The Loft Cinema has its guns loaded for audiences this month as it pays homage to the works of Quentin Tarantino with its series titled Pulp Tarantino: A Retrospective.
Starting with the Generation X classic “Pulp Fiction” on Saturday and ending with historical satire “Django Unchained” on Sept. 27, The Loft plans to screen eight of Tarantino’s films that hit all the high points of the director’s career.
“[There are] a lot of disturbing images or themes in Tarantino’s work,” said Jeff Yanc, the program director of The Loft.
Tarantino is perhaps the most over-the-top in his spaghetti Western parody “Django Unchained.” The film is a graphic revenge saga taking place in the Old South and features a collection of tropes and clichés reminiscent of old Hollywood.
“One of the things that [Tarantino] does is that his films are full of homages to other films,” said Bradley Schauer, an associate professor at the School of the Theatre, Film and Television.
Watching a Tarantino movie can feel a bit like taking a film history course, as it is easy to identify where the filmmaker borrows elements from classic cinema.
In his first commercially successful feature, “Reservoir Dogs,” Tarantino uses moments from older films to construct the movie’s infamous torture scene, which results in a cop getting an ear severed. Elements from the 1955 film noir thriller “The Big Combo” and the 1966 Clint Eastwood Western “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” reappear at this climatic moment.
“It’s this postmodern idea of remixed culture,” Schauer said. “I think Tarantino is doing the same kind of thing where he takes the older style of film and puts them together and makes a new context.”
This becomes more evident in “Reservoir Dogs” when the character Mr. Blonde asks his victim, “How ’bout some fire, Scarecrow?” The famous quote from “The Wizard of Oz” is put into a new context by a modern approach. The situations may differ, but both scenes are ultimately about extreme intimidation.
Schauer said that Tarantino’s excessive violence is balanced with a lot of goofy, dark humor. The silliness of Tarantino’s style is due to his hyperbolic approach to filmmaking, but the director is not all about the gore.
“I think it’s a combination of compelling performances from the actors, interesting dialogue and the violent, cartoonish world he creates as he blends genres,” Schauer said. It is this distinctive world that keeps drawing in viewers film after film. The Loft screenings now offer a rare opportunity for fans to see one of his older films in an actual theater.
“I’m a big fan of getting people to see a movie on a big screen,” Yanc said. “There’s nothing like it.”
Both Schauer and Yanc said the 1997 film “Jackie Brown” was their favorite, even though it’s one of Tarantino’s lesser known projects.
“It’s less violent and a little more subtle [than his other works],” Yanc said.
Other Tarantino films that will be screened this month include “Kill Bill: Vol. 1,” “True Romance” and “Inglourious Basterds.” Show times and tickets are available online, with tickets priced at $5.75 for Loft Members, $7.50 for students with ID and $9.25 for general admission. Tickets are also available over the phone or in person at The Loft box office.
—Follow Ivana Goldtooth @goldiechik93
