From Dusk Till Dawn
We kick off our summer series with the ferocity of the memorable Kill Bill double feature, setting the stage for a fast-paced lineup of films. Logically, we will conclude the summer season with a program devoted to Quentin Tarantino. A true cinephile and the foremost virtuoso of the video store era, he stormed onto the global stage of action and auteur cinema and has never left it. Watching his films back-to-back reveals a body of work built at a blistering pace, with a confidence that might sometimes make one forget the extreme attention to detail in the writing—from the narrative structure down to the smallest lines of dialogue.
Two criminals and their hostages unknowingly seek temporary refuge in a truck stop populated by vampires, with chaotic results. In addition to playing one of the film's leading roles, Quentin Tarantino wrote the screenplay based on a story by Robert Kurtzman.
Robert Rodriguez
Robert Rodriguez is a Mexican-American filmmaker, screenwriter, producer, and musician. A graduate of the University of Texas at Austin, he is known for making low-budget films that often achieve great commercial success, in which he holds many positions. His first feature film El Mariachi (1992) spremiered at various festivals (including Toronto, Sundance, and Berlinale). The reviews were quite good and caught the attention of major Hollywood studios, leading to two sequels. He then ventured into family adventure films with the Spy Kids franchise (2001-2023). He also collaborated several times with his friend Quentin Tarantino: the latter signed the screenplay of the fantasy horror film From Dusk Till Dawn *(1996) and directed a scene in *Sin City (2005), which Rodriguez co-directed with Frank Miller. Their most famous collaboration is the double feature Grindhouse (2007). In 2019, Rodriguez returned with a high-profile film adaptation of a manga: Alita: Battle Angel. Alongside his filmmaking career, he is a guitarist for the Texas rock band Chingón and also composes music for most of his films.
