Tarantino on His Influences: If You Love Cinema You Can't Help but Make a Good Movie

Written on the 2nd page of the screenplay for Reservoir Dogs is a list of names -- Timothy Carey, Jean-Luc Godard, and John Woo to name a few. These are individuals that Quentin Tarantino wished to highlight and laud in his first feature film. The entire film was dedicated to these, to use his word, "inspirations", and in an interview from 2002, Tarantino sat down to talk about who these people were to him creatively and how they impacted his life and filmmaking career. Hit the jump to watch the interview.

I'm sure for many of us Quentin Tarantino was or still is a beacon of hope for independent film. Like him or not, he, as well as a bunch of other independent filmmakers, paved the way for future filmmakers to be able to make films outside a studio system that was nearly impossible to get into. The films he made in the 90s (Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Jackie Brown) have inspired me greatly, so it's interesting to hear the inspiration's inspiration for their work.

Check out the interview below:

To be 100% honest, I just deleted 2 big paragraphs of this article, because I realized that when Tarantino talks about French director Jean-Pierre Melville, he says something that embodies everything that independent film stands for.

You do get a sense -- there's like an aesthetic working in Melville's work that you get a sense that you don't have to know how to make a movie. If you truly love cinema with all your heart and with enough passion you can't help but make a good movie. You don't have to go to school. You don't have to know a lens -- you know, a 40 and a 50 and a -- fuck all that shit -- crossing the line -- none of that shit's important. If you just truly love cinema with enough passion -- and you really love it, then you can't help but make a good movie.

Do you agree with Tarantino? Who are your heroes and role models in filmmaking? Let us know in the comments.

[via A-BitterSweet-Life & Filmmaker IQ]