In presenting Quentin Tarantino with the Director of the Year award at the 31st Annual Palm Springs International Film Festival Film Awards Gala Thursday night, Greta Gerwig spoke about the profound impact the filmmaker has had on her life, from longingly staring at a video store copy of “Pulp Fiction” as a kid to choosing to shoot her “Little Women” on film, rather than digitally, in a nod to Tarantino’s own preference.
“Quentin Tarantino makes movies as if movies could save the world,” she said. “Movies can kill Hitler, free slaves, and give Sharon Tate one more summer … he makes movies like movies themselves matter, like they are both high art — which they are — and that they are populist art — which they are. They’re speaking the most profound truths to the biggest crowds with the bravado that comes with the confidence that collectively everybody will be changed for the better by the experience.”
After listening to Gerwig’s heartfelt six-minute introduction, a welled-up Tarantino said he was on the verge of tears.
“She literally said about me how I can only imagine somebody could ever talk about me in my wildest self-possessed dreams,” he said. “Thank you. I mean my god, thank you so much. I joke that when people are going to talk about me, I say, ‘Speak about me as if I were dead.’ And they never do. And you did!”
Tarantino, who was awarded for “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” was one of 12 honored Thursday. The gala, with attendance of some 2,500, raised nearly $2.5 million for the festival, according to its chairman Harold Matzner.
While the ceremony’s purpose is ostensibly to kick off the 12-day festival, the gala is watched closely for another reason: its sterling track record for predicting Oscar nominees.
Source: Indiewire.com
