Over the course of a 30-year career that’s seen him firmly established as one of the most influential filmmakers of the modern age, Quentin Tarantino has developed a signature set of aesthetic and stylistic motifs that audiences have been conditioned to expect in almost all of his movies.
There’s plenty of foul language, bursts of grisly violence, a little sprinkling of controversy, needle-drops to some of his favorite deep cut musical tracks, homages to forgotten films of yesterday, and many more besides. However, onscreen copulation has never been one of them, with the filmmaker explaining to Spanish newspaper Diari ARI why he’s not interested in sex scenes.
“Sex is not part of my vision of cinema.And the truth is that, in real life, it’s a pain to shoot sex scenes, everyone is very tense. 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.”
Of course, we can’t help but address the elephant in the room, which is Tarantino’s status as the most prominent foot fetishist in the industry. After all, this is the guy who scripted himself to suck on Salma Hayek’s toes in From Dusk till Dawn, with virtually every single one of his features boasting at least one gratuitous foot shot.
He may not be sold on having his characters bump uglies, but he’s spent three decades indulging in his own personal preferences up on the big screen for everyone to see, which makes his comments seem a little bizarre when he’s catering entirely to himself by always making sure he gets at least one pair of feet captured in unsettlingly sensualized fashion.