Molly Ringwald has penned a New Yorker essay about her odd friendship with Jean-Luc Godard, noting that they stayed in touch after the 1987 “King Lear.”
“We chatted about recent films. He didn’t think much of ‘Pulp Fiction,’ the movie of the moment,” “‘Not authentic,’ he declared. (That word again!) However, we both liked ‘Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould,’ a more obscure film by the French Canadian director François Girard.”
Godard was never shy in his strange hatred towards Tarantino. In a 2004 interview, the French filmmaker used a 20th century French term to describe Tarantino as a “dishonest person” and a “child.”
Tarantino used to praise Godard as a major influence, even naming his production company after one of his films (Band A Part), but ever since the French filmmaker made those comments, Tarantino has soured a bit about his love for Godard’s films.
“I’m not really a big fan of Jean-Luc Godard anymore,” Tarantino said in 2013. “I think Godard is kind of like Frank Frazetta. You get into him for a while and he’s like your hero for a little bit. You start drawing shit like him and then you outgrow. I think that’s what Godard is, at least for me anyway, as a filmmaker.”
Tarantino should actually take the Godard hate as a badge of honor since, over his long career, the late French director had negative things to say about David Lynch, Martin Scorsese, The Coen Brothers, Steven Spielberg and Paul Thomas Anderson.