The Copycat Cinema of Quentin Tarantino
Added 2020-06-10 21:14:14 +0000 UTCYes, we are playing a little bit with a provocative approach on this essay. The idea was to get the conversation going about Appropriation, Homage and Originality in both Cinema and Art.
Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on the subject.
Comments
I've always felt that true originality is more than just stealing from other great artists than it's about drawing inspiration from many different sources. Obviously to make something truly original one has to build upon what other great artists have done before them. I feel the distinction between a bad artist who imitates and a great artist who "steals" really comes from the depth and width of inspiration that one draws from to create their art. The bad artist appears to be imitating because he/she is only drawing from a limited range of work for inspiration. Probably from stuff that is already well known or overused. Whereas the great artist is drawing inspiration from many different sources. Not just the work that's probably within their own genre or medium if you will, but from art across all different types of mediums. They say to be a great filmmaker one shouldn't just watch movies and television, but read books and plays and all forms of storytelling. Also, they should draw from their own experiences in life to give their work a personal touch. In that sense, great art isn't just stealing from others, but eclectically stealing from many different sources and other artists. Looking at it in that way, even though you are just taking from people's work, you are the only one who could have pieced together all those different aspects of others' work to make that particular movie or story, which in a sense makes it truly unique and originally yours. I feel like that is basically what Tarantino and other great filmmakers do, but maybe Tarantino is just less apologetic about it or doesn't feel the need to hide it. Anyways that's my take, and I really liked this video essay. Great work as always!
Connor L O'Neill
2020-06-27 17:23:29 +0000 UTC
