Quentin Tarantino Won't Stream Movies, Still Records Them on VHS

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Director Quentin Tarantino at Comic-Con this summer (Jason Merritt/Getty Images)

Quentin Tarantino is opting out of the on-demand revolution. Not only does the Hateful Eight director refuse to subscribe to Netflix, but he still uses VHS tapes to record movies from television. In the new book I Lost It at the Video Store: A Filmmakers’ Oral History of a Vanished Era (via Indiewire), directors discuss their feelings about the shift from video stores to streaming services — and Tarantino is by far the biggest advocate of old-school media.

“I am not excited about streaming at all. I like something hard and tangible in my hand,” Tarantino told author Tom Roston. “And I can’t watch a movie on a laptop. I don’t use Netflix at all. I don’t have any sort of delivery system.”

Though video rental stores have become scarce, Tarantino essentially has his own: He bought out the entire inventory of his former employer, Video Archives in Manhattan Beach, when it closed in the mid-1990s. Tarantino described that collection as “close to 8,000 tapes and DVDs” — and, he added, “I still tape movies off of television on video so I can keep my collection going.”

Other directors interviewed for the book were more enthusiastic about streaming media. Digging for Fire director Joe Swanberg noted that video on demand has made independent film more accessible. “If I was 14 right now, still in the suburbs of Chicago, I could be really up-to-date with the independent film scene as much as anyone in L.A. or NYC. That’s exciting,” he said. Kevin Smith told Roston, “I’m a movie lover at heart, so the quickest, easiest way you can get it to me is A-OK in my book.”

And Darren Aronofsky talked about creating a special iPhone sound mix for the digital release of Noah, so that audiences watching on their portable devices would get the best film experience possible. To which Tarantino replied, “That’s the most depressing thing I’ve ever heard in my life.”

Watch a trailer for Tarantino’s upcoming film ‘The Hateful Eight.’