Martin Scorsese was asked about his thoughts on Quentin Tarantino’s upcoming retirement from mainstream filmmaking during a recent interview with the Associated Press about “Killers of the Flower Moon.” For a long time now, Tarantino has stated that he intends to end his career after ten films to leave behind a powerful and well-curated body of work. Currently, Tarantino is working on “The Movie Critic,” his tenth and hopefully final film.
“I just don’t know,” Scorsese responded when the subject of Tarantino’s retirement came up. “I am,” Scorsese said in response to the AP reporter’s question about whether he is simply constructed differently from Tarantino. Scorsese elaborated, “He’s a writer. It’s a different thing. I come up with stories. I get attracted to stories through other people. All different means, different ways. And so I think it’s a different process…I respect writers and I wish I could. I wish I could just be in a room and create these novels, not films, novels.”
Scorsese further said, “I’m curious about everything still, that’s one of the things. If I’m curious about something I think I’ll find a way. If I hold out and hold up, I’ll find a way to try to make something of it on film, but I have to be curious about the subject. My curiosity is still there. I couldn’t speak for Quentin Tarantino or others who are able to create this work in their world.”
When asked lately if he would follow in the footsteps of Tarantino or Scorsese, Christopher Nolan, the director of “Oppenheimer,” stated, “The truth is, I understand both points of view. It’s addictive to tell stories in cinema. It’s a lot of hard work, but it’s very fun. It’s something you feel driven to do, and so it’s a little hard to imagine voluntarily stopping. But I also see… Quentin’s point has always been that — and he never, very graciously, he’s never specific about the films he’s talking about or whatever — but he’s looking at some of the work done by filmmakers in later years and feeling that if it can’t live up to the heyday, it would be better if it didn’t exist,” Nolan continued. “That’s a very purist point of view. It’s the point of view of a cinephile who prizes film history.”
Nolan views Tarantino’s retirement very differently from Paul Thomas Anderson, an associate filmmaker and acquaintance of Tarantino. He remarks, “I know Quentin [Tarantino] likes to say, ‘I’m making 10 movies and then I’m quitting.’ But I could never do that,” Anderson said back in 2018. “I don’t know how he could say that, or how he could take himself seriously when he says that. This is what I want to do as long as I’m able to do it. As long as I’m able to do it, I’m going to do it. I think things can become peculiar when directors don’t act their age maybe, or seeing them try to keep up with the kids or trying to be hip. That’s never a good look.”