Name: Why Tarantino Will Only Make 10 Movies
Uploaded: 2026-01-22T17:08:37.000Z
Duration: 7 min 38 s
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My first book, Escape Into Meaning, is out today.

More on that after the video, and that would be that.

I've heard you're saying you got 10 movies in you.

Peter Travers was scandalized, his pitch climbing with every word.

He gestured with panicky hands and repeated the question just to be sure.

Are you really only gonna make one more movie?

Are you really only gonna make two more movies after this one?

You've said that you might retire after your 10th.

Do you regret vowing that you'd only make 10?

What is this nonsense about you're only going to make one more movie?

You have sinned a great sin in the sight of God.

Peter Travers and the rest just can't accept that someone like Tarantino would impose retirement on himself while he's still relatively young, still in fighting shape, while he has the kind of creative freedom few filmmakers ever enjoy.

It goes against a basic rule of success in Hollywood.

Once you've arrived at the party, hang around until someone tells you to leave.

Unaccustomed to people who flout this rule, they assume he's bluffing or misguided.

After all, how many people fight their entire careers for an invite to the party and never get one?

How many enter, then immediately get shown the door?

That's essentially what these reporters are doing, begging Tarantino to carry on to entertain us for a little while longer.

While I'm sure Tarantino loves to hear talk show hosts plead for more, he has better reasons for early retirement.

I like the idea that there is an umbilical cord connected to my first film all the way to my last.

And frankly, I do feel that a bad film on the filmography affects good films.

I like the idea of doing a body of work, 10 movies, and then, okay, that's it.

That's what I have to say, and let that filmography just stand for itself.

Quentin Tarantino thinks in oeuvres, oeuvre, oeuvoir, the fancy, and

hard to pronounce French word for body of work.

Most artists consider the arc of their life work, especially when that life nears its end.

They might look back and discover some big themes in their career.

They might try to divide it into phases or even agree to a retrospective.

It's natural to think about legacy, and the most lasting legacies usually come from oeuvres.

Shakespeare, Picasso, the Beatles, Beyonce, Dickens, Hitchcock, Morrison, Miyazaki.

Tarantino would love to join this list, as many other artists would.

Like many other artists, he'll submit his oeuvre to posterity for consideration.

What makes Tarantino a little unusual is that while most artists look back at their body of work, he's been carefully shaping his own from the start.

Just as great movies shouldn't have weak scenes, great filmographies shouldn't have weak movies.

He's eager to avoid the major minor game that film nerds like me play with revered filmmakers.

Compared to major works like Raging Bull and taxi driver girl 6 is minor.

Spike Lee next to Malcolm X in do the Right Thing, these minor movies often appear toward the end of a career.

Alfred Hitchcock's first final five films barely register against his many masterpieces.

Lopping them off the filmography wouldn't diminish his reputation.

In fact, Tarantino might argue that Hitchcock's legacy would be even greater today if he walked away from cinema in 1963 and not 1976.

Artists don't always notice when their skills are flagging, so Tarantino is leaving early to prevent crossing that line unwittingly.

Ten movies are enough for a good, healthy filmography, and

the nine he's made so far are all pretty good.

Not all of his movies are masterpieces, but I personally don't think Tarantino's made any real clunkers.

Of course, you're welcome to disagree, something film nerds love to do.

You might not be a fan of Tarantino or my opinion of him, but

for the purposes of this essay, you don't have to be.

I'm less interested in the quality of his movies than in his perspective on Hauvar.

What he or any artist might gain by thinking of their career holistically.

It's clear Tarantino sees a reputational value in having a body of work that maintains a high standard.

Can a well designed filmography bestow greater meaning onto the films that make it up?

Now that was just the first part of a three part or three chapter essay.

In my new book, the essay is called Thinking in Oeuvres and in chapters two and three, I answer that question, can a body of work be a work of art?

If you're interested in reading that and 10 other essays, please pick up Escape into Meaning, which is out today.

Two years of writing and revising and editing and designing and promoting and it's finally here.

So you can find the link in the description below.

You can get it at Barnes and Noble or order it to your local bookseller.

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