Martin Scorsese is sharing his admiration for Quentin Tarantino while addressing the “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” auteur’s impending retirement.
“Killers of the Flower Moon” director Scorsese told the Associated Press that he is built differently from Tarantino as a filmmaker.
“He’s a writer. It’s a different thing,” Scorsese said. “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.”
While Tarantino announced his plans to retire from filmmaking with his 10th film “The Movie Critic,” Scorsese has voiced his dedication to continue directing no matter what.
“I’m curious about everything still,” Scorsese said. “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.”
Scorsese told GQ earlier this year that “if I could just muster up the energy, God willing, to make a couple more, one more maybe, and that’s it, OK? That’s as far as I got. You keep going until you can’t.”
The “Raging Bull” auteur added, “But what I mean is that you gotta rip it out of your skull and your guts. To find out what the hell you really…what do you really feel should be said at this point in life by you? You gotta say something with a movie. Otherwise, what’s the point of making it? You’ve got to be saying something. How much longer can it be me? I’m gonna be 81. I’m gonna try until they pick me up off the floor.”
Tarantino’s “The Movie Critic” is in part inspired by Scorsese’s “Taxi Driver,” specifically Robert De Niro’s character Travis Bickle, as written by Oscar-winning screenwriter Paul Schrader.
“Think about Travis’ diary entries,” Tarantino told Deadline earlier this year about his leading male character for “The Movie Critic,” based off a real-life columnist for an adult magazine. “I think he was a very good critic. He was as cynical as hell. His reviews were a cross between early Howard Stern and what Travis Bickle might be if he were a film critic.”
