To those accustomed to fine dining, what people eat in the films of Tarantino and how they eat it is simply incomprehensible. Fast food. It's all hamburgers, milkshakes and American coffee (don't even get us started on the desserts). What's much more interesting, however, is how the characters talk about food, or to be more precise, what you can read between the lines of the conversation. Perhaps that's why those moments in Tarantino's films when the characters are either eating or drinking, or at least talking about it, are so memorable. Just for instance, we have the hamburger dialogue in Pulp Fiction, which can be interpreted as a conversation about linguistics and cultural diversity. Notwithstanding the fact that the characters examine the infinite diversity of the planet from the perspective of a slab of ground meat. In Tarantino's films, none of this is filler, but rather the meat of the drama: a glass of milk, a plate of rice or a blueberry pancake are capable of kickstarting an entire story. There are times when the desecration of an innocent apple strudel can be turned into a psychodrama. If we tried to unpack Tarantino's films to get to the bare bones of the story, we wouldn't get very far. What remains is power, money and revenge - maybe a little bit of love. But if we examine the details, the clothes, the mise-en-scene, if we listen to the score and the Babel-like mix of languages and accents, if we pay attention to the 'menu', then we realise we are in an incredibly rich cinematic world.
Pulp Fiction is an essential film for at least two generations of cinemagoers. It is a story told by dispensing with every rule in the book, using deliberately badly drawn characters and a cocktail of different genres. Not to mention all you ever needed to know about hamburgers...

Presented by: Müpa Budapest