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If Quentin Tarantino is a cinema god, the historic Vista Theater is his church. On Tuesday night, his disciples flocked to the hallowed aisles of the Los Feliz venue (which he owns) for the first-ever live taping of his podcast with Roger Avary and Gala Avary, “The Video Archives.”
The podcast, named for the iconic movie rental store of the same name where both Tarantino and Roger Avary once worked, sees the trio revisit some of their favorite old B-movies and discover new ones.
The live event, held exclusively for Patreon members, hosted about 400 cinephiles (dozens of whom were naturally clad in “Pulp Fiction” shirts) for a surprise screening curated by the the “Video Archives” team, followed by an off-the-cuff edition of the popular podcast.
Before the screening began, Tarantino cued up a selection of four wild 35mm trailers for films previously discussed on the podcast: “The Illustrated Man,” “Straw Dogs,” “Two-Minute Warning” and “Demonoid.”
Courtesy of Creative Riff
The film of the night was Duccio Tessari’s 1973 Italian gangster flick “No Way Out” (aka “Big Guns” and “Tony Arzenta”). For Tarantino and Avary, screening the movie alongside Patreon supporters was a unique experience, not just because of the live taping, but because they don’t really expect listeners to watch the majority of the films they discuss.
“By and large, I’ll say 80 percent, I don’t really care about that. I don’t care if you watch the movies or not,” Tarantino told Variety ahead of the event. Sitting alongside Avary in the Vista’s 20-seat Video Archives micro-cinema, he continued, “I want you to listen to our show, and I want you to like the show. I have not seen every movie of every Pauline Kael review I’ve read. But I like reading the reviews. We’re not a ‘recommend’ show. If we do end up recommending a movie that you want to watch, great! I want to do movies that I want to watch with Roger, and I want to talk about. Whatever happens after that, that’s all up to you. We can do movies we don’t like. We just have to think it’ll be a good show. The only thing that’s important is the discussion.”
That spirit of lively discussion is of paramount importance to Avary, who feels we’ve lost touch with the art of the Socratic debate. “People have forgotten how to have discussions – proper discussions – where you can agree and disagree with each other, and even debate each other, and then get into an argument with each other and then say, ‘Hey, let’s go to karaoke! Let’s get a bite to eat,’” Avary said.
And debate they did. For about 90 minutes, the “Pulp Fiction” duo went back-and-forth about the merits of “No Way Out’s” most brutal kills, its charismatic leading man Alain Delon and the murky romance his character sparks with an old flame (“I only buy it about 85%,” Avary said, prompting a spirited rebuttal from Tarantino). They didn’t bring any notes on stage – just a kitchen timer and an encyclopedic knowledge of cinema as they rattled off the names of Italian auteurs and obscure films.
Courtesy of Creative Riff
As rousing as the film talkback was, the taping’s most exciting segment began when producer Gala Avary shared questions from Patreon members around the world about the OG Video Archives store. Tarantino and Avary peppered in tales of their early days in Hollywood, including insider info on how they’d handle late fees at the video store and one particularly eyebrow-raising anecdote about creating over 30 bootleg copies of “RoboCop” off an Orion Studios-owned VHS (which Tarantino fervently insists they “never did anything with!”).
The live episode will soon be made available to Patreon members, and the “Video Archives” team says future stage shows are “probably” coming soon – but they’re not getting ahead of themselves. “We’ll see. If it’s a fiasco tonight, maybe not,” Tarantino says with a laugh before the event. It’s safe to say after multiple standing ovations and enthusiastic shout-outs from the crowd that a fiasco was avoided — cementing the evening as likely the first of many “Video Archives” live shows.
