I have a bizarre confession: I’ve been having naughty thoughts about Quentin Tarantino lately. I’ve always liked him in a non-sexual way, always appreciated his eccentric brilliance and his filmmaking genius, but before a few months ago, I had never really thought about him in a sexual way, ever. But lately he’s made my sexual fantasies, and how. Am I crazy for thinking Quentin would be hot in bed?

Okay, back on topic: Quentin participated in a Q&A session in London a few days ago, sponsored by BAFTA. The topic was probably supposed to be about Inglourious Basterds, which continues to pick up a slew of awards and nominations. Recently, Quentin himself picked up some of the big nominations: for Best Director at the Directors Guild of America (a union which he’s always had a difficult relationship with), the Golden Globes, and a slew of critics awards. Unfortunately and oddly, Quentin’s script for Basterds wasn’t given a nomination by the Writers Guild of America, which some are calling a huge upset. Anyway, Quentin was at the Q&A, and he went off on one of his typical Tarantino-esque tangents about how violence in film is great, because “’I feel like a conductor and the audience’s feelings are my instruments. I will be like, ‘laugh, laugh, now be horrified‘. When someone does that to me I’ve had a good time at the movies.” Okay then:

Filmmaker Quentin Tarantino, famous for the bloodshed and high body counts and of his films, says extreme violence is the best way to control a viewer’s emotions.

The man behind Kill Bill, Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs said what he wants to see when he goes to the cinema is a man ‘bleeding like a stuck pig’.

Tarantino, 46, detailed during a speech at the British Academy of Film and Television how he uses gore to ‘play’ his audiences.

‘I feel like a conductor and the audience’s feelings are my instruments,’ he said. ‘I will be like, “laugh, laugh, now be horrified”. When someone does that to me I’ve had a good time at the movies,’ he said.

‘If a guy gets shot in the stomach and he’s bleeding like a stuck pig then that’s what I want to see — not a man with a stomach ache and a little red dot on his belly.’

He also claimed violence was the best thing about film, saying: ‘In general cinema, that’s the biggest attraction. I’m a big fan of action and violence in cinema. That’s why Thomas Edison created the motion picture camera — because violence is so good. It affects audiences in a big way. You know you’re watching a movie.’

The writer and director, who conceived breakthrough film Reservoir Dogs while working in a Los Angeles video store, also revealed that he hopes to one day make a movie in London.

‘I’ve never made a movie in London, I’d love to do that,’ he said. ‘If ever I had the right story that would be a dream to have an excuse to come out here and live here for a while.’
To those who want to following in his blood-spattered footsteps, he said film school was an inferior way to learn the artform to trial and error.

‘That was my film school,’ he said, ‘and it was pretty goddamn cheap. Rather than studying the film industry aspect, just pick up a camera and shoot a movie.’

[From The Daily Mail]

I guess I understand the point he’s trying to make. Something about how the visceral reaction is good for us, and eliciting strong emotions, bad or good, is what makes a great film. But… anyone can horrify. Anyone can shock. I think Quentin is selling himself and his films short if he thinks that his films are great because they’re violent. His films are violent for a reason, within a context, within a good story told well. Oh, and I would love to see Quentin’s take on a British gangster film.

Quentin Tarantino in London for a Q&A session on January 11, 2010, and at the Palm Springs International Film Festival on January 5, 2010. Credit: WENN and Adriana M. Barraza/WENN.com.