Pulp Fiction

I first saw it in the cinema at the Czech premiere, when nobody had heard of Pulp Fiction and the name Tarantino was unknown. My friend and I walked out of the cinema and I was overjoyed to have seen something original again after a long time. My friend looked puzzled and told me he had to let it soak in overnight, he didn't know what to do. The next morning he came running to my room (in the college dorm) and excitedly announced: "Dude, it's been going through my head. It was awesome!” He ran to everyone he knew and recommended it to them and went back every day for the rest of the week with an ever growing crowd of curious people. They wrote lines from the film on pieces of paper and taped them to their walls – maybe that’s also how a cult classic is born. I really don’t know why I’m writing this, but Pulp Fiction is in my TOP 10 and I felt an almost moral obligation to say something without being repetitive. This film is like a refreshing spring in the middle of a desert of uniformity and deserves only words of praise. (13/04/2003)

A handsome and sexy definition of pulp poetics that said everything it had to say, and also everything it could say. All plagiarism is just a useless repetition of the same thing - this is literally a biblically bloated folio. It was definitely Tarantino who popularized the atypical narrative form and brought into play all the declining pop-cultural emblems and mechanisms that until then had somehow remained on the fringes of generally accepted culture. The only flaw in the beauty of the Pulp Fiction poetics is that they go completely beyond me. But definitely Tarantino's best film. (27/11/2006)

The magic of Pulp Fiction doesn't fully hit you until you've watched it for the tenth or eleventh time and realise that you still can't get enough; whether it's the incredibly witty dialogue, the framed narrative, the performances, the pop culture nods, or simply the execution of each scene with a perfect sense of visual punctuation and musical underscoring. One iconic shot after another, the camera breaks down the space with the ingenuity of Thomas Edison, the absurd game with the motif of "twisted" coincidence is turned into an amazingly coherent experience and it makes you wish it lasted twenty or forty minutes longer. While from the most from the holy year 1994 I prefer the humane Shawshank, the clear winner in the field of cinephile delight is this Tarantino treasure. (31/03/2018)

A breakthrough film of the 90s that gave birth to the Quentin Tarantino cult and marked the transformation of its genre. A skillful mix of violence and vulgarity combined with a clever screenplay that skillfully intertwines storylines and connects individual storylines. It became the most financially successful American film made in the 90s outside of major studios. Audiences appreciated Tarantino's inventiveness, as film production in the previous decade had been desperately sterile and unoriginal. They were fascinated by the raw violence and harsh lines that were unprecedented at the time. The film could rely on several stars who played their roles with great enthusiasm, with Samuel L. Jackson becoming one of the most sought-after actors. In this film, Tarantino capitalized on the thousands of hours he spent watching B-movies from around the world. It was evident that he could make something out of these ideas... Overall impression: 80%. (23/06/2006)

An untouchable aura that surprisingly does damage. Although John Travolta is irresistible and Bruce Willis flawless, the glory of the most cultish cult bothered me to such an extent that I probably won't be able to enjoy Pulp Fiction without some biases. A weaker four stars and the need for another viewing. (26/01/2006)