Pulp Fiction

PULP MANDARIN: Quentin Tarantino, 78th Annual Academy Awards, 2006
Love him or hate him, Q's the real deal, an artist so madly in love with the way films look and move and signify he calls them his "religion": "When I make a movie, I want it to be everything to me ... like ... moreI would die for it." (I love that "Captain Peachfuzz and the Anchovy Bandit" is the first known screenplay by the guy who won an Oscar for writing "Pulp Fiction"!) Though his cinematic style is utterly seamless, eclectic and assured, Tarantino himself comes off raw, like a big, guileless kid. It's an oxymoron that his hipster cool is generated by a flat-out faith in acting the holy fool for his art. Quentin's fashion taste runs to flamboyant Hawaiian shirts and sleeveless T's -- at Cannes, no less -- so the director of "Kill Bill" isn't likely to show up on any best-dressed list. Still, the genius (IQ: 160) whose muse is Uma Thurman rocked the red carpet in 2006 -- all duded up in a lush purple-velvet Asian shirt with mandarin collar, sporting bangs and soul patch. (Phil McCarten/Reuters/Corbis)