinds of movies, and that even includes romantic comedies.
Tarantino told Stephen Colbert that the much derided rom coms are a guilty pleasure of his when it comes to watching movies. He especially enjoys watching them on airplanes. The director is of the opinion that he gets more emotional when on airplanes than at other times (blame higher altitudes), so the intentional tugging at heartstrings seems to get to him. He told a story on The Late Show about watching the Matthew McConaughey/Jennifer Garner movie Ghosts of Girlfriends Past and actually beginning to weep during a particularly emotional scene. While Colbert says he can actually get angry when a movie successfully manipulates him, Tarantino appreciates it on an artistic level.
I am such a fan of audience manipulation by filmmakers, I feel that’s half of my job as a director. While I may be a little embarrassed about mentioning it, at that moment I was genuinely touched and I was having a good time, sitting in A1 of first class.
The key to getting Quentin Tarantino to cry, if you’re taking notes, is to make a personal connection. The scene in question involves one character receiving a camera as a child, one very similar to Tarantino’s own first camera. For a filmmaker a first camera is obviously a major event. At that point the floodgates opened.
While the fact that Quentin Tarantino cries at romantic movies may change the view of him by some, it really makes perfect sense. Art is designed to illicit an emotional reaction from it’s audience. Sad scenes are supposed to make you want to cry in the same way that a well done action sequence is meant to get your blood pumping. The director of The Hateful Eight may be better at creating the latter himself, but as a creator he can certainly understand the former. Check out the full interview clip below.
OK people, Quentin Tarantino has shown you that confession is a good thing. What movie scenes have created lumps in your throat or tears in your eyes? We’d love to find out in the comments below. Anybody else fully expect to start crying when the Star Wars theme begins playing at the start of The Force Awakens? Just me?
