Roulakis - Inglourious Basterds

My favorite character in this movie was Colonel Hans Landa. Christopher Waltz played this role magnificently and although I hate to say “the bad guy” was my favorite character, he was. This character constantly gave me the chills and continuously kept me guessing whenever he was in a scene. The first scene in particular with the dairy farmer created a distinct character that we could recognize throughout the movie. There is constant irony whenever he is in a scene and he easily instills fear to his victims as well as the audience (me!). For example, in the first scene when he asks the dairy farmer to use his pipe, he brings out this huge pipe, basically showing that he believes he is bigger, more important than others. Something else that makes him stand out is that he is always acting and playing a role as the detective. He is constantly playing dumb, and often uses comedy to “lighten” situations before preparing what is normally a verbal attack on his victims. In every scene he questions his victims, he acts friendly and plays mind games. His dialogue is normally somewhat comical and he often uses silly expressions.

The scene with the dairy farmer is shot in a social setting while he is questioning him, and he is pretending to not know that he is hiding anyone. Normally you can see the both of them up until he stops his act, the camera zooms into his face, making it an intimate shot. This is when he confronts the farmer about hiding Jews in his home. The camera then switches to the farmers face and it keeps switching back and forth to the characters as the farmer confesses, zooming in closer and closer to their faces as their conversation continues. The lighting in this scene is somewhat dark, which is because the daughters close the window, but it creates a dim mood which makes the viewer understand that something bad could potentially happen.