Pulp Fiction: Revision Guide
Experimental film (Pulp Fiction)
- Film Form
- Meaning & Response
- Contexts
- Narrative
- Auteur
Link to full documentary -> Quentin Tarantino: The Inspiration for Pulp Fiction: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5KkI_YS4ug
Tarantino as an auteur -> embed context into essay -> link to Tarantino's experimentation with Pulp Fiction
- Dance Scenes: Ironically joyous scenes
- Ensemble Casts: A cast assigned roughly equal amounts of importance and Tarantino's ensembles consists of established actors and lesser known actors
- Fake Product Placements: Makes the film more realistic, an extra trademark for Tarantino
- Long Takes & Tracking Shots: Develops a deeper connection with the characters
- Mexican Stand-Off: Confrontation amongst two or more parties where no strategy exists that allows any party to achieve a victory. Was originated in Sergio Leone's 'The Good, The Bad & The Ugly' (one of QT's favourite films and a key inspiration to him)
- Neo-Noir: A 'dark movie' that involves a sense of something sinister and shadowy but expresses a style of cinematography. Tarantino uses this technique as he inspired by the techniques of crime dramas from the 40's and 50's. The film directors knowingly refer to 'classic noir' in the use of tilted camera angles, interplay of light and shadows, unbalanced framing; blurring of the lines between good and bad and right and wrong, and a motif of revenge, paranoia, and alienation, among other sensibilities.
- Non-linear narrative: Events are portrayed out of chronological order or doesn't follow the direct pattern of the events featured
- Pop Culture: Tarantino uses objects that are dominant or ubiquitous in a society at a given point in time
- Recurring names of characters & references to famous people
- Revenge Plots: Tarantino films often contain a character getting revenge (e.g. Kill Bill, Django)
- Scenes shot in bathrooms, restaurants, cars, involving a phone: Present in most of his films
- Similar Camera Angles & Shots: e.g. close-ups of lips and feet, birds eye shots, POV shots (such as trunk shots which he has used in every movie), the corpse POV shot, mirror shots (reflecting intimacy of being alone)
- Soundtracks: Uses music to shape the characters and plots of the film. Usually uses music from the 60's to the 80's and are used in an ironic sense (e.g. Son of a Preacher Man in Pulp Fiction and the ear cutting scene in Reservoir Dogs)
- The Black & White Suits: Tarantino states these are his characters' suits of armor
- The use of Black & White Scenes: Inspired by his love for classic cinema and French New Wave
- Torture Scenes: Brutal in imagery
Tarantino is clearly an auteur in the sense that he has a vision which emerges in his control of the medium. This ranges from effective collaboration with such actors as Uma Thurman, Tim Roth and Harvey Keitel to his late editor Sally Menke. He writes acts, produces and of course directs and his choice of music as well as his frequent cinematic homages makes his control of the medium intense if not complete. Certainly the themes and style explored in this fact sheet would give strong evidence for his auteur status.
Experimental in challenging
conventional approaches to narrative.
- Knowledge & understanding of specific experimental characteristics of narrative - which will reflect the relevant movement
- Consideration of, (e.g) narrative discontinuity, fragmentation, episodic narratives, playful narratives, multiple narrative strands, simultaneous narratives
- Understanding of how these characteristics differ from more conventional approaches to film narrative
- Consideration of the rationale for narrative experimentation.
- May recognise experimental narratives frequently embody ideological challenge.
Look at:
- Conventional narratives with Hollywood films
- Number of narratives in Pulp Fiction
- Do they individually follow conventional structure?
- Techniques Tarantino employs to ensure audience follow what happens?
- Effect film's structure has on audience?
Pulp Fiction = Postmodern, Genre, New Hollywood
Slick combination of elements that makes for Pulp Fiction as a perfect embodiment of the performance of postmodern style.
By the 1990s the postmodern is fully developed, especially in films that are now seen as cult classics: Pulp Fiction, most famously -> explore & manifest the sense of lost self, of style & surface over any more solid sense of reality -> Like the German expressionist films, marry formal experiment and aesthetic excess to the framework of genre cinema, specifically the gangster genre and its hit-man sub-genre. Very strong auteur signature: Tarantino among the most celebrated exponents of postmodern cinema. Beyond the obvious and quite radical dislocation of plot and story in Pulp Fiction, perhaps it is most useful to concentrate on the approach to the ‘depthless’ character, to character as a pure surface effect of cinema.
Pulp Fiction was the first American Independent film to earn over $100 million at the USA box office and heralded the arrival of Indiewood as a production phenomenon. It won the Palme d’Or and an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, both in 1994
Typical introduction: Pulp Fiction is a 1994 film directed by Quentin Tarantino that challenges conventional approaches to narrative as the film unfolds in a non-linear structure that diverts from the typical Hollywood structure.
Differs drastically from conventional narrative in a Hollywood movie
- Conventional approach to narrative in Hollywood picture has a six-point structure (beginning -> equilibrium -> disruption -> goals -> obstruction -> conclusion) + follows pattern rigorously.
- Tarantino films = non-linear style, believes America tells worst stories = wanted to return story to prominence
- Tarantino deconstructs conventional structure = 3 interrelated stories through 3 main storylines and seven narrative sequences.
- Opening of the film = started midway through the action which differs from the typical Hollywood approach which uses the start of the film to set up the plot = immerse the audience in story and keep them trying to work out how storylines interlink.
- Tarantino's approach differs from conventional narrative/structure of Hollywood films due to the graphic and violent nature of the movie = inspiration from European art film and the French New Wave; Tarantino's influences inspires him to use similar approaches to these directors rather than sticking to the tried and tested Hollywood formula = non-linear style challenges conventional approaches to narrative as complete freedom to tell story he wants to tell in the way he wants = allows story to closely resonate with the audience
- Three narratives in the film follow a conventional structure as Tarantino presents how these scenes start, reach an obstacle and work to defeat the obstacle with a conclusion at the end of each narrative.
- Seen in final narrative (Jules and Vincent clear up mess of apartment + accidental shooting of Brett's associate, as well as stopping the robbery at the diner.) -> All successfully sorted out by conclusion of this act & concludes with them leaving the diner after they have sorted out these situations = depicts that the individual acts of Pulp Fiction do follow a conventional structure.
- However Tarantino's use of non-linear storytelling/three different stories mean despite individual acts following a conventional structure, when the film is a whole, challenges conventional approaches to narrative as Tarantino's repeats the process of the typical Hollywood act multiple times & plays around with the technique through the non-linear sequencing.
- Auteur trait = uses most effective technique to get most out of audiences.
- Effect structure has on the audience is significant = individual acts keep them drawn in as intrigued to see how situations play out, whereas once the film is put together this makes the audience appreciate the film significantly more as the use of a non-linear approach allows audience to arrive at unexpected conclusions.
- Approach effective for audience as allows pace to remain constant and audience connect with film through storytelling as approach allows him to demonstrate depth of the characters and make a compelling story that enthrals the audience.
- Tarantino employs many techniques to assure audience able to follow what happens.
- Use of flashbacks = important as allows audience to remember what occurred in key scenes of the film + why these scenes are important in shaping the plot of the film = use of flashbacks differs to the conventional approach in Hollywood as leaves audience unaware of how film will progress & doesn't give audience answers until later on
- Draws audience's attention through suitcase = MacGuffin, depicts audience's focus on what's inside suitcase = no relevance to plot = Pulp Fiction's structural approach deceives viewer into importance of certain objects.
- Tarantino ensures audience's attention through themes, e.g. representation of gender. Mia allows Vincent into her house; Tarantino conveys Mia has control through her actions as she's smoking (seen as 'masculine'/powerful quality) + she has view from the camera looking down on Vincent so she's in control of how footage plays out. Tarantino gives control to the female character who controls the male character as a puppet-like figure. Challenges conventional approaches to narrative as female character takes control over vulnerable male figures + links to Tarantino's auteur approach of the power of the female character (as seen in Jackie Brown and Kill Bill).
- Pulp Fiction challenges conventional approaches to narrative to a large extent = draws on influences and love of films to make different and original movies compared to the mainstream Hollywood flicks
- Fragmented narrative + content & themes included in film= extremely experimental film, stood out from crowd due to film's unique features.
- Tarantino's approach to the structure more effective than if it was to follow a conventional Hollywood approach as story would have turned into a typical action film.
- Tarantino is inspired by the works of Jean Luc-Godard who states all films 'every movie needs a beginning, a middle and an end, but not necessarily in that order' and Tarantino uses this concept to his advantage.
Racial
- Use of the n-word throughout the film -> controversial, Spike Lee (racial activist, highly critical of Tarantino)
- Positive outlook on race
- Final scene: 1 black character in the scene -> peacemaker/hero, white guy is the bad gut (held the place up) -> goes against the stereotypes at the time/film history -> Jules is the one with common sense to change himself
- However Alan Stone in his 1995 review in the Boston Review reads the film as ‘politically correct’: “There is no nudity and no violence directed against women.... [It] celebrates interracial friendship and cultural diversity; there are strong women and strong black men, and the director swims against the current of class stereotype.”
Gender: (28 minutes to 31 minutes)
- Key element: Sound - Diegetic - Son of a preacher man (Dusty Springfield) -> sexual element -> ironic, song juxtaposes what's occurring in the actual scene (drugs/alcohol etc), however Travolta's black & white clothes show hint of holy element -> auteur trait
- Mia's voice - intercom -> Sound creates a seductive/sexual element, representing the female as mysterious -> assertive & sure of herself -> camera builds on that
- Sound: Sexual + Mysterious combination = powerful
- Camera movements: Travolta is looking around -> lost, not in control, also shown by the way he holds himself (performance) -> walking in sheepish. Thurman -> powerful, smoking (seen as a 'masculine' thing and powerful, weak women wouldn't smoke, film noir, moves 'out of the shadows/smoke', plays on motion of femme fatale without evil motive) -> she has a view of everything/moving the camera/looking down on him, 'directs the scene'/how the footage plays out, Tarantino gives control to the female character (can link to auteur, aka Kill Bill/Jackie Brown), controlling him 'like a puppet'.
- Sexual connotations shown through camera as well
- Flashes of light at start of this scene: connotes back to mysterious suitcase, shows Mia as being suspicious
- Male representation: Vulnerable but trying to show masculinity/keep control, heroin puts him into a 'dreamlike' state -> shows nerves, paints them in a shady light, can go kill someone but becomes a trembling mess when he has to take Mia out (Performance), women such as the painting even looking down on him.
The rise of the auteur: while some filmmakers enjoyed great creative control over their films going back to the 1920s and indeed before, it is only from the 1960s that the director becomes a ‘star’ – his or her ‘signature’ actively promoted as a mark of quality.
New waves: throughout this period different rebellions occurred against the conventional style, form and mode of production of commercial mainstream films. Films within a particular new wave vary wildly, for example, Truffaut’s French New Wave films and Godard’s French New Wave films have little in common beyond a shared spirit of youthful opposition to established commercial filmmaking practice. Other new waves were strongly influenced by the French example but often in no easily identifiable or particularly similar ways to one another over the next three decades.
Postmodernism: in the post WW2 period a loss of faith in modernity became more pronounced, especially after the 1960s. This manifested itself in a range of different ways including irony and cynicism. By the 1990s we were, to quote a phrase “playing among the ruins” of modernity – with the emphasis very much on playfulness: mixing genres, collapsing differences between categories and, most importantly, this representing a collapse of confidence in ‘reality’. The very same constructivism that drove modernity in silent cinema period now became the centre of a destabilising self-awareness of the constructed and therefore endlessly provisional nature of ‘reality’.
- The film’s most post-modern trait (aside from irony, homage, intertextuality and selfreferencing) is a narrative playfulness. The narrative can at best be described as episodic and circular.
Opening Scene:
Performance
- In the car & when walking to the door: casual conversation
- Tarantino's use of dialogue: actions drives film/plot-line forwards and dialogue is what we do everyday
- Differs to typical hitman -> know what they are because of outfits
- Conversation = job is normality
Sound - Diegetic/Non-Diegetic
- Tarantino elevates sound to the level of a character
- Credits: purpose to get audience to revel in the music, whole purpose of the sequence is the sound, sets a mood for the audience; gets them excited. At the end, radio flickers. Does this through all his films, auteur trait. Sound playing in background throughout scene. Differs to Hollywood films which uses music to compliment the film whereas Tarantino uses music as a key component, non-diegetic fade in to diegetic to emphasise as a character.
Scene at 27 minutes in:
Editing
- Two very different things going on; montage of injecting with heroin (slow-motion, adds element of hallucination/dream-like sensation, almost glamorous, fake background/nothing behind him when driving which adds to dream-like effect, at that moment in time Vincent ain't with us mentally)
How far cinematography contributes to the 'experimental' identity of your film.
- Knowledge & understanding of specific characteristics of cinematography - which will reflect the relevant movement (e.g. European avant-garde, new wave, postmodernism, digital experimentation)
- Discussion of key and distinctive aspects of the film’s cinematography, likely to include camera movement (e.g. use of tracking and dolly shots and handheld camera, depth of field and framing.)
- Role of cinematography in creating the film's experimental identity in contrast to other potentially experimental aspects of the chosen film, for example editing and sound.
- May put into context the experimental identity of the chosen film and consider how far it is ideological.
Opening Scene:
Cinematography / Camera Angles
- Changed from two-shot to close-up, taking control of the conversation
- Camera stops when they early
- Centre of camera = shows their composure
- Jules is above the camera
- Uses practical/natural lights -> gives it the sense of realism
- 06:47: Vincent (John Travolta) and Jules (Samuel L. Jackson) in a deep-focus, two-shot, close up. As in the diner sequence that precedes this scene the dialogue is rambling and inflected with cultural references ‘the little differences’ between Europe and the USA: hash is legal in Amsterdam (where Tarantino wrote the screenplay) where one can also buy beer in movie theatres. McDonalds and Burger King also get namechecked. The conversation continues to the next scene as they walk to do ‘a hit’ this time revolving around firstly the nature of TV Pilot shows and secondly the etiquette of giving foot massages. Their sharp suits look similar to the suits worn by the key protagonist in Tarantino’s first feature, Reservoir Dogs and have a retro 60s styling not unlike the choice of music Tarantino used to score the film.
• O8: 45 : The now classic ‘boot/trunk shot’. Tarantino didn’t invent this low angle shot but popularised it and has used it in a number of his films. The film has many low angle shots although this is the most extreme example.
• 20:22 & 22:23: Our first close-up of the film’s star Bruce Willis – playing a fading boxer, Butch. He is being spoken to by Marsellus Wallace (off-screen) who is telling him to take a dive in a fight. Butch barely says a word and Tarantino holds the shot for 2 minutes before cutting to a wider over-the-shouldershot. Tarantino lets the script direct rather than following the conventional mechanics of shot-reverse-shot. The effect is to create an unsettling intensity and build characterisation
Key Scenes Analysis: (notes from Eduqas)
00:27 – The opening shot
• Two small-time criminal lovers (Pumpkin – Steve Roth and Honey Bunny – Amanda Plummer) chat about the etiquette of robbery at length in a characteristic dialogue heavy scene (largely shot as a low angle two shot) before they hold up the diner they’re eating in. Aside from establishing Tarantino’s novel approach to screenwriting (holding scenes for a long time and building rich characterisations - even for antagonists through whimsical dialogue) we also see the germination of characters (two psychotic lovers) later developed in Tarantino’s story material for Oliver Stone’s Natural Born Killers (1995) – itself a classic example of post-modern film. Honey Bunny’s transformation into a horrifically violent robber is immortalised in her words – “If any of you fucking pricks move… I’ll execute every mother-fucking last one of you.” The image then freeze frames and the iconic music that intros Pulp Fiction from Dick Dale and the Del Tones (a 60s surf rock guitarist) runs over the intentionally ‘pulp styled’ titles.
02:23:15 to 02:23:30 – The end shot
• Vincent and Jules leave the diner having sent Honey Bunny and Pumpkin packing. The film cuts as they comically exit the building – dressed in their borrowed summer clothes (definitely not in character), walking in unison like a comic duo and holstering their guns in their short waistbands. It seems like every criminal in the diner (as in the film as a whole) failed to fulfil stereotypical expectations.
Mise-en-Scène
• Vincent opens the enigmatic briefcase, the property of his gangster boss Marsellus Wallace. We never see what is in the case and only the golden glow on Vincent’s face and his awe suggest it contains a real prize.
• The faux restaurant – Jack Rabbit’s Slim – is full of movie and music references: the Douglas Sirk steak, Marilyn Monroe and Buddy Holly waiting staff, film posters on the wall. The dance scene that follows between Vincent and Mia is a homage to a dance scene in Goddard’s movie Band a part (1964) which is also the name of Tarantino’s production company – A Band Apart (1991 – 2006).
Editing
• 29:00 :The ‘cooking–up’ montage where Vincent gets high, floating, as if in a dream, against poor back projection.
• A graphic ECU of a hypodermic contrasts with the surrealism of the driving. (29:31 – 29:34)
• 33:04: Mia draws a post-modern square on the screen as she tells Vincent not to be square.
Sound
• The music. There is real retro feel to Tarantino’s choice of music something he had already pioneered in Reservoir Dogs. The music also embellishes character rather than merely driving the narrative.
• The tendency to hold shots and do long-takes mean songs can be played for the duration or at least for much longer than the snippets heard in many conventional Hollywood films. Sometimes the music is diegetic as when we first meet Mia Wallace (shown only through her lips, feet and hands and heard on an intercom) a song is playing diegetically, stopping when she takes the needle off the record and later, after Mia and Vincent return from their night out, Mia puts on a tape recording of yet more diegetic music.
Aesthetics:
The film opens (00:14) with a definition of the term ‘pulp’ from the American Heritage Dictionary, New College Edition. The two definitions are: “1. A soft, moist, shapeless mass of matter and 2. A magazine or book containing lurid subject matter …” Tarantino arguably achieved the first definition with his narrative structuring of the film and the latter with his thematic exploration of the seamier side of L.A. life. Indeed an interest in ‘noir’ themes permeate many of his films.
• As a one-time Video store worker and selfconfessed cinephile, Tarantino’s influences range from golden age Hollywood films to cult art cinema and B-movies from around the world. Toilets are a motif as are guns and drugs and suits. Dialogue motivates many of the scenes and low angle camerawork, long low tracks all feature heavily
Post-Modernism:
- James Woods in The Guardian scathingly noted: “Tarantino represents the final triumph of postmodernism, which is to empty the artwork of all content, thus avoiding its capacity to do anything except helplessly represent our agonies.... Only in this age could a writer as talented as Tarantino produce artworks so vacuous, so entirely stripped of any politics, metaphysics, or moral interest.” (November 12th 1994) At first glance Woods seems correct and there are few Historical/Social/Political insights that can be gleaned from the film other than its prominent position as a leading example of classic post-modern filmmaking… and that is more than enough! Post-modernism is a tricky concept but Tarantino’s take on it certainly fits the profile: ironic, intertextual, self-referential, full of homage and pastiche, playful and stylish. All style and no substance.
• However on reflection Tarantino is more subversive. He doesn’t just break the rules of genre but he humanizes genre – and so he shows that the rules for cinematically representing and classifying people are at best inept. Tarantino’s ability to humanize stock characters like Vincent and Jules is important for this very reason as, no matter how amoral they are, we find ourselves empathizing with them. And generic convention too, with its comforting narrative arcs and neat resolutions, is something Tarantino also challenges – thus Vincent dies an inglorious death and Marvin is shot by accident in the car and Jules has a religious epiphany.
• Tarantino’s famous set pieces also subvert convention and unsettle the comfy moral universe of genre films, but to argue that they are merely style over substance is to miss the point. Tarantino’s humanist irony is a moral position by which to view the world where the old structures no longer apply but where moral outcomes are still achievable. So, for example in Pulp Fiction, (as in more recently Inglorious Basterds and Django Unchained) Jules becomes the good shepherd rather than the avenging angel; Vincent saves Mia’s life; Butch outwits Marsellus and runs off with Fabienne; Marsellus ‘gets medieval’ on the sadistic rednecks and Butch retains his father’s gold watch. All ‘happy endings’ by most standards.
• Amable and laconic Vincent is however less fortunate and his fate suggests further room for analysis. Peter and Will Brooker note, “In three significant moments Vincent retires to the bathroom [and] returns to an utterly changed world where death is threatened.” The threat increases as the narrative progresses chronologically leading to his death. The Brookers’ analysis continues, “Through Vince . . . we see the contemporary world as utterly contingent, transformed, disastrously, in the instant you are not looking.”
• It is perhaps in the area of ‘influence’ and enduring cultural resonance that Tarantino has had the most impact. His films haven’t changed the moral or political landscape but they have certainly contributed to film culture. Phil Hoad in The Guardian (15th January 2013) asked this very question ‘Is Quentin Tarantino the World’s most influential director?’ They went on to cite the Collins Dictionary that had then defined the adjective ‘Tarantinoesque’ as referring to or reminiscent of the violence and wit of Tarantino’s films. His influence remains and according to the article above can be found in “any lippy thriller featuring pop culture-fried dialogue and flip violence.”
Institutional:
- The film was originally the property of Columbia Tristar but fell out of favour while still in the development stage. The film was then picked up by Miramax – then a leading independent distributor. Pulp Fiction was the first major production of Miramax once they had been bought by Disney in 1993 for $60 million). Bruce Willis signing onto the picture guaranteed good overseas sales due to his waning but still potent star status meaning the picture soon went into profit.
- Film Form
- Meaning & Response
- Contexts
- Narrative
- Auteur
Link to full documentary -> Quentin Tarantino: The Inspiration for Pulp Fiction: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5KkI_YS4ug
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejlRORZWui8&t=2s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0i1OVdpeTg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0i1OVdpeTg
Tarantino as an auteur -> embed context into essay -> link to Tarantino's experimentation with Pulp Fiction
Notes on Tarantino:
- Loved movies from a young age, had an early inspiration. Originally wanted to be an actor, wanted to quit school & become an actor at 16
- At 22, got a job at Video Archives, a famous video store
- Worked on his first film whilst working at the video store, used the money he got from his job to fund this. Was amateur but his version of a 'film school', learnt new skills & techniques
- Used to be that Europe was character-mood based film & America told the story but now believes America tell the worst stories -> prefers film that unfold in a non-linear style
- Doesn't consider himself as a writer, considers himself as a filmmaker
- Prefers to write his own stuff -> more personal, his own idea
- Works in the crime genre: got a kick out of it
- Harvey Keitel, Lawrence Bender (producer), Marty?, Richard Gladstein (executive producer) helped get Reservoir Dogs made, the latter took a chance on Tarantino cos of the script
Tarantino's influences:
- Inspired by crime genre: 30's, 40's, stuff from the 70's, Elmore Leonnard -> inspired True Romance and helped Tarantino to figure out his style, one of the first ever writers Tarantino ever read that wrote mundane conversations that informed info about the characters
- Inspired by European art film and blaxploitation/american exploitation films and French new wave (Godard, Truffant etc)
- In his 20's, inspired by Brian De Palma, would read all his interviews/reviews of his film, would make sure to see first showings & take in the story. Would watch multiple times in the cinema to see how he did it. 'Greatest satirist of the last 20 years'.
- Would be interested in studying the evolution of careers of a filmmaker, also interested in comparing their films and seeing where they stopped caring about filmmaking & start doing star-vehicles after a personal film fails.
- Inspired by Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorcese ('daring', 'always been a big influence'), Howard Hawks ('the single greatest storyteller in the history of cinema', 'single most entertaining filmmaker in the history of cinema', only had 1 disappointing movie), Sam Fuller ('one of the greatest wildmen? of cinema' 'king of making war films'), Sergio Leone (because of the Spaghetti Westerns, inspired him to become a filmmaker, his films are 'so stylised'), Jean Luc-Godard ('his inventiveness, breaking the rules, commenting on cinema whilst you are watching cinema), Jean-Pierre-Melville (did a series of crime series,'take a genre that's well known but do it with a whole different style & perspective & reinvent the genre' -> applies to Leone as well)
Tarantino's auteur traits:
- Non-linear style: 'novels have a complete freedom to tell their stories any way they saw fit' -> what Tarantino tries to do with movies. 'can be more resonant telling it this way'. Keeps the audience on the edge of the seat.
- Aestheticisation of Violence: Images and descriptions of violence a key component of the film in a 'stylistically excessive' and a 'significant and sustained way' where the audience connect to genre conventions- Dance Scenes: Ironically joyous scenes
- Ensemble Casts: A cast assigned roughly equal amounts of importance and Tarantino's ensembles consists of established actors and lesser known actors
- Fake Product Placements: Makes the film more realistic, an extra trademark for Tarantino
- Long Takes & Tracking Shots: Develops a deeper connection with the characters
- Mexican Stand-Off: Confrontation amongst two or more parties where no strategy exists that allows any party to achieve a victory. Was originated in Sergio Leone's 'The Good, The Bad & The Ugly' (one of QT's favourite films and a key inspiration to him)
- Neo-Noir: A 'dark movie' that involves a sense of something sinister and shadowy but expresses a style of cinematography. Tarantino uses this technique as he inspired by the techniques of crime dramas from the 40's and 50's. The film directors knowingly refer to 'classic noir' in the use of tilted camera angles, interplay of light and shadows, unbalanced framing; blurring of the lines between good and bad and right and wrong, and a motif of revenge, paranoia, and alienation, among other sensibilities.
- Non-linear narrative: Events are portrayed out of chronological order or doesn't follow the direct pattern of the events featured
- Pop Culture: Tarantino uses objects that are dominant or ubiquitous in a society at a given point in time
- Recurring names of characters & references to famous people
- Revenge Plots: Tarantino films often contain a character getting revenge (e.g. Kill Bill, Django)
- Scenes shot in bathrooms, restaurants, cars, involving a phone: Present in most of his films
- Similar Camera Angles & Shots: e.g. close-ups of lips and feet, birds eye shots, POV shots (such as trunk shots which he has used in every movie), the corpse POV shot, mirror shots (reflecting intimacy of being alone)
- Soundtracks: Uses music to shape the characters and plots of the film. Usually uses music from the 60's to the 80's and are used in an ironic sense (e.g. Son of a Preacher Man in Pulp Fiction and the ear cutting scene in Reservoir Dogs)
- The Black & White Suits: Tarantino states these are his characters' suits of armor
- The use of Black & White Scenes: Inspired by his love for classic cinema and French New Wave
- Torture Scenes: Brutal in imagery
Tarantino is clearly an auteur in the sense that he has a vision which emerges in his control of the medium. This ranges from effective collaboration with such actors as Uma Thurman, Tim Roth and Harvey Keitel to his late editor Sally Menke. He writes acts, produces and of course directs and his choice of music as well as his frequent cinematic homages makes his control of the medium intense if not complete. Certainly the themes and style explored in this fact sheet would give strong evidence for his auteur status.
- Knowledge & understanding of specific experimental characteristics of narrative - which will reflect the relevant movement
- Consideration of, (e.g) narrative discontinuity, fragmentation, episodic narratives, playful narratives, multiple narrative strands, simultaneous narratives
- Understanding of how these characteristics differ from more conventional approaches to film narrative
- Consideration of the rationale for narrative experimentation.
- May recognise experimental narratives frequently embody ideological challenge.
Look at:
- Conventional narratives with Hollywood films
- Number of narratives in Pulp Fiction
- Do they individually follow conventional structure?
- Techniques Tarantino employs to ensure audience follow what happens?
- Effect film's structure has on audience?
Pulp Fiction = Postmodern, Genre, New Hollywood
Slick combination of elements that makes for Pulp Fiction as a perfect embodiment of the performance of postmodern style.
By the 1990s the postmodern is fully developed, especially in films that are now seen as cult classics: Pulp Fiction, most famously -> explore & manifest the sense of lost self, of style & surface over any more solid sense of reality -> Like the German expressionist films, marry formal experiment and aesthetic excess to the framework of genre cinema, specifically the gangster genre and its hit-man sub-genre. Very strong auteur signature: Tarantino among the most celebrated exponents of postmodern cinema. Beyond the obvious and quite radical dislocation of plot and story in Pulp Fiction, perhaps it is most useful to concentrate on the approach to the ‘depthless’ character, to character as a pure surface effect of cinema.
Pulp Fiction was the first American Independent film to earn over $100 million at the USA box office and heralded the arrival of Indiewood as a production phenomenon. It won the Palme d’Or and an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, both in 1994
Typical introduction: Pulp Fiction is a 1994 film directed by Quentin Tarantino that challenges conventional approaches to narrative as the film unfolds in a non-linear structure that diverts from the typical Hollywood structure.
Differs drastically from conventional narrative in a Hollywood movie
- Conventional approach to narrative in Hollywood picture has a six-point structure (beginning -> equilibrium -> disruption -> goals -> obstruction -> conclusion) + follows pattern rigorously.
- Tarantino films = non-linear style, believes America tells worst stories = wanted to return story to prominence
- Tarantino deconstructs conventional structure = 3 interrelated stories through 3 main storylines and seven narrative sequences.
- Opening of the film = started midway through the action which differs from the typical Hollywood approach which uses the start of the film to set up the plot = immerse the audience in story and keep them trying to work out how storylines interlink.
- Tarantino's approach differs from conventional narrative/structure of Hollywood films due to the graphic and violent nature of the movie = inspiration from European art film and the French New Wave; Tarantino's influences inspires him to use similar approaches to these directors rather than sticking to the tried and tested Hollywood formula = non-linear style challenges conventional approaches to narrative as complete freedom to tell story he wants to tell in the way he wants = allows story to closely resonate with the audience
- Three narratives in the film follow a conventional structure as Tarantino presents how these scenes start, reach an obstacle and work to defeat the obstacle with a conclusion at the end of each narrative.
- Seen in final narrative (Jules and Vincent clear up mess of apartment + accidental shooting of Brett's associate, as well as stopping the robbery at the diner.) -> All successfully sorted out by conclusion of this act & concludes with them leaving the diner after they have sorted out these situations = depicts that the individual acts of Pulp Fiction do follow a conventional structure.
- However Tarantino's use of non-linear storytelling/three different stories mean despite individual acts following a conventional structure, when the film is a whole, challenges conventional approaches to narrative as Tarantino's repeats the process of the typical Hollywood act multiple times & plays around with the technique through the non-linear sequencing.
- Auteur trait = uses most effective technique to get most out of audiences.
- Effect structure has on the audience is significant = individual acts keep them drawn in as intrigued to see how situations play out, whereas once the film is put together this makes the audience appreciate the film significantly more as the use of a non-linear approach allows audience to arrive at unexpected conclusions.
- Approach effective for audience as allows pace to remain constant and audience connect with film through storytelling as approach allows him to demonstrate depth of the characters and make a compelling story that enthrals the audience.
- Tarantino employs many techniques to assure audience able to follow what happens.
- Use of flashbacks = important as allows audience to remember what occurred in key scenes of the film + why these scenes are important in shaping the plot of the film = use of flashbacks differs to the conventional approach in Hollywood as leaves audience unaware of how film will progress & doesn't give audience answers until later on
- Draws audience's attention through suitcase = MacGuffin, depicts audience's focus on what's inside suitcase = no relevance to plot = Pulp Fiction's structural approach deceives viewer into importance of certain objects.
- Tarantino ensures audience's attention through themes, e.g. representation of gender. Mia allows Vincent into her house; Tarantino conveys Mia has control through her actions as she's smoking (seen as 'masculine'/powerful quality) + she has view from the camera looking down on Vincent so she's in control of how footage plays out. Tarantino gives control to the female character who controls the male character as a puppet-like figure. Challenges conventional approaches to narrative as female character takes control over vulnerable male figures + links to Tarantino's auteur approach of the power of the female character (as seen in Jackie Brown and Kill Bill).
- Pulp Fiction challenges conventional approaches to narrative to a large extent = draws on influences and love of films to make different and original movies compared to the mainstream Hollywood flicks
- Fragmented narrative + content & themes included in film= extremely experimental film, stood out from crowd due to film's unique features.
- Tarantino's approach to the structure more effective than if it was to follow a conventional Hollywood approach as story would have turned into a typical action film.
- Tarantino is inspired by the works of Jean Luc-Godard who states all films 'every movie needs a beginning, a middle and an end, but not necessarily in that order' and Tarantino uses this concept to his advantage.
Racial
- Use of the n-word throughout the film -> controversial, Spike Lee (racial activist, highly critical of Tarantino)
- Positive outlook on race
- Final scene: 1 black character in the scene -> peacemaker/hero, white guy is the bad gut (held the place up) -> goes against the stereotypes at the time/film history -> Jules is the one with common sense to change himself
- However Alan Stone in his 1995 review in the Boston Review reads the film as ‘politically correct’: “There is no nudity and no violence directed against women.... [It] celebrates interracial friendship and cultural diversity; there are strong women and strong black men, and the director swims against the current of class stereotype.”
Gender: (28 minutes to 31 minutes)
- Key element: Sound - Diegetic - Son of a preacher man (Dusty Springfield) -> sexual element -> ironic, song juxtaposes what's occurring in the actual scene (drugs/alcohol etc), however Travolta's black & white clothes show hint of holy element -> auteur trait
- Mia's voice - intercom -> Sound creates a seductive/sexual element, representing the female as mysterious -> assertive & sure of herself -> camera builds on that
- Sound: Sexual + Mysterious combination = powerful
- Camera movements: Travolta is looking around -> lost, not in control, also shown by the way he holds himself (performance) -> walking in sheepish. Thurman -> powerful, smoking (seen as a 'masculine' thing and powerful, weak women wouldn't smoke, film noir, moves 'out of the shadows/smoke', plays on motion of femme fatale without evil motive) -> she has a view of everything/moving the camera/looking down on him, 'directs the scene'/how the footage plays out, Tarantino gives control to the female character (can link to auteur, aka Kill Bill/Jackie Brown), controlling him 'like a puppet'.
- Sexual connotations shown through camera as well
- Flashes of light at start of this scene: connotes back to mysterious suitcase, shows Mia as being suspicious
- Male representation: Vulnerable but trying to show masculinity/keep control, heroin puts him into a 'dreamlike' state -> shows nerves, paints them in a shady light, can go kill someone but becomes a trembling mess when he has to take Mia out (Performance), women such as the painting even looking down on him.
The rise of the auteur: while some filmmakers enjoyed great creative control over their films going back to the 1920s and indeed before, it is only from the 1960s that the director becomes a ‘star’ – his or her ‘signature’ actively promoted as a mark of quality.
New waves: throughout this period different rebellions occurred against the conventional style, form and mode of production of commercial mainstream films. Films within a particular new wave vary wildly, for example, Truffaut’s French New Wave films and Godard’s French New Wave films have little in common beyond a shared spirit of youthful opposition to established commercial filmmaking practice. Other new waves were strongly influenced by the French example but often in no easily identifiable or particularly similar ways to one another over the next three decades.
Postmodernism: in the post WW2 period a loss of faith in modernity became more pronounced, especially after the 1960s. This manifested itself in a range of different ways including irony and cynicism. By the 1990s we were, to quote a phrase “playing among the ruins” of modernity – with the emphasis very much on playfulness: mixing genres, collapsing differences between categories and, most importantly, this representing a collapse of confidence in ‘reality’. The very same constructivism that drove modernity in silent cinema period now became the centre of a destabilising self-awareness of the constructed and therefore endlessly provisional nature of ‘reality’.
- The film’s most post-modern trait (aside from irony, homage, intertextuality and selfreferencing) is a narrative playfulness. The narrative can at best be described as episodic and circular.
Opening Scene:
Performance
- In the car & when walking to the door: casual conversation
- Tarantino's use of dialogue: actions drives film/plot-line forwards and dialogue is what we do everyday
- Differs to typical hitman -> know what they are because of outfits
- Conversation = job is normality
Sound - Diegetic/Non-Diegetic
- Tarantino elevates sound to the level of a character
- Credits: purpose to get audience to revel in the music, whole purpose of the sequence is the sound, sets a mood for the audience; gets them excited. At the end, radio flickers. Does this through all his films, auteur trait. Sound playing in background throughout scene. Differs to Hollywood films which uses music to compliment the film whereas Tarantino uses music as a key component, non-diegetic fade in to diegetic to emphasise as a character.
Scene at 27 minutes in:
Editing
- Two very different things going on; montage of injecting with heroin (slow-motion, adds element of hallucination/dream-like sensation, almost glamorous, fake background/nothing behind him when driving which adds to dream-like effect, at that moment in time Vincent ain't with us mentally)
How far cinematography contributes to the 'experimental' identity of your film.
- Knowledge & understanding of specific characteristics of cinematography - which will reflect the relevant movement (e.g. European avant-garde, new wave, postmodernism, digital experimentation)
- Discussion of key and distinctive aspects of the film’s cinematography, likely to include camera movement (e.g. use of tracking and dolly shots and handheld camera, depth of field and framing.)
- Role of cinematography in creating the film's experimental identity in contrast to other potentially experimental aspects of the chosen film, for example editing and sound.
- May put into context the experimental identity of the chosen film and consider how far it is ideological.
Opening Scene:
Cinematography / Camera Angles
- Changed from two-shot to close-up, taking control of the conversation
- Camera stops when they early
- Centre of camera = shows their composure
- Jules is above the camera
- Uses practical/natural lights -> gives it the sense of realism
- 06:47: Vincent (John Travolta) and Jules (Samuel L. Jackson) in a deep-focus, two-shot, close up. As in the diner sequence that precedes this scene the dialogue is rambling and inflected with cultural references ‘the little differences’ between Europe and the USA: hash is legal in Amsterdam (where Tarantino wrote the screenplay) where one can also buy beer in movie theatres. McDonalds and Burger King also get namechecked. The conversation continues to the next scene as they walk to do ‘a hit’ this time revolving around firstly the nature of TV Pilot shows and secondly the etiquette of giving foot massages. Their sharp suits look similar to the suits worn by the key protagonist in Tarantino’s first feature, Reservoir Dogs and have a retro 60s styling not unlike the choice of music Tarantino used to score the film.
• O8: 45 : The now classic ‘boot/trunk shot’. Tarantino didn’t invent this low angle shot but popularised it and has used it in a number of his films. The film has many low angle shots although this is the most extreme example.
• 20:22 & 22:23: Our first close-up of the film’s star Bruce Willis – playing a fading boxer, Butch. He is being spoken to by Marsellus Wallace (off-screen) who is telling him to take a dive in a fight. Butch barely says a word and Tarantino holds the shot for 2 minutes before cutting to a wider over-the-shouldershot. Tarantino lets the script direct rather than following the conventional mechanics of shot-reverse-shot. The effect is to create an unsettling intensity and build characterisation
Key Scenes Analysis: (notes from Eduqas)
00:27 – The opening shot
• Two small-time criminal lovers (Pumpkin – Steve Roth and Honey Bunny – Amanda Plummer) chat about the etiquette of robbery at length in a characteristic dialogue heavy scene (largely shot as a low angle two shot) before they hold up the diner they’re eating in. Aside from establishing Tarantino’s novel approach to screenwriting (holding scenes for a long time and building rich characterisations - even for antagonists through whimsical dialogue) we also see the germination of characters (two psychotic lovers) later developed in Tarantino’s story material for Oliver Stone’s Natural Born Killers (1995) – itself a classic example of post-modern film. Honey Bunny’s transformation into a horrifically violent robber is immortalised in her words – “If any of you fucking pricks move… I’ll execute every mother-fucking last one of you.” The image then freeze frames and the iconic music that intros Pulp Fiction from Dick Dale and the Del Tones (a 60s surf rock guitarist) runs over the intentionally ‘pulp styled’ titles.
02:23:15 to 02:23:30 – The end shot
• Vincent and Jules leave the diner having sent Honey Bunny and Pumpkin packing. The film cuts as they comically exit the building – dressed in their borrowed summer clothes (definitely not in character), walking in unison like a comic duo and holstering their guns in their short waistbands. It seems like every criminal in the diner (as in the film as a whole) failed to fulfil stereotypical expectations.
Mise-en-Scène
• Vincent opens the enigmatic briefcase, the property of his gangster boss Marsellus Wallace. We never see what is in the case and only the golden glow on Vincent’s face and his awe suggest it contains a real prize.
• The faux restaurant – Jack Rabbit’s Slim – is full of movie and music references: the Douglas Sirk steak, Marilyn Monroe and Buddy Holly waiting staff, film posters on the wall. The dance scene that follows between Vincent and Mia is a homage to a dance scene in Goddard’s movie Band a part (1964) which is also the name of Tarantino’s production company – A Band Apart (1991 – 2006).
Editing
• 29:00 :The ‘cooking–up’ montage where Vincent gets high, floating, as if in a dream, against poor back projection.
• A graphic ECU of a hypodermic contrasts with the surrealism of the driving. (29:31 – 29:34)
• 33:04: Mia draws a post-modern square on the screen as she tells Vincent not to be square.
Sound
• The music. There is real retro feel to Tarantino’s choice of music something he had already pioneered in Reservoir Dogs. The music also embellishes character rather than merely driving the narrative.
• The tendency to hold shots and do long-takes mean songs can be played for the duration or at least for much longer than the snippets heard in many conventional Hollywood films. Sometimes the music is diegetic as when we first meet Mia Wallace (shown only through her lips, feet and hands and heard on an intercom) a song is playing diegetically, stopping when she takes the needle off the record and later, after Mia and Vincent return from their night out, Mia puts on a tape recording of yet more diegetic music.
Aesthetics:
The film opens (00:14) with a definition of the term ‘pulp’ from the American Heritage Dictionary, New College Edition. The two definitions are: “1. A soft, moist, shapeless mass of matter and 2. A magazine or book containing lurid subject matter …” Tarantino arguably achieved the first definition with his narrative structuring of the film and the latter with his thematic exploration of the seamier side of L.A. life. Indeed an interest in ‘noir’ themes permeate many of his films.
• As a one-time Video store worker and selfconfessed cinephile, Tarantino’s influences range from golden age Hollywood films to cult art cinema and B-movies from around the world. Toilets are a motif as are guns and drugs and suits. Dialogue motivates many of the scenes and low angle camerawork, long low tracks all feature heavily
Post-Modernism:
- James Woods in The Guardian scathingly noted: “Tarantino represents the final triumph of postmodernism, which is to empty the artwork of all content, thus avoiding its capacity to do anything except helplessly represent our agonies.... Only in this age could a writer as talented as Tarantino produce artworks so vacuous, so entirely stripped of any politics, metaphysics, or moral interest.” (November 12th 1994) At first glance Woods seems correct and there are few Historical/Social/Political insights that can be gleaned from the film other than its prominent position as a leading example of classic post-modern filmmaking… and that is more than enough! Post-modernism is a tricky concept but Tarantino’s take on it certainly fits the profile: ironic, intertextual, self-referential, full of homage and pastiche, playful and stylish. All style and no substance.
• However on reflection Tarantino is more subversive. He doesn’t just break the rules of genre but he humanizes genre – and so he shows that the rules for cinematically representing and classifying people are at best inept. Tarantino’s ability to humanize stock characters like Vincent and Jules is important for this very reason as, no matter how amoral they are, we find ourselves empathizing with them. And generic convention too, with its comforting narrative arcs and neat resolutions, is something Tarantino also challenges – thus Vincent dies an inglorious death and Marvin is shot by accident in the car and Jules has a religious epiphany.
• Tarantino’s famous set pieces also subvert convention and unsettle the comfy moral universe of genre films, but to argue that they are merely style over substance is to miss the point. Tarantino’s humanist irony is a moral position by which to view the world where the old structures no longer apply but where moral outcomes are still achievable. So, for example in Pulp Fiction, (as in more recently Inglorious Basterds and Django Unchained) Jules becomes the good shepherd rather than the avenging angel; Vincent saves Mia’s life; Butch outwits Marsellus and runs off with Fabienne; Marsellus ‘gets medieval’ on the sadistic rednecks and Butch retains his father’s gold watch. All ‘happy endings’ by most standards.
• Amable and laconic Vincent is however less fortunate and his fate suggests further room for analysis. Peter and Will Brooker note, “In three significant moments Vincent retires to the bathroom [and] returns to an utterly changed world where death is threatened.” The threat increases as the narrative progresses chronologically leading to his death. The Brookers’ analysis continues, “Through Vince . . . we see the contemporary world as utterly contingent, transformed, disastrously, in the instant you are not looking.”
• It is perhaps in the area of ‘influence’ and enduring cultural resonance that Tarantino has had the most impact. His films haven’t changed the moral or political landscape but they have certainly contributed to film culture. Phil Hoad in The Guardian (15th January 2013) asked this very question ‘Is Quentin Tarantino the World’s most influential director?’ They went on to cite the Collins Dictionary that had then defined the adjective ‘Tarantinoesque’ as referring to or reminiscent of the violence and wit of Tarantino’s films. His influence remains and according to the article above can be found in “any lippy thriller featuring pop culture-fried dialogue and flip violence.”
Institutional:
- The film was originally the property of Columbia Tristar but fell out of favour while still in the development stage. The film was then picked up by Miramax – then a leading independent distributor. Pulp Fiction was the first major production of Miramax once they had been bought by Disney in 1993 for $60 million). Bruce Willis signing onto the picture guaranteed good overseas sales due to his waning but still potent star status meaning the picture soon went into profit.
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