Quentin Tarantino Says Violence In 'Reservoir Dogs' Forced Cannes To Create A Special Warning Label

Quentin Tarantino is no stranger to violence on screen. This is a filmmaker who loves to be pretty shocking when it comes to the gore associated with death, and it’s a staple of his work dating back to his first feature, “Reservoir Dogs.” And apparently, his depiction of violence on screen was enough to force Cannes to introduce a new warning label for some films.

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Speaking to Deadline, while at the Cannes Film Festival, Tarantino talked about a variety of things relating to his decades-long career. However, when it came to one of his earliest memories about Cannes, he spoke of when “Reservoir Dogs” was chosen to play out-of-competition at the French event. This came after the film wowed audiences and critics at Sundance. While Cannes wanted to show the movie, there was a bit of apprehension regarding the violence. So much so the festival put a warning label on the ticket.

“They invented something for our screening that they’d never done before; they put an orange sticker in the ticket that said: This movie may be too violent for you to watch,” said Tarantino. “And they’d never done that before and they ended up putting the same sticker on ‘Pulp Fiction’ when it played here in 1994.”

Of course, Cannes would eventually ditch the label, but Tarantino didn’t prompt the second change. According to the filmmaker, Cannes got rid of the warning when it selected a film from another controversial director, Lars von Trier.

He added, “And then at some point with Lars von Trier, they stopped putting the sticker on.”

It’s pretty interesting to see how the film industry, especially festivals, has changed over the years. The idea that a Tarantino film would be so shocking that a warning label had to be added to the ticket is a bit silly in 2023. Cannes has not only shown other Tarantino films in that time, but there have been many, such as the aforementioned von Trier, who have shown features that are way more graphic and disturbing than anything in “Pulp Fiction” or “Reservoir Dogs.” But times have changed.

Quentin Tarantino might have one last chance to show a film at Cannes, as he is currently developing the project, which is seemingly his final film, “The Movie Critic.” So, for old-time’s sake, if he does show the film at Cannes eventually, maybe the festival can revive the warning label for Tarantino as a fun nod. We shall see.