Cinema as I knew it is dead: Quentin Tarantino

Celebrated actor-filmmaker Quentin Tarantino, whose iconic cult classis "Pulp Fiction" was screened here at the 67th Cannes International Film Festival, says the practice of screening films in digital has led to the death of "cinema as I knew".

He also lambasted established filmmakers for turning their back on 35 mm film and ridiculed digital projections as a poor substitute for "the real thing", reports independent.co.uk.

Tarantino attended the screening of "Pulp Fiction" with actors Uma Thurman and John Travolta for the movie's 20th anniversary celebration.

Of the current filmmaking trend, he said: "As far as I'm concerned, digital projection and DCPs (Digital Cinema Packages) is the death of cinema as I know it."

"The fact that most films now are not presented in 35 mm means that the war is lost. Digital projections, that's just television in public. And apparently the whole world is okay with television in public, but what I knew as cinema is dead," he added.

He finds the present generation "quite hopeless", however, he is hopeful the next one "would demand the real thing".

"I'm hopeful that we're going through a woozy romantic period with the ease of digital. I'm very hopeful that future generations will be much smarter than this generation and realise what they lost."

"Back in my day, you at least needed 16mm to make something, and that was a Mount Everest most of us couldn't climb. But why an established filmmaker would shoot on digital, I have no idea at all," he added.