The “terrific” Todd Haynes movie Quentin Tarantino wouldn’t have dared to make

We can always rely on Quentin Tarantino for a controversial opinion or slightly distasteful film, and given his one-man, auteur, vigilante-style ways, he’s no stranger to criticism – think the torture scene in Pulp Fiction or practically the entirety of Death Proof.

From his very first forray into feature filmmaking, behind the scenes on True Romance in 1993, it seems that Tarantino loved the medium of film so much that everything he did was to contribute to it, never particularly for the audience, but that could be where we’re wrong, with a lot of conversation over the years about how he would like audiences to receive his work.

He has talked a lot about his genuine love for film, which we wouldn’t doubt for one minute, having worked in a video store in his youth and clearly having made no compromises in his work. All of this means it’s quite a surprise when the man himself would steer clear of a project completely, which was his exact reaction to Todd Haynes‘ Far from Heaven.

There isn’t much in the movie world that has scared Tarantino in his life. However, when faced with the idea of writing and directing one particular genre, he found his nerves would be in tatters. For that reason, he has never dared to go near it.

Tarantino has expressed his love for 1950s, Douglas Sirk-style melodramas in the past, but told The New Yorker that he unequivocally would not make one – because American audiences (unlike Asian audiences) are not now capable of appreciating the genre. He suspects they would take it as camp, keeping their emotions in check, but for him, the whole point of melodrama is to sweep you away.

In the interview, Tarantino suggested that Todd Haynes’ 2002 Douglas Sirk tribute, Far from Heaven, suffered from this problem. “I thought it was terrific,” he said, “but I didn’t cry. How can you make a tribute to Douglas Sirk where you don’t cry? I understand why Todd did it: he was afraid of getting bad laughs.”

Julianne Moore stars in the flick about a 1950s housewife’s perfect life taking a turn, which bagged plenty of pretty gushing reviews at the time. Of course, the film most definitely takes inspiration from German filmmaker Douglas Sirk, but what Tarantino is getting at is the heart of the film, which doesn’t quite live up to its predecessor.

The likes of All That Heaven Allows and Imitation of Life embody what Sirk brought to the industry: melodramas with real heart. When Tarantino says he didn’t cry at Far from Heaven, it seems to be a sign that recreation could never get anywhere close to the real thing, and although the attempt by Haynes was admirable, it makes a lot of sense why Tarantino wouldn’t want to do the same. Let’s see what his supposed ‘final film’ gives us.

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