Image: Levonbiss.com

Movies are my religion and God is my patron… When I make a movie, I want it to be everything to me; like I would die for it

Tarantino’s words describe his vigorous zeal for cinema. It is well known that Tarantino – a high school drop-out with an IQ of 160 – found the bases of his motion picture prestige at Video Archives, a Californian video store that curated rare, off-beat movies. He was 22 at the time, and claims he found inspiration in cinema from watching videos during his shift at the shop. However, his introduction to film began at a much younger age when the sixteen-year-old Tarantino would accompany a porn magazine magnate to whizz through the streets of California collecting coins from magazine racks. The young Tarantino also worked as an usher in an adult film theatre called the Pussycat Theatre in Torrance, California. Speaking on his time there, the director said,

I couldn’t care less about the [porn] movies and was totally bored by them

Four Rooms, image: collider.com

It’s rare to find an adolescent male who is bored by porn, but Tarantino has always been defined by his ability to surprise. He first shocked audiences in 1992 when Reservoir Dogs – a film that saw Tarantino producing a screenplay in three and half weeks and filming the entire movie in 35 days – electrified the Sundance Film Festival. The moment marked Tarantino as a brilliant writer and a superbly enigmatic director, which is shown in his characterisation of his movies:

My movies are painfully personal, but I’m never trying to let you know how personal they are

Pulp Fiction, Image: movpins.com

Although Reservoir Dogs failed to win any awards, Tarantino’s future works would birth a new era of Hollywood film. Few directors create movies that are still whispered almost 20 years after their release, but to this day Pulp Fiction resonates as a cult pièces de résistance and it garnered Tarantino his first Academy Award for Best Screenplay. The movie started a roll of film that would develop into one of the most innovative, avant garde, controversial film reels to spool audiences and critics alike. Four Rooms, From Dusk Til Dawn, Jackie Brown, Kill Bill Vol. 1 and Vol. 2, Inglorius Basterds… Each movie represents an artistic change in cinema. From spawning blood-splattered screenplays that draw laughter (see Marvin’s death in Pulp Fiction) to fearlessly inviting the wrath of Jews and historians by rewriting history in Inglorius Basterds (see Hitler’s fictional death), Tarantino has made the impossible and the inconceivable a very real experience. Longevity is a force which is becoming increasingly difficult to master, but Tarantino has embossed his name in cinema history books to the extent where he is written in the pages of the Collins English Dictionary:

Tarantinoesque (adj) – referring to or reminiscent of the work of the American film-maker and actor Quentin Tarantino (born 1963), known for the violence and wit of his films.

His latest release, Django Unchained, has been less publicly acclaimed than his previous works, but still managed to gift Tarantino the Best Original Screenplay golden statue at the 2013 Oscars. It also caught the attention of music fans who praised the film’s soundtrack. Diversely talented with an eye for the good stuff, Tarantino always finds a way to please his followers. Not many things are certain in Hollywood, and even less things last, but there’s one thing Tarantino can guarantee:

now, at the end of two decades in the business… I am here to stay

images: movpins.com, collider.com, Levonbiss.com
 

Words: Ra’eesa Pather

BY AMY ABRAHAMS

Amy Abrahams: You have to tell me about the name Silly Rabbit, where did it come from?

Zayaan Majiet: Silly Rabbit was a name that just popped up and kind of stuck. Kill Bill Vol.1 is my all time favourite movie, and there is a scene about an hour and 40-odd minutes into the movie where Beatrix Kiddo is having a conversation with O-Ren Ishii, and the sentence “Silly Rabbit, tricks are for kids” comes up. It’s subtle, and if you’re not paying attention, you won’t pick it up. That is what Silly Rabbit is about. It’s subtle, with big impact. The name also has to do with the fact that I am crazy about animals and there is just something about rabbits that inspire me. The rabbit is the perfect symbolism and representation of what Silly Rabbit stands for.

What is your main inspiration for the collection?

My main inspiration for the collection is love and happiness. Hearts and animals are the two main things that give me inspiration. There is something about the peaceful nature of animals that people will never understand a kind of serenity… This is what I want my collection to make the individual who wears my items feel. It’s happy and peaceful.

What type of woman were you designing for when conceptualising your range?

We all have that little girl within us no matter how old we are, and that is what I wish to embrace. Silly Rabbit is about tapping into your inner child with subtle hints of hearts and frills, but still staying true to the strong independent woman. It is about embracing your feminity, but staying true to your foundation, the things that made you feel like the prettiest princess in the park. When you wear a Silly Rabbit item, it should make you feel the way you felt when you were a little girl and you just got a new party frock.

Tell me in one sentence: who is Zayaan Majiet is one sentence?

A little rabbit in a big forest.

So… Why fashion? When did you know this is what you wanted to do?

Since I could first speak I wanted to be a vet. Then I got older and my interests expanded, but my love for animals never changed. I became very creative and also had this affinity for clothing, and I loved looking different. So when it came to deciding what I wanted to study I applied for Fashion Design, because it would allow me to be creative and practical, and I could make my own clothes.

What was your first design?

My first serious design was in my first year of studying. It was a black and white leopard-print high-waisted skirt with neon ribbing. Everyone hated it but there is something about it that always makes me smile.