In 1992, Quentin Tarantino was between a happy newcomer and an established director. street dogs (1992) was a critical success and generated moderate enthusiasm among moviegoers. But this was not enough to ensure the true significance of the ambitious author. So, he immediately began working on an idea that had haunted him for years. Pulp Fiction, an extreme combination of violence, auteur cinema and action. These are all some of the smartest speeches in cinema in decades and with a radical aesthetic.
So he decided to take a radical decision. At the end of that year he went to Amsterdam, to an apartment that had almost no furniture and in which he was completely isolated. Without telephone, fax or any means of communication with the outside world, Tarantino could only write, and that’s what he did.
At least that’s what the eternal said the child is terrible from Hollywood to Vanity Fair in 2013, where he spent time recalling the entire creative process of a script that would go down in history. He also said that it took him three months of effort, work and refinement to achieve the job he had envisioned for years. A fragmented story combining three brutal storylines in one setting, wrapped in a magazine aesthetic. Pulp Fiction.
Breaking stereotypes through a new type of cinema
But beyond being a successful experiment – which it was in many ways – the film written by Tarantino was destined to change the history of modern cinema. Not only because of his boldness, in which there was already much to be explored – but also for a radical way of subverting cinematic language.
Pulp Fiction, used timing, dialogue, music and staging in a way that, while not unknown (his work featured a lot of French cinema), was innovative for Hollywood. At the same time, it was a risk that mixed auteur cinema with brutal action and pseudo-philosophical overtones, with nihilistic overtones.The result is a film in which the characters exhibit a freedom and independence surprising in the American industry.
Quentin Tarantino’s film was not a commercial spin-off to recoup box office revenue. But it was not exactly an auteur film. Meanwhile, the history of thugs, drug addicts and criminals was as complex as it was reckless. . A compact work full of humor and a twisted version of reality.
It all started by luck
By then, Tarantino realized he had talent. As well as relative experience with short films and scripts in which he has demonstrated his abilities. But Pulp Fiction, was a mosaic of a story, carefully crafted and fueled by all of his obsessions and references. Moreover, the argument, which he considered erased and During his stay in Holland he wrote dozens more times and drank from many sources.
On the one hand, from the crime novels of the 1930s, from which he copied the structure, tension and connections between stories. On the other hand, it was a film that explored Tarantino’s love of cinema, stealing, re-converting and combining (all at once) the writer and director’s favorite films. By that time, the production company TriStar had renewed his contract for $900,000. The director took the money to Europe and decided to create something new.
Within three months and with the help of Roger Avery, Tarantino mapped out a plan. Pulp Fiction, to make it clear. So he organized the scenes, built temporal connections, and even took the trouble to write biographies of some of them. All by hand and in a dozen notebooks, in that he wrote with the same box of pencils, as he said in an interview American Film Institute. Gradually, the work took shape and eventually became a rare vision of a complex story ready for film adaptation.
The path to victory begins
Upon returning to North America, twelve dirty urinal notebooks had to be reviewed. So Tarantino contacted Robert Towne, the screenwriter. Chinatown— who in turn recommended the work to Linda Chen, a typing expert and doctor script . It was the expert who worked side by side with the director to refine the story. rewrite some parts and correct grammatically and spelling of the original idea written in Europe.
A year later, it was thanks to the efforts of Linda Chen that the script was ready. At 159 pages, it was longer and more detailed than typical original production companies were accustomed to receiving, but Tarantino refused to recap or leave out any other scenes. This particular copy was received by Mike Medavoy, director of TriStar. He rejected the film due to violence and obscene language, but once it went on sale, Danny DeVito convinced Miramax to buy the production and distribution rights.
The next thing was the craft work of getting funding. And thanks to Harvey Keitel (who, in turn, convinced Bruce Willis to play the lead role), the project received a budget of $8 million. Much more than one would expect from an unclassifiable independent film directed by an unknown director. Tarantino, who had the perfect cast he wanted to cast, spent time and effort on it. So one day he called Uma Thurman and read her the entire script to convince her to play Mia Wallace. The actress later said Vanity Fair that the very idea of becoming part of such a crazy project convinced her.
Success thanks to Cannes
Miramax was so confident in their film that they sent it to the 1994 Cannes Film Festival. The film caused a stir, not always for the better, and surprised the trade press, which noted Tarantino’s every decision regarding the film. Soon after, he received the prestigious Palme d’Or, which surprised and ushered in a new era in cinema. This is a film that explores modern evil through twisted humor. but also fueled by pop culture.
A year later, Quentin Tarantino would win the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. Unprecedented success that led to Pulp Fictionto become an icon of modern cinema and its director, an emblem of cinematic evolution.The rest is industrial and artistic history as we know it today.
Source: Hiper Textual
