Analysis

Only two more films for me, Tarantino tells Jerusalem audience

‘Pulp Fiction’ director sounds pretty adamant about retiring after 10 movies, although he does leave room for a ‘geriatric’ comeback at age 75

By David Horovitz

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9 July 2016, 1:18 am

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David Horovitz is the founding editor of The Times of Israel. He is the author of "Still Life with Bombers" (2004) and "A Little Too Close to God" (2000), and co-author of "Shalom Friend: The Life and Legacy of Yitzhak Rabin" (1996). He previously edited The Jerusalem Post (2004-2011) and The Jerusalem Report (1998-2004).

Quentin Tarantino speaks to an audience at the Jerusalem Film Festival on July 8, 2016 (David Horovitz/Times of Israel)

Quentin Tarantino insisted Friday night that he intends to make only two more films.

Speaking to an audience at the Jerusalem Film Festival, the writer-director, who first spoke in late 2014 about quitting after 10 movies, sounded adamant on Friday that this would be the case.

Tarantino was at the Israeli festival for a special screening of Pulp Fiction — “a print from my own collection” that he said he sent “down here just for you guys.”

Interviewed on stage before the screening, Tarantino was discussing a British critic who claims that his movies can best be looked at in groups of three. “There’s this rumor,” he was asked, “that you only want to make 10 movies.”

“Yeah,” confirmed Tarantino.

But “if you work in threes,” his interviewer continued, “how is that going to work?”

“Well,” said the director to much audience laughter, “I’m not going to change my plans just because of this fucking guy…”

He then elaborated, “I’m planning on stopping at 10. It’ll be two more.” He had said earlier that he considers “Kill Bill: Volume 1” and “Kill Bill: Volume 2” to constitute just one movie, meaning he has made eight to date.

Tarantino first spoke of stopping after 10 movies in late 2014, explaining then that “I want to go out while I’m still hard. … I like that I will leave a 10-film filmography, and so I’ve got two more to go after this.”

At that time, however, he said retirement after 10 movies was “not etched in stone, but that is the plan. If I get to the 10th, do a good job and don’t screw it up, well that sounds like a good way to end the old career. If, later on, I come across a good movie, I won’t not do it just because I said I wouldn’t. But 10 and done, leaving them wanting more — that sounds right.”

In Jerusalem, he also left open the possibility of changing his mind, but made it sound unlikely. It might be that, “at 75,” he could decide “I have another story to tell,” he allowed.

But that would exist quite separately from his main work. It would be, said Tarantino, who is 53, his “geriatric” movie.