Netflix has become a massive success in the streaming world, evolving from their DVD-by-mail service to become one of the premiere providers of streaming content and exclusive programming. They are now one of the leading services who are making a universe of movies available on the device of your choice, with many other players coming from behind and trying to catch up. But not everyone has been taken with the convenience and quality of the service.
Indiewire published an excerpt from the recently published book “I Lost it at The Video Store: A Filmmakers’ Oral History of a Vanished Era,” pertaining to the arrival of the streaming age. And not everyone has been swayed by the new technology, namely, Quentin Tarantino, who rather unbelievably, still tapes and watches movies on VHS.
“I am not excited about streaming at all. I like something hard and tangible in my hand. And I can’t watch a movie on a laptop. I don’t use Netflix at all. I don’t have any sort of delivery system. I have the videos from Video Archives. They went out of business, and I bought their inventory. Probably close to eight thousand tapes and DVDs,” he said. “I have a bunch of DVDs and a bunch of videos, and I still tape movies off of television on video so I can keep my collection going.”
It’s a bit of an odd stance from a filmmaker who seems to be very concerned about the format and presentation of films. It’s not for nothing that his upcoming, 70mm western “The Hateful Eight” is spending the first two weeks of its release screening in analog only on big screens. So, I would understand if Tarantino was opposed to watching movies on a laptop or iPhone, but I don’t quite get still using VHS, one of the worst formats around, unless its to maintain some kind of artificial nostalgia for those video store-era years.
However, not every filmmaker is down on streaming. Darren Aronofsky shares an experience he had as a “newcomer” to Netflix. “I did hear about a Gael García Bernal film, ‘Even the Rain.’ It’s a film he made in Bolivia. It’s fantastic — and you can watch it on Netflix. The experience was very similar to how I would stumble on a film on videotape. It’s a small, beautiful foreign film. And I streamed it,” he said.
More crucially, Joe Swanberg points out that streaming has made accessibility to cinema much more open. “When I was fourteen, I wanted to be a filmmaker, and I started reading Filmmaker Magazine and I’d read about indie films I’d never see, not even at the video store,” he reflects. “These days, you can see them on VOD. If I was fourteen right now, still in the suburbs of Chicago, I could be really up-to-date with the independent film scene as much as anyone in L.A. or NYC. That’s exciting. The access is getting better.”
No matter what, streaming is here to stay, and making it easier for everyone, everywhere to find movies and television shows, whether they’re independent, mainstream, or more obscure. Should Tarantino get with it or what? Let us know below.
There is no way in the hell VHS is "more cinematic" than HD streaming, which, barring a pretty terrible transfer process, would _always_ be closer to what a film would actually look like in theaters than a VHS tape.
Add to that that most VHS taps are formatted for 4:3 televisions, meaning that either information is panned and scanned out of the frame or the mattes have been taken off and compositions compromised by excessive headroom, boom mikes wandering into the shot, and whatnot. It\’s just Luddite insanity and madness, nothing more.
I am sure filmmakers as Cecil B. DeMille, Alfred Hitchcock, Georges Méliès, Fritz Lang…and many many others would have love to make films with today’s technology. Specially if you had the chance to watch them at home with great sound and image.
I think when you want to watch a film with bad sound and image, “just because is cool”, is against the creative team behind it, specially when you have the option to watch them in better conditions. I don’t think those great old filmmakers would be happy about it.
More and more he sounds like a jaded old guy.
I understand why someone would collect VHS tapes for nostalgia reasons (I do it myself) but refusing to watch movies on streaming services is just dumb. Tarantino is a grumpy old hipster and I\’ll be glad when new filmmakers embrace new technology and innovate in the same way that all of the various New Wave filmmakers did in the 60s and 70s, while he and his generation try to pump out more derivative post-modern garbage. He was briefly interesting in the 90s, but has overstayed his welcome.
All respect to him, but we get it – he\’s old. Maybe not "cantankerous old coot" old, what with his willingness to accept DVD into the fold, but old. Even being in my 30s, I don\’t miss the inevitability of a VHS tape wearing out to the point that it ruins my VCR by wrapping itself around the heads.
I didn\’t know VHS SUCKED!!! And it was magic! I can\’t remember ever feeling quite like that about DVDS even. There was something with wonderful about those two new movies sitting on top of a "TV" and the size of the cartridge made the movies seem more anticipatory. I love Blu Ray .. Love it all, but VHS was my first love!!
agree with JD. as long as there\’s still a thirst and love for movies, doesn\’t matter if they\’re consumed on netflix or betamax or laserdisc, imax or on your iphone.
great movies will always be great, regardless of what format we\’re watching them on.
Tarantino\’s not trying to ban Netflix or discourage others from using it, he simply has a different preference, one based on age / personal experience. Not sure why people have a problem with that. His VHS viewing habits have certainly served him well thus far. I guarantee you\’re not going to find many of the films from his VHS collection on Netflix.
I agree with Doris. That\’s why I watch all my movies on View-Master.
VHS – because screw cinematographers and sound designers. I don\’t appreciate their work, so VHS is my choice.
Insufferable prick, behaves accordingly.
"First, they created two separate subscriber plans: one for streaming, and another for their DVD-by-mail service." What? That\’s how it is NOW. You pay for each separately. In the early days, the streaming plan came with the disc plan.
VHS movies feel more immersive and cinematic than HD streaming movies, oddly enough. Perhaps it\’s for the same reason old 8-bit videogames are more engrossing — sometimes lesser visuals allow the viewer\’s imagination to do meet the artists halfway?