Pulp Fiction - Tarantino as an experimental filmmaker

- Experimental filmmakers are in opposition to the mainstream


Buckland (2002) - Mainstream film features :

•  High production values

• Reliance upon stars

•  Convention of a genre (obvious genre)

• Script rather than language telling the story (through narrative devices) - focus on the script, the narrative. 

•  Economic imperative

How Tarantino is experimental in comparison to the mainstream film features :

• Mixes genres and features - (Bricolage)

• Challenges the convention of the use of stars

• The budget reflects his ethos as a film maker - Not using most of budget on film stars, and quite deliberately uses cheap and unrealistic mise-en-scene (e.g. the rear projection for car travel)- this is evidence of experimentalism and also adds to the postmodernist approach of replacing realism with artifice)

Tarantino is considered an experimental filmmaker through the use of the lack of chronology in the narrative, the story isn't told in order which goes against the common conventions of a mainstream film as he also tells the narrative in a different way compared to mainstream films where each story although not in order overlaps and interlinks with each other as it also lacks clarity of who the hero and the villain. He is also considered experimental through the lack of a 'happy ending' which also flouts the common convention of a mainstream film where an ending of resolution is seen, the unusual use of editing - this is seen through the use of fading which conveys a passage of time however only represents the passage of a few seconds. Tarantino is also seen as an experimental filmmaker through the bricolage of genres in which he implements, he mixed different elements of genre features this is seen where Vincent and Mia are in the restaurant and are competing in a dance competition, which isn't a convention of a typical crime film, this is also seen where Vincent and Jules are in the diner and it is being held up by Honey Bunny and Pumpkin which isn't expected because Vincent and Jules are the criminals so in a mainstream film are expected to be the ones to do these criminal acts such as a hold up, which shows the experimental aspect of Tarantino as a filmmaker. The budget of the film reflects Tarantino's ethos as a filmmaker as he uses the deliberate use of cheap and unrealistic mise-en-scene for example, the rear projection in the taxi drive, this shows the experimentalism and his postmodernist approach through the replacement of realism with artifice.