Perhaps no other filmmaker in the last decades has spurred as much controversy and polarized audiences and critics to the degree that Quentin Tarantino has. In the mid nineties, with just two films under his belt--the milestone of independent cinema,
Reservoir Dogs, which had its explosive release at the Sundance Film Festival in 1992, and the cult hit and 1994 Palme d’Or Winner
Pulp Fiction--Tarantino became an instant auteur, hailed icon of post-modern cinema and master of bravura filmmaking. His rise from video-store clerk to international fame as one of the most fiercely talented and innovative directors in contemporary cinema is legendary. There is indeed the Tarantino made out by the press, his fans and critics: the high-school dropout and self-proclaimed film geek whose film training consisted of repeated visits to the movie theater, and several years working behind the counter and voraciously viewing films at the Manhattan Beach Video Archives; the badass filmmaker who made pop culture his universe of reference, and whose archive of comic books, American hardboiled crime fiction, and exploitation film earned him cult film glory; and the provocateur who has not ceased to shock audiences and critics with the violence that characterizes both his aesthetic and his favored themes.
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