Clint Eastwood Once Revealed the Most “Amazing” Part of Seeing ‘Pulp Fiction’ at Cannes

Quentin Tarantino is one of the most famous filmmakers of his time, but he was relatively unknown when he made Pulp Fiction. The director dropped out of high school to focus on writing screenplays, but it took years for him to catch a break. That break came when Pulp Fiction screened in competition at the 1994 Cannes Film Festival. Clint Eastwood presided over the jury and recalled the amazing part of seeing Pulp Fiction for the first time at Cannes.

(l-r) Quentin Tarantino; Clint Eastwood | Pool/Benainous/Duclos/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images; Jean Baptiste Lacroix/WireImage Clint Eastwood avoided discussions about ‘Pulp Fiction’ until he watched it at Cannes

Eastwood was the president of the 1994 Cannes Film Festival competition jury and led a panel that included Catherine Deneuve and other international artists and filmmakers. Though Tarantino called it a “crazy Quentin movie,” and he was a relatively unknown filmmaker at the time, Pulp Fiction generated a lot of buzz at Cannes.

Eastwood took his job as jury president very seriously. He went out of his way to avoid hearing feedback about Pulp Fiction until he had a chance to see it himself.

“You heard the word [about it], but everybody purposefully stayed away from hearing what somebody thought was good or bad,” Eastwood told the American Film Institute (via YouTube). “People were sort of afraid to make assumptions at that time, so nobody said much of anything.”

Eastwood said something amazing happened once he and his fellow jurors watched Pulp Fiction.

Eastwood was “amazed” at the Cannes jury’s reaction to ‘Pulp Fiction’

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Eastwood told AFI he had to watch 22 movies in a little over a week as part of his Cannes jury duties. Some official selections captivated him, and some came up a little short, but Pulp Fiction drew everybody it.

The movie’s bold mix of comedy and violence, conversational dialogue, and non-sequential storyline make it unique. The way Eastwood tells it, the most amazing part was the reaction of the European jurors.

“I was amazed it was the European guys on the jury that really started jumping [on it]. A couple of them turned around and said, ‘That’s the best picture. That’s the picture of this festival.’ I didn’t jump on it. I was still kind of weighing things in my mind. But it was definitely interesting, and it was exciting, and it came at a time when we needed a little excitement because it came right after a couple that were lulling.”

Clint Eastwood on seeing Pulp Fiction for the first time at the Cannes Film Festival

Pulp Fiction won the prestigious Palme d’Or, which established Tarantino as a visionary auteur and commercially successful filmmaker. Coincidentally, the director called an Eastwood movie one of his all-time favorites years later.

It remains one of the best Quentin Tarantino movies

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Tarantino took home the Palme d’Or with Pulp Fiction, and he won the first of his two Academy Awards (for best screenplay) at the 1995 Oscars. More than 25 years later, Pulp Fiction remains one of the best Tarantino movies. 

Of the movies he’s directed, Pulp Fiction remains Tarantino’s crown jewel. It has a 92% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Reservoir Dogs, Inglorious Basterds, Django Unchained, Jackie Brown, Kill Bill Vol. 1, and Once Upon a Time…In Hollywood all rate 85% fresh or better. True Romance, one of Tarantino’s first screenplays to become a movie, has a 93% fresh rating.

Clint Eastwood derived the amazing reaction Pulp Fiction received at Cannes, and it’s not unrealistic to think many moviegoers felt the same way when they saw it the first time.

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