Grindhouse refers to a way of watching and distributing films, as well as an aesthetic. Tarantino turns that memory of programmes, cinemas and prints into material for new fiction.
An exhibition culture, not a single genre
Grindhouse is associated with cinemas that programmed exploitation films, often in continuous or double-bill screenings. Drive-ins offered another kind of experience: audiences stayed in their vehicles in front of an outdoor screen. Both circuits could share titles and commercial strategies, but they were not the same space and did not produce exactly the same relationship between spectators and images.
Exploitation cinema covers different genres. Horror, action, eroticism and stories of violence could be promoted through a striking element capable of attracting audiences. The label does not guarantee a particular quality, nor does it mean that all films were identical. Some depended on low budgets; others made use of broader industrial resources or achieved a far longer commercial life than expected.
Tarantino's relationship with that cinema includes attention to films that might fall outside more prestigious accounts of film history. His interest is not limited to rescuing little-known titles. He also looks at performances, editing solutions, music and ways of addressing the audience that can retain their energy when they enter another work.
The B-movie and exploitation cinema in Reservoir Dogs makes that interest clear even before the Grindhouse project. The director does not need to reproduce an old cinema to use resources associated with those films. The memory of the circuit appears in the tone, in the violence and in the combination of references that sit alongside other, more recognised traditions.
Grindhouse turns the programme into part of the work
Grindhouse, released in 2007, brought together Planet Terror, by Robert Rodriguez, and Death Proof, by Tarantino, within a double-bill proposal with additional material that evoked the exhibition experience. The wait between titles and the contrast in running times are also part of a screening: they prepare expectations that a standalone work does not need to manage in quite the same way. The complete programme mattered: audiences encountered a succession of pieces and shifts in register, not simply an isolated feature using an old-fashioned look.
The marks of wear, image alterations and allusions to missing material contribute to that simulation. They are decisions in a contemporary production that represents a worn copy. Confusing them with accidental faults in filming would prevent us from understanding their function. The film constructs a memory of how certain prints could circulate after many screenings.
The place of Death Proof within Grindhouse shapes its rhythm and its relationship with the whole. Its later circulation as a separate feature introduces a different experience. The differences between the programme cut and the extended version should be noted in each edit, because talking about a single version can obscure important changes in length and structure.
The collaboration with Robert Rodriguez brings together two sensibilities that do not become identical simply by sharing a programme. Planet Terror develops a horror-and-action fantasy; Death Proof combines conversation, threat and pursuit. The double bill allows those differences to become part of the pleasure of exhibition, as was the case when one programme brought together works of different tones.
Preserving an experience without confusing it with the whole story
The New Beverly Cinema offers another dimension to Tarantino's relationship with exhibition. Programming films and committing to film screenings extend a cinephile and collector's activity. However, each individual screening has its own history, and not every film shown there should be interpreted as the director's absolute favourite.
The debate about celluloid and digital projection also requires a distinction between format, preservation and experience. A photochemical print may offer qualities valued by the filmmaker, but defending it does not mean that all damage is desirable. The simulated wear in Grindhouse is an aesthetic choice; preserving a film requires taking care of materials so that it remains accessible.
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood brings the drive-in into Cliff Booth's everyday space. His home is located next to a screen and an exhibition infrastructure that remains around his private life. The drive-in associated with Cliff turns film culture into a habitable landscape, as well as a visual reference. Cinema exists as work, leisure and neighbourhood.
Nostalgia can select attractive aspects and leave others in the background. A double bill remembered with enthusiasm does not represent all the working, commercial or social conditions of those cinemas. Analysis can recognise Tarantino's affection without turning the past into a uniform experience or idealising every film that circulated through those circuits.
His contribution lies in treating exhibition as part of film memory. The order of a programme, the condition of a print and the place from which it is watched all affect what is remembered. Grindhouse turns those conditions into cinematic form; the New Beverly approaches them through programming. Both gestures show that a film can keep changing meaning depending on how it is encountered by its audience.
Continue in Tarantino's cinematic genres and homages.