Quentin Tarantino’s unrequited admiration for Jean-Luc Godard

we usually think that Hollywood is one big happy family. A space for collaboration between artists who work together and share experiences and although it may sometimes be true, it is also a space of absolute competitiveness in which friendships do not fit, this conception of the industry being one of the most notorious discrepancies between Quentin Tarantino y Jean-Luc Godard.

The French filmmaker was one of the greatest inspirations in the career of the director of Pulp Fiction, until the first one publicly declared his interest in the figure of Tarantino, qualifying the emerging talent of Hollywood as null. But What made Godard’s detachment from the American director so defining that he couldn’t let it go?

Born in Paris in 1930, Jean-Luc Godard has been recognized as one of the most influential and innovative filmmakers of his time, his artistic scope being living proof of the existence of certain later feature films. More than thirty years later, Quentin came into the world and during his adolescence developed a great interest in the seventh artbursting onto the scene in 1992 with Reservoir dogs. Tarantino went so far as to say that Godard was for cinema what Bob Dylan was for music: revolutionary. The two-time Oscar winner’s respect is such that he came to call his producer Keeping to himselftitle of a film by the French filmmaker in 1964.

Godard’s attack on Tarantino

The first comment that Godard made to Tarantino would go back to 2004, where in an interview he compared the filmmaker to a dishonest child, describing him as “null” his job as director. A somewhat cold way of describing the work of a fellow professional who had spent much of his professional career praising him.

From that time, the opinion of the Texas player changed until in 2013 he came to say that he was no longer a great admirer of Godard. Tarantino then compared him to Frank Franzetta, saying that “you start drawing like him, and then you get over it”. Godard was also inclined to name his production company after his film, but he viewed the move as demeaning since he himself has always considered Keeping to himself as one of his worst jobs.

Shortly after her passing in 2022, the actress Molly Ringwald revealed in an article for the New Yorker part of his long friendship with the director, where his disdain for the figure of Tarantino was even more manifested, stating that Pulp Fiction it was not authentic at the time of its release.