Quentin Tarantino Explains Why He Still Doesn’t Have a Netflix Account (Video)

Turns out he really, really misses video stores

You can watch Quentin Tarantino’s films on Netflix, but the director himself would probably prefer that you rent his films from your local video store… if you still have one.

In an interview clip posted on YouTube, the cinephile and Oscar-winning filmmaker said he doesn’t use the popular streaming service and laments the decline of video rental stores.

Tarantino himself worked at a video store in Manhattan Beach before breaking into Hollywood with his first film, “Reservoir Dogs,” and he said that video stores, much like record stores, encourage customers to peruse through titles and perhaps discover something they never thought they’d find.

“There was a different quality to the video store. You went down to the video store, you looked around, you picked up boxes, you read the back of the boxes — you made a choice. And maybe you talked to the guy behind the counter, and maybe he pointed you toward something. And he didn’t just put something in your hand, he gave you a little bit of a sales pitch on it to some degree or another,” Tarantino said.

As for streaming and movie channels — the latter of which Tarantino does use — he feels that while those services offer the convenience of thousands of films from the comfort of one’s couch, they’ve caused people to be less thoughtful about the movies they watch and how they watch them.

“You hit the guide and you go down the list, and you hit there and you watch something or you tape something,” he explained, “and maybe you never get around to watching it or you actually do watch it, and then maybe you watch it for 10 minutes or 20 minutes, and maybe you start doing something else, and [you decide], ‘Nah, I’m not really into this.’ And then that’s kind of where we’ve fallen into.”

“You were kind of invested in a way that you’re not invested with electronic technology when it comes to the movies.”

Tarantino’s ninth film, which was bought by Sony after the director parted ways with longtime distributor The Weinstein Company, will be set in Los Angeles in 1969 with the murder of Sharon Tate by Charles Manson’s cult serving as the backdrop.

Listen to Tarantino’s remarks in the clip above.

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