Shadowing Practice: Quentin Tarantino on Story Problems - Learn English Speaking with Video
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167 sentences
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Halloween 2, Deborah Hill and John Carpenter do the cheapest thing just to throw a little whammy in the movie,
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and they make it that Laurie and Michael Myers are brother and sister.
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And that taints every single Halloween sequel that happens afterwards, because he's not her brother.
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She's not his sister.
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That's just bullshit.
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That literally was them coming up with a stupid idea at the last minute.
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Yeah, but it's the cheapest thing.
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Nobody was coming from that point of view when they were making the first one.
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And what makes the first one so good is the fact
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that you don't know what it is that makes Michael Myers go, her!
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Yeah.
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It's not a sister thing.
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Piranha, directed by Joe Dante and written by John Sayles.
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I only have two problems with the whole movie.
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One problem that you have about the way the piranhas get loose in the ocean is, you know, it's not elegant.
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Into the river.
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Yeah, yeah, in the river, yeah.
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In the river.
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It's not elegant.
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It doesn't serve our heroin.
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It doesn't, they could have done better.
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Oh, hey, what's this?
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Okay, they could have done better.
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Hey, what's this wheel?
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Let's turn it.
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Woody Allen's Anything Else.
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That's the Jason Diggs one.
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But the only, like, you know, but like the person I had watched the most, because it's one of the things I'm really anal about,
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is I have people make references, and it just kills me when I know people don't know what they're talking about.
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How do you mean?
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Well, what I mean is, it's like, you know, I can, you know, well, okay, I'll give you a big example.
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Okay.
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Yeah, you got that.
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Okay.
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It's like when you're watching a Woody Allen movie and Juliette Lewis
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and Jimmy Fallon are sitting there talking and they're talking about Lena Riefenstahl and Triumph of Will
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and the White Hill of Pizu Pizu
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and they're talking about Gertrude Stein's second lover and we know they don't know what they're talking about.
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and the fact
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that like it not only is Jimmy Fallon you randomly having a conversation about Lena Riefenstahl
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but he's actually written a monograph that is about Lena Riefenstahl in Vanity Fair in the movie and I know
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Jimmy Fallon doesn't know who Lena Riefenstahl is.
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I don't really care for natural -born killers I don't really recognize it as as what I wrote.
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In fact it was funny I didn't see this
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but I was like my got the friends of mine at the video store
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you know they'd read the script for two years before it was ever yes and then
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And then they're like, oh my God, Quentin, there's this whole scene in the movie where Mickey is fucking Mallory.
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And then he looks at a female victim who's tied up in the corner and he starts fantasizing about her.
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And they go, Mickey would never do that.
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Mallory would never cheat.
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Mickey would.
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I mean, the point of the thing is they unnaturally live for each other at the expense of everybody else on the planet Earth.
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Something Wild was always that kind of like movie for me, like when I saw it
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and i remember i took a buddy of mine who wasn't part of the video archives group he was like uh
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uh he was a writer and you know it kind of had had a harder life
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and i took him to go see it
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and he's really enjoying it he pointed out something amiss about the movie
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and he told me about it and i knew it was right
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but i immediately dismissed it because i didn't want anything to ruin the film
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and i i did was able to dismiss it i watched it again in 2017.
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I hadn't seen it in a long time and I watched it again
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and when the scene happens it completely took me out of the movie.
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Okay so here's the scene.
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It's when he goes and has this confrontation with with Ray Liotta in the coffee shop with Melanie Griffith there.
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Now there's a lot of things going on in here.
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He wants to take on Ray Liotta.
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He wants to get Melanie Griffith away from Ray Liotta but he wants her to see him standing up to the guy.
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He wants her to see him save her and work it all out so it's going on now we know
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Ray Liot is not a joke this is a dangerous cat man
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and you know you're playing with fire here then cops come into the diner
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and sit in the booth behind them it's like well tell the fucking cops I mean she's practically kidnapped
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but even if maybe
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that might not work out as well in her eyes all right as far as getting her away
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but if this guy is as dangerous as he proves to be
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and as we think he already is
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and as he should know he is just tell the cops
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he witnessed an entire robbery they brutalized the asian kid
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you know he pistol whipped the asian kid in in the store
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he has enough to get ray liotta arrested right then
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and there okay well why it's there is for a comedy moment
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that he can't really do anything
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because the cops are there he can't just punch jeff daniels all right
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because the cops are there
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and then jeff downs was like hey officers how you doing you know
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so there's a so there's a joke and that always got a laugh
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but my friend who was street was watching the movie why isn't
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he just telling the cops i mean he witnessed an entire robbery they're looking for
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that robber that kid is in the hospital with a purple face anyway it's just like i couldn't get past it
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It was a big flaw.
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It was a big story flaw.
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It wasn't then.
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It wasn't then.
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No, it definitely dimmed for me, but that doesn't matter.
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What really matters was how exuberant I thought it was at the time when I needed exuberance.
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I really got a kick out of it.
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Oh, yeah.
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Yeah, I thought it was really good.
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Me and Paul have talked about this, though.
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I mean, I actually think there's a slight flaw in Boogie Nights.
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And the flaw in Boogie Nights is the perception of the Burt Reynolds character.
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And what I mean by that is this.
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Paul can say he's not based on the director Gerard Damiano, who directed Devil and Mrs. Jones and Deep Throat.
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He is.
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He obviously is.
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He looks exactly like him.
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And Gerard Damiano has a very unique look.
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So you have to actually make him, Burt Reynolds doesn't look like that.
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So you actually have to go out of your way to make him look like Gerard Damiano with the gray and black
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Van Dyke that he wore and the kind of wavy gray hair that he wore.
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That's not Burt Reynolds' look.
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That is Gerard Damiano's look.
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So he went out of his way to make the guy look like his exact double.
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So you can't say, I didn't mean to be that guy.
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Yes, he did.
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Here's my problem with the film though.
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Yes, I do think it's honest about being a filmmaker
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but my problem with it though is
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when he makes the cop movie the porno cop movie
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and he's killing himself doing it
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and then you see the film the film looks like a piece of shit
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it looks horrible now i've seen i believe me i i've seen more porno movies than paul have
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because i worked at the porno theater all right
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and i saw a lot of movies crappy like that but he has the Burt Reynolds' character say,
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I think, you know, he says it in the full -on, moving the close -up in him, I think this is my greatest work yet.
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This is the best work we've ever done.
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I think this is my finest work yet.
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Gerard Damiano was a better director than that.
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Gerard Damiano's better footage looked drastically better than that cop crap.
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Yes, exactly.
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Gerard Damiano was a good enough filmmaker to know the difference between, oh, wow, this is the best movie I've ever done.
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And no, this one has a little bit of a story, but we still shot it on 16 millimeter,
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you know, in crappy daylight with no light.
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And, you know, and it looks like what it looks like.
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Burt Reynolds suggests that he's more of a director than that, that he would know the difference.
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Gerard Damiano definitely would know the difference.
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And he's playing Gerard Damiano.
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So I think it's a cheap line because that character would know
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that that work is not the best work he could possibly do.
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Yeah, you can definitely lose perspective, but you don't think some piece of junk that you did is the best work you've ever going to do.
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The movie is called Delirium.
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The thing about Delirium that is absolutely positively ridiculous is the entire story you hear about him the night before,
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because you just see him as a raving lunatic that every woman he sees, he kills.
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But apparently the night before, he's like vibing with a girl and they're really hitting it off.
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He's partying with her and her roommate.
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Who the fuck is that guy?
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It never mentions what set him off to such a degree that now he's just a terminator on kill.
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You using the Silence of the Lambs example, that sequence is magnificent.
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I will push back on one aspect of it done
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i've seen some movies before i did not think jodie foster was going to die at
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that point in the movie i would have been i would have been surprised
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if it ended with buffalo bill killing jodie foster no i've seen too many movies to think
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that that was actually going to happen i was caught up in the moment
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but i still have a movie brand going on are you saying are you saying
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that it would be a better film
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if the film ended with buffalo bill wearing jodie foster no no no no
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i'm i'm i'm i'm i'm using it i'm using it to go back to once my time in in hollywood
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because one of the reasons that that scene works so effectively is because cliff could die.
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Narratively, movie -wise, in every way, shape, and form.
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He could die in that sequence.
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Put that down.
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What's going on here?
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What are you doing?
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What are you doing?
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Can you not talk to me? Are you...
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So you know she's not just a guy from around here.
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You're actually a paparazzi guy.
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But if that was off, I'd be whipping your ass up and down.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This speaking lesson is built on the video “Quentin Tarantino on Story Problems”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: movie, Gerard, cop, Damiano. This video has 167 sentences and 1830 words to shadow. The speech runs for 9:59. The speaker talks fast, about 183 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 82% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| cop noun | /kɑp/ | A police officer or prison guard. |
| flaw noun | /flɔ/ | A crack or breach, a gap or fissure; a defect of continuity or cohesion. |
| foster verb | /ˈfɒstə/ | To nurture or bring up offspring, or to provide similar parental care to an unrelated child. |
| gray adjective | /ɡɹeɪ/ | Of a color between black and white, having neutral hue and intermediate brightness. |
| sequence noun | /ˈsiː.kwəns/ | A set of things next to each other in a set order; a series. |
| buffalo noun | /ˈbʌf.ə.loʊ/ | An animal from the subtribe Bubalina, also known as true buffalos, such as the Cape buffalo, Syncerus caffer, or the water buffalo, Bubalus bubalis. |
| whip noun | /ˈwɪp/ | A lash; a pliant, flexible instrument, such as a rod (commonly of cane or rattan) or a plaited or braided rope or thong (commonly of leather) used to create a… |
| robbery noun | /ˈɹɑbəɹi/ | The act or practice of robbing. |
| elegant adjective | /ˈɛləɡənt/ | Characterised by or exhibiting elegance; having grace, refinement, or tasteful simplicity. |
| dismiss verb | /dɪsˈmɪs/ | To discharge; to end the employment or service of. |
| filmmaker noun | A producer or director of films/movies. | |
| killer noun | /ˈkɪlɚ/ | One who or that which kills. |
| ridiculous adjective | /ɹɪˈdɪk.jə.ləs/ | Deserving of ridicule; foolish, absurd. |
| horrible adjective | /ˈhɔɹ.ɪ.bəl/ | Causing horror; terrible; shocking. |
| afterwards adverb | /ˈæf.tɚ.wɚdz/ | At a later or succeeding time; after that; |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| come up with verb | To manage to produce, deliver, or present (something) by inventing, creating, thinking of, or obtaining it. | |
| get past verb | To continue around a blockage; to get around (something); to surpass something that is in the way. | |
| go back to verb | To stem from; to originate in. | |
| point out verb | To identify among a group of similar subjects, or in a scene where the subject might not be readily seen or noticed, with a gesture of the body. | |
| stand up to verb | To object to or interfere with the actions of (someone seen as bullying, pushy, or controlling). | |
| work out verb | /ˌwɝk ˈaʊt/ | To calculate. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- It doesn't serve our heroin.
- How do you mean?
- Here's my problem with the film though.
- This is the best work we've ever done.
- Can you not talk to me?
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | have talked · i've seen · we've ever done |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | is called · was caught |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 50 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'm, they're, don't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: theater /ˈθi(ə)tɚ/, booth /buθ/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: perception /pɚˈsɛpʃ(ə)n/, confrontation /ˌkɑn.fɹənˈteɪ.ʃən/
- Long words — get the stress right: ridiculous /ɹɪˈdɪk.jə.ləs/, practically /ˈpɹæk.tɪ.k(ə.)li/, magnificent /mæɡˈnɪfəsənt/, positively /ˈpɑ.zɪ.tɪv.li/, confrontation /ˌkɑn.fɹənˈteɪ.ʃən/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like cop, flaw, foster.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.