The American director was on the Croisette this Thursday, May 25 to share with festival-goers one of his favorite films: “Légitime violence” directed in 1977 by John Flynn.
When Quentin Tarantino comes to the Cannes Film Festival, it’s always an event. But this year, he is neither on the jury nor in the official selection. It was as a cinephile that he took his place in the programming of the Quinzaine des cinéastes with a surprise film, followed by a conversation.
Many spectators for a surprise film
An hour before the screening, the queue is long. We took the opportunity to ask the spectators about their expectations. For Nadine, absolute fan of the director, “He’s a movie monster, so we’re bound to have an extraordinary time, I just want to have fun”. Guillame bought himself a T-shirt with his favorite film for the occasion. It features characters from pulp Fiction on his torso, and for surprise, he imagines “an old French film, as we are in Cannes, that would be logical”. We also come across a man from Nice who would love to see a western, then a tourist from the Philippines who is certain that bloody“ (bloody).
A memory film from his childhood
So what is Tarantino’s famous surprise? The answer comes a few moments later in the room of the Théâtre Croisette full to bursting. Black shirt, jeans, sneakers, Quentin Tarantino arrives relaxed and goes on stage with a big smile. “It’s so good to be here, I love Cannes!”, he exclaims. Before announcing the color: Legitimate Violence (rolling thunder), a 1977 film directed by John Flynn, screenplay by Paul Schrader with William Devane, Tommy Lee Jones and Linda Haynes.
A feature film in 35 mm, a format beloved by this film lover, which tells the revenge of an American army commander. Coming back from an eight-year prison term during the Vietnam War, Major Charles Rane receives a crate full of dollars in thanks for his commitment. A gang of thieves see it as an opportunity to get rich. They attack his house, crush his hand and kill his son and his wife. Rane therefore engages in a process of violence where each criminal concerned will have to pay for it with his life.
A bloody subject as Tarantino likes them and which undoubtedly marked his cinematographic career. “I was only fourteen when I discovered this film in Los Angeles and I immediately loved it! So enjoy it, if you want to scream or scream during the shots, go ahead, let go -YOU !”, he throws. Message received, the spectators rejoice with great noise at each ball sent.
And as Tarantino likes to be closer to the public, it is in the middle of the room that he took advantage of the projection. During his master class following the film, he confides that he rediscovered scenes he had forgotten.
Tarantino and the Cannes Film Festival
If today, Quentin Tarantino is somewhat the darling of the major French film festivals, this has not always been the case. “The relationship between Quentin Tarantino and the Fortnight begins with a missed date”, recalls Julien Rejl, the general delegate of the Quinzaine des cinéastes since 2022. Indeed in 1992, Reservoir Dogs East sent to Cannes and the Fortnight misses out. At the time, the team did not select his film. Yet it is the only competition that interested the now world-famous director. Since then, the Croisette has caught up. In 1994 he received the Palme d’Or for his film Pulp Fiction. And in 2004, he chaired the official selection which will reward Fahrenheit 9/11 by Michael Moore.
Completely successful catch-up session for the Fortnight, at the end of the screening the public is on their feet to cheer the director who has just published Cinema Speculations, a theoretical essay on 1970s cinema.