Cinematical

Quentin Tarantino loves to talk. In Pulp Fiction, he wrote one of the movie's breathlessly furious monologues for himself ("Do you see a sign..."). He's been known to deliver talks at universities and special screenings where he fields questions at a characteristically frenetic pace; it's almost like his crazed love of cinema is fueled as much by a constant supply of caffeine as it is by his authentic passion for the art form.

Today's Variety announces that Tarantino will deliver the highly vetted cinema masterclass lecture at the Cannes Film Festival next month, which certainly gives him a major audience on which to unleash his ideas. Filling a slot taken last year by Martin Scorsese, it's easy to imagine that Tarantino will touch on his wide variety of international influences, his ability to become an iconic filmmaker with only a handful of films, and the changing climate of the independent film scene.

Tarantino has been a star at Cannes ever since Pulp Fiction nabbed the Palme d'Or in 1994. He headed the jury in 2004 when Fahrenheit 9/11 was the controversial winner of the top prize, and turned up last year to present the extended cut of Death Proof. With that kind of track record, it's possible the festival will give the director carte blanche to discuss whatever he wants.

Still, I'm hoping he'll touch on some of the more difficult aspects of his career, such as Oliver Stone's butchering of his screenplay for Natural Born Killers (an assertion that's debatable) or the disastrous reception of Grindhouse. Then again, considering how every Tarantino film is crammed with enough cinematic references that you could curate an entire film festival out of each one, it's possible that every Tarantino fan wants him to babble about something different.