Review by Frank Plowright
While having a formidable reputation, not everyone agrees Quentin Tarantino is a great film director, and Amazing Améziane’s biographical indulgence is also going to have admirers and detractors.
Améziane sets out his territory from the start by having someone wander into a bar to be greeted by Tarantino as a barman spinning an allegorical tale about his methods of film making. From his emergence Tarantino has transmitted as his own biggest fan, and whether Améziane uses interview quotes for the dialogue or puts words in his mouth, they have the ring of truth.
No-one begins watching a Tarantino film knowing exactly what they’re going to get, and Améziane takes a similar discursive approach to the telling of his life story and the films he’s made, dipping into assorted styles to get the points across. It’s fun seeing the young Tarantino as if in a Calvin & Hobbes strip, yet what’s unexpected is that for all the subsequent minutae about Tarantino and his films, this is the best section of the book.
That’s because for all the inventive storytelling on Améziane’s part, he’s as obsessive as Tarantino himself, and loves connecting the dots between aspiring film makers, leading actors and money men. It narrows the focus from anyone who’s enjoyed Tarantino’s films to the smaller group among them who really want to know that Uma Thurman wore Michael Madsen’s boots in Kill Bill; that Tarantino himself was due to give the speech about tipping in Reservoir Dogs; or three pages of text rebutting accusations about the Bruce Lee scene in Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood. You’ll also read that everyone who’s worked with Tarantino is amazing and someone he’d admired for years. There’s no shortage of books along similar lines, proving there’s an audience for Quentin by Tarantino, but it’s not universal.
Améziane’s art strikes a more resonant chord. He’s a restless experimenter, and constantly drops in visual homages to cinema, if not the films themselves then to the art of making them, and to Tarantino’s influences. This leads to illustrations of Samuel L. Jackson as if drawn by Jack Kirby looming over the board game Guess Who?, with the faces being characters from Tarantino’s other films. Or there’s Uma Thurman drawn as if a Hanna Barbera animated character, Hong Kong action movie posters, many other movie posters, and assorted pages influenced by Japanese art. A real joy is never knowing what you’re going to see when the page is turned. Also fun is spotting how many references to Tarantino’s films appear on the cover. The answer list appears at the end.
While so much is for the real fan, there are places where Améziane scores, such as not glossing over awkward moments inclduing the reasons for Thurman distancing herself from Tarantino, or coming to terms with what Harvey Weinstein is. Also interesting is Tarantino enthusing about other films. Overall, though, just too much information.
