Tarantino's Inglourious

Extract Analysis

Inglourious Basterds - Chapter Five

The Revenge of the Giant Face

(01:41:04 - 01:45:00)

 

Overview

   My chosen film is Inglourious Basterds by Quentin Tarantino. It is a remake of the 1978 Italian comedy-drama war film Inglorious Bastards by Enzo G. Castellari. However, apart from the title plot had been slightly changed as well and might not be as violent as the majority of Tarantino’s work.

  The movie is divided in 5 chapters. The first four is an introduction of the numerous characters such as the team of the Basterds, Shosanna, Colonel Landa and the “Bear Jew”. In the last chapter these storylines run together towards the end, in which the whole Nazi leadership is going to explode. The irony of the ending is that the audience knows it wasn't the historical way Hitler died.

At the beginning of the film there was a young Jewish girl, Shosanna, who was hiding

Inglourious Basterds DVD cover

underneath the floor of the house (which was almost as poorly equipped as a barn is) of a French farmer to avoid the tragic meeting with the dreaded "Jew Hunter". Although she had to witness the brutal murderer of her entire family, she escaped.

Later on we see her again in Paris. By then she grew a young, independent woman, who runs a small cinema in the capital of France during the Nazi invasion. As a coincidence she is forced to face again the person who killed her family. On the same day she has to accept a request to arrange a premiere for a "heroic" German film. With Hitler and the Nazi leaders on her guest list she decided to make fireworks from the film stocks she owned and blow up the whole cinema. The Nazis didn't even suspect that they have put their lives in the hands of a Jewish girl and her black lover Marcel both ready for revenge.

   On the other hand she doesn’t realize either that she isn't the only one considering a suicidal movement, but the special team Inglorious Basterds have plans as well for the same night.

The sequence

   The sequence takes place in the opening of Chapter 5, however it is still a prelude of the final attraction. There is one main scene in the sequence, in which she's getting dressed for the night of the film premiere mentioned above and prepares her make-up. It finishes with the moments when she puts a gun in her purse then walks out to the hall to greet the guests. The sequence also includes six flashbacks, which explain more about her plan and the way she made a short film – exclusively for Nazis.

The female Indian fighter

     This particular sequence made an impact on me because of its strong female character. The way she is represented is tragic and humorous at the same time: the beautiful young woman preparing for the night at her dressing table and the flashbacks, which extend our knowledge about her and make the audience realize that in fact she is preparing for her own death. The irony of the situation is strengthened by a metaphorical image - she paints her face as an Indian fighter. It is also a reference to a certain part of American history, when the natives had to fight against European invaders, which connotes the hopelessness of the challenge as well as the invincible pride of the character. It also resembles to the proud French nation’s attempt to avoid the German conquest, as well as .

  The sequence doesn't contain many dialogues, but those ones in it are in French with English subtitles in order to give a stronger sense of place for the audience. The visual cinematic aspects (such as mise-en-scene) help to establish the era and create an atmosphere, while other elements (such as music) have different relevance and they rather try to refer to other movies or famous people.

Mise-en-scene 

   The main scene is in Shosanna's dressing room. The first, establishing shot shows her sitting at a large, round window in the middle of the room. She's wearing a formal red dress looking outside. The sunlight glows on her, the rest of the room is slightly darker. The subtitle (Night of "Nation's Pride" premiere) helps the audience to place the scene in the timeline of the film. Previously it has been explained "Nation's Pride" is the reason the Nazis are going to cinema, therefore it is the night she is going to kill or die (or both). The picture is slowly closing up to her face using long fade transitions between shots, which creates a sense of superimposition. Historically this technique was employed to picture ghosts in early films in the 19^th century, so it can symbolize her ghostly being, her fading away, dying.

   Although the story itself is partly fictional, most of the elements are based on truth or aim to give us the feel of a real historical background, which turns into comedy from time to time. At the same time when the picture closes up to her we've got a clearer view to the window and have a chance to peep outside: on the opposite wall there is a poster, the buildings on the street are covered with Nazi flags. These small details indicate the era, both in style and quality are part of a realistic setting.

Flashbacks

  Throughout the whole sequence each change of shot is rhythmically harmonized with the lyrical lines of the song. At the flashbacks the volume has been reduced and the vocals have been muted in order to make the dialogues audible. At the final part of the sequence the backing vocals are relatively strong comparing to the modest use of music in the previous scenes.  Because of the reduced amount of dialogues the music helps to keep the sequence together.

   The instrumental intro of the song begins when the subtitles (Chapter Five - The Revenge of the Giant Face) appear on the black screen. The lyrics start when we see the first image and each line is synchronized with the change of shots. The song Cat People (Putting Out Fire) by David Bowie (who wrote the lyrics and sings the lead vocals as well) had been already used in the history of film. It was the theme music of the American remake of 1942 film 'Cat People' about a female were-cat (played by Nastassja Kinski) released in 1982.

   The flashbacks are all in different locations, but we assume they are all in Paris or nearby (the dialogues are in French). The continuous shot-reverse shot pattern, the frequent use of close-ups and the informal dialogues between the characters suggest that the first three flash backs are in Shosanna and Marcel's home, which is inside or close to the cinema, as the film stocks around them indicate that.

Marcel and Shosanna

   Judging by the lighting the fourth one is in a dungeon, maybe in another cinema. This scene reflects the determination of the two young people who weren't afraid to use violence in order to fulfill their revenge.

In particular the fifth and sixth flashbacks belong together, because they are both about Shosanna working in the operating room and editing her short film, but they are divided by a short part of the main scene.

  The flashbacks are clearly separated from the sequence by the use of different location, darker or fainted lighting and the costumes, which are in oppositional with Shosanna's formal red dress she wears in the "make-up scene". The montage editing gives the impression that this is an action film, the mixture of beauty and danger in the main character is even reminiscent of the conventions of James Bond movies.

Costume and make-up

  The wild red and strong black rule the whole mise-en-scene: the red dress, the Nazi flags, her make-up (from the eyeliner through the blush to the lipstick), red nails, the crimson wall, her black hat and later on the blood red purse with a black gun inside of it. Culturally these colours symbolize the Devil, the evil, which could apply for the enemies, the Nazis, but together they also have associations of danger or something forbidden.

 They even appear in the lyrics of the song accompanied by images of a "jungle" and the plosive sounds of "burning bright", which both could associate with a wild fire. The lyrics in the chorus "I've been putting out fire with gasoline" continue adding some visualization to create a sense of aggression and sex. The lyrics also contain images of fire, danger, green eyes and tears (all these elements can be found in the mise-en-scene).

Shosanna's makeup scene

  The elegant red dress in the middle of the setting, clearly separated from the rest of the dark, dull room, leads the attention to the character. The pretty dress emphasizes her beauty and (referring to Cat People) shows how attractive and sexually appealing she is. Other connotations of the colour red are life, happiness, youth but also blood, fight and war.

   Her black hat with a netting veil lowered in front of her eyes is part of the realist setting as one of the characteristic accessories of the 1940s fashion, but it is also connected to death, being an unmissable part of female clothing on funerals.

Greeting the Nazis in her own cinema

Word count: 1535