Ahead of the release of his 12th film, Oppenheimer, Christopher Nolan has chimed in about Quentin Tarantino’s oft-discussed and -debated move to end his feature directing career after 10 movies. And while many of us think QT would defy the odds that he sees crash filmmakers’ careers in their waning years, Nolan understands where his fellow cinephile is coming from.
Speaking on CinemaBlend’s ReelBlend podcast (via Variety), Christopher Nolan suggests that Quentin Tarantino’s encyclopedic knowledge of cinema is where the decision formed. “Quentin’s point has always been that — and he never, very graciously, he’s never specific about the films he’s talking about or whatever — but he’s looking at some of the work done by filmmakers in later years and feeling that if it can’t live up to the heyday, it would be better if it didn’t exist. And I think that’s a very purist point of view. It’s the point of view of a cinephile who prizes film history.”
Still, Nolan did say of Tarantino’s plan compared to directors who continue to work into their 70s – including the likes of Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese – “The truth is, I understand both points of view… It’s addictive to tell stories in cinema. It’s a lot of hard work, but it’s very fun. It’s something you feel driven to do, and so it’s a little hard to imagine voluntarily stopping.”
As we know, Quentin Tarantino will conclude his career not with Kill Bill Vol. 3 but rather The Movie Critic, set in 1970s Los Angeles, not all that long after the timeline of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Still, that doesn’t mean Tarantino will ride off completely, as he plans to write books and has said he has left the door open to direct television.
Christopher Nolan, meanwhile, is on the brink of Oppenheimer, which opens on July 21st, already earning significant praise as one of his best works. And to think, if Nolan went the Tarantino route, he would have ended his career with Dunkirk… which really wouldn’t have been all that bad considering Tarantino himself named it one of the best films of the decade.
Do you support Tarantino’s decision or should he keep making movies like Nolan?