Netflix: Quentin Tarantino still tapes movies from TV

Tom Roston’s new book I Lost It At The Video Store gathers some of film world’s most influential directors to discuss the rise and fall of the video store — and how streaming services have changed the movie landscape. In an excerpt from the book, first published on Indiewire, filmmakers like Kevin Smith, Darren Aronofsky, and Greg Mottola weigh in on how Netflix has affected their craft, but none are as decidedly anti-streaming as Quentin Tarantino.

“I am not excited about streaming at all,” Tarantino said. “I like something hard and tangible in my hand. And I can’t watch a movie on a laptop. I don’t use Netflix at all. I don’t have any sort of delivery system. I have the videos from Video Archives. They went out of business, and I bought their inventory. Probably close to eight thousand tapes and DVDs.”

He added: “I still tape movies off of television on video so I can keep my collection going,” he added.

While most of the other filmmakers aren’t explicitly pro- or anti-Netflix, a few say they’re a fan of how streaming has made movies more accessible. “When I was 14, I wanted to be a filmmaker, and I started reading Filmmaker Magazine and I’d read about indie films I’d never see, not even at the video store,” Joe Swanberg said. “These days, you can see them on VOD. If I was fourteen right now, still in the suburbs of Chicago, I could be really up-to-date with the independent film scene as much as anyone in L.A. or NYC. That’s exciting. The access is getting better.”

Read the entire excerpt about Netflix and other streaming services at Indiewire. For more on I Lost It At The Video Store, check out EW’s exclusive excerpt with Tarantino, Swanberg, Nicole Holofcener, and Kevin Smith talking about their jobs at video stores.