Quentin Tarantino says “sex is not part of my vision”

Quentin Tarantino has been discussing his moviemaking career this week, explaining why Death Proof’s flop knocked his confidence, and revealing why he rarely includes sex in his movies.

Quentin Tarantino movies are relatively sex-free zones. The writer-director is working his way towards his tenth and supposedly final film, but throughout his celluloid journey, Tarantino has rarely entered the bedroom onscreen.

Characters talk about the deed, but from Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, to Kill Bill and The Hateful Eight, they rarely do it.

While promoting his new book ‘Cinema Speculation,’ Tarantino has addressed that lack of sex in his films.

Quentin Tarantino says “sex is not part of my vision”

“It’s true, sex is not part of my vision of cinema,” Tarantino told Ara.

Beyond Louis Garcia hooking up with Melanie in Jackie Brown, that’s pretty much true – though the dialogue is R-rated throughout his career, the relationship stuff is very much PG.

Tarantino continues: “The truth is that, in real life, it’s a pain to shoot sex scenes, everyone is very tense. And if it was already a bit problematic to do it before, now it is even more so. If there had ever been a sex scene that was essential to the story, I would have, but so far it hasn’t been necessary.”

Why Death Proof knocked Tarantino’s confidence

In the same interview, Tarantino speculates as to why exploitation flick Death Proof – which played alongside Robert Rodriguez’s Planet Terror as part of the Grindhouse double bill – flopped.

“For a while I was getting a lot of project proposals,” QT tells Ara. “Until the studios ended up assuming that I do my stories and it wasn’t worth the effort. But after Death Proof – which didn’t do well at the box office and was a bit of a shock to my confidence – I started getting proposals again.”

“They must have thought, ‘Perhaps now he’s touched and his temper has gone down, now is the time.’ And there’s nothing wrong with making commissioned movies for Hollywood. They always offered me interesting projects. But I preferred to reinvest in myself and made Inglourious Basterds.’

“With Grindhouse, I think me and Robert just felt that people had a little more of a concept of the history of double features and exploitation movies. No, they didn’t. At all. They had no idea what the f**k they were watching. It meant nothing to them, alright, what we were doing. So that was a case of being a little too cool for school.”

For news of what Quentin Tarantino might be doing next, head here.