Film History Awards – Variety

Getty Images

Christopher Nolan He said recently “ReelBlend” podcast (via CinemaBlend) He understands Quentin Tarantino’s decision to retire from feature filmmaking following his upcoming tenth directorial effort, The Movie Critic. Tarantino has talked for years about his plan to retire, saying he wants to leave behind a strong, tightly-coordinated body of work.

“And do you believe him?” Nolan asked the podcast hosts about Tarantino’s planned retirement.

There’s no reason not to believe Tarantino at this point in time. Every time he dropped details of his next film, ‘The Movie Critic’, he would remind fans that it would be his last directorial film, while also stressing that just because he retired from filmmaking doesn’t mean he can’t write books, plays, TV series, and more. Tarantino is ending his filmmaking career in his 60s in contrast to a director like Martin Scorsese, who shot Killers of the Flower Moon at 80 later this year.

“The truth is, I understand both points of view,” Nolan said when asked if he wanted to go the way of Tarantino or Scorsese. “It’s addictive to tell stories in cinema. It’s a lot of hard work, but it’s so much fun. It’s something you feel driven to do, and so it’s a little hard to imagine stopping voluntarily.”

Nolan continued, “But I also see…Quentin’s point has always been that—and he’s never, very kindly, never specified which movies he’s talking about or anything—but he does look at some of the work that filmmakers have done in later years and The feeling that if it couldn’t live up to the pinnacle, it would be better if it didn’t exist. And I think that’s a very pure point of view. It’s the point of view of a movie lover who appreciates the history of film.”

Although Nolan is aware of where Tarantino is coming from, he’s not sure he totally agrees. After all, there’s usually at least one credit-worthy element in a great director’s mixed film.

“I’m not sure I’d ever trust my own sense of the absolute value of a piece of work to know whether or not it should exist,” Nolan For “ReelBlend” hosts. “I’m a big fan, like Quentin, of movies that maybe don’t fully achieve what they’re trying to achieve, but something there is a performance, or a little structural thing, or a scene that’s, you know, that’s cool. And so, yeah, I get it. I guess I wanted to keep With a kind of perfect reputation for something, but also kind of not wanting to take anything off the table.”

Nolan’s stance on Tarantino’s retirement differs significantly from that of their friend and fellow director Paul Thomas Anderson.

“I know Quentin [Tarantino] He likes to say, “I make 10 movies and then I quit.” But I can never do that,” Anderson he said back in 2018. “I don’t know how he can say it, or how he can take himself so seriously when he says it. That’s what I want to do as long as I’m able to do it. As long as I’m able to do it, I’ll do it. I guess things can get weird.” When directors aren’t acting their age maybe, or when they see them trying to keep up with the kids or trying to be mean-spirited. That’s never a good look.”

Nolan’s most recent directorial effort, “Oppenheimer”, is his twelfth directorial effort. It has already garnered rave reviews ahead of its theatrical release. Taxi Driver writer Paul Schrader even called it “the best” and “the most important movie of this century.”

Oppenheimer hits theaters July 21 from Universal Pictures.