Quentin Tarantino: Hollywood wanted to bring erotica to the mainstream

Quentin Tarantino claims Hollywood planned for a new era of "erotic cinema" in the 1970s.
The ‘Reservoir Dogs’ filmmaker reminisced about the end of "old Hollywood" but admitted a lot of "promises" made at the beginning of that decade by cinema bosses were never fulfilled, including making sensual films more mainstream.
Introducing ‘Beyond the Valley of the Dolls’, as part of his 1970 retrospective, at Lyon’s Lumière Festival on Sunday (09.10.16), he said: "New Hollywood became the Hollywood [in 1970].
"Old Hollywood, which had existed since the ’20s, was no more. If there is any movie that illustrates how Old Hollywood is no more it is ‘Beyond the Valley of the Dolls’.
"[In cinema in 1970] there were a lot of promises made. Some of them were kept and fulfilled, and some of them weren’t.
"One of the promises that unfortunately existed that year and a couple years after that was never fulfilled was the promise of a new, erotic cinema."
After the censorship code was abolished, there was a belief that erotic cinema could become "respectable" away from "porno theatres".
Tarantino explained: "[It was felt erotic cinema could] get out of the raincoat crowd, the grind-houses, the porno theaters and the 8mm reals and actually could become respectable and mainstream so regular people could go to the cinema and experience erotic cinema without any embarrassment or shame."
The 53-year-old filmmaker claimed studio bosses were "horribly embarrassed" that satirical sequel ‘Beyond the Valley of the Dolls’ was so successful.
He said: "Frankly, when you see this film, there has rarely ever been a studio film that looks or feels like ‘Beyond the Valley of the Dolls.’ Were there more studio films like this
"20th Century Fox’s experiment played out better than anyone could have ever hoped [as it was a big hit] They were horribly embarrassed by that.
"As time has gone on, when people do top 10 films of the ’70s in general, it is ‘Beyond the Valley of the Dolls’ that ends up on those lists more than any other film of that year."
However, the ‘Kill Bill’ director acknowledged the new era of erotic cinema lasted, at the best, three years," and "then returned to either porno or sexploitation movies."
He then jokingly urged the audience to pretend the screening would usher in "the beginning of a new erotic cinema that will carry on for the next 40 years."
He added: "It didn’t happen, but let’s pretend it did."