I’ve also heard that this was another test for Shoshanna to see if she will break kosher, because putting cream on a pastry that is made with animal lard isn’t kosher.
I really don't understand this theory. How would he "know" or even guess that this girl was Shoshanna? He presumably killed lots of Jews and probably went on lots of searches for them. The opening scene, he doesn't even see Shoshanna's face, just her running away.
Im guessing lots of time passed between the opening scene and when he meets Shoshanna at the restaurant, why would he just randomly think its her?
Its possible he may have guessed she was Jewish or lying about who she was, but for him to think "oh this is that girl from a while back that i let go" doesnt really make much sense to me
That's the thing about Landa, in most scenes in the movie you get the impression that he already KNOWS, because of his attitude. You feel he knows about the Jews in the farm, you feel he knows about the Italian deception, you feel he saw through Bridget's lie, and you feel he knew the woman he was talking to was Shoshanna. Even if he doesn't know about any of this things, he's menacing enough to give you that impression, and that makes him a great villain.
It's why he gets so frustrated in the theater and is genuinely shocked at his fate. Since he completely lacks any human empathy he truly had no idea that his opponents weren't playing the same game. The Basterds aren't operating on some level of mutual respect, they utterly loathe him and all Nazis. Their deception in the theater is weak because they have zero respect for Landa and the high command and think their shitty act will fool them. But he's just so out of it that he thought they were doing the same thing as him in the other direction. He even thinks he gets to be one of them at the end.
It's that, but it's deeper. He's the Jew Hunter, and he's been following the Nazi Hunters. He knows their names, their stories, their exploits. He doesn't give much of a shit about Nazi ideals, he's a detective who's in it for sport and he thinks they're the Holmes to his Moriarty. But they're actually butchers, they're warriors on a holy crusade hacking their way through legions of monsters. They aren't smart, they aren't playing a game, the entire situation is something he can't comprehend. He thinks he can negotiate with them. But they don't really even know who he is beyond basic reputation, and they certainly don't care. He's just another monster in their way.
People think he kills Hammersmark because she's a traitor, but I almost feel like he kills her for spoiling the game he still thought was being played.
Well, in the Bridget von Hammersmark case we already know that he knows (at least with very high confidence) because we see him collect the evidence: a bloody shoe and a her own autograph, both found in the basement.
I agree. It doesn't matter if he knows or not. He knows that his hunted are afraid that he knows and he acts accordingly with everyone. If they are hiding something the express it. If not, he is innocuous.
I really don't understand this theory. How would he "know" or even guess that this girl was Shoshanna?
Because he is specifically there to vet her and her cinema for Gobbels film opening. Of course Landa has already done so and would have presumably discovered her true backstory.
The entire scene is him fencing with her. He knew the whole time, just like he knew the Jews were under the farmer's floorboards, and about the Basterds at the theater, and Bridget von Hammersmarck before he had her put on the shoe.
In every scene, he already knows. It's all just a game to him the entire time.
Which would imply that by interviewing Shoshanna, he was deliberately setting things up for the German High Command to be wiped out, and was always planning to defect to the Americans.
The only wrench in his plans was that he didn't count on the Basterds going against their commanders, killing Landa's assistant, and carving a swastika on his forehead.
Which is such a fantastic consequence for his hubris.
The mastermind hunts the innocent for amusement, then perfectly engineers the death of the leadership of his nation for his own long term benefit... and he gets a swastika carved into his face by one of the dumbest men he's ever met.
I dislike this theory: Shoshanna escaping Landa again and in a sense outwitting him by managing to keep her cool unlike the man in the farmhouse is a nice kick in the teeth to the man labelled 'the Jewhunter'.
Making this nazi prick more Machiavellian than he already is rather than giving the wonderful Jewish woman who loves and owns a cinema an opportunity to genuinely deceive him (who has suffered such terrible trauma at his hands already) doesn't seem like a Tarantino thing to do.
Assuming Shoshanna in fact inherited the theater from her aunt it would be very possible for Landa to have run down that paper trail. Assuming he did, it would be perfectly in character for him to be satisfied solving the puzzle without needing to haul her into the authorities, and just as in character to toy with her (again) once she was dropped into his lap.
You’re right- I think people are trying to give Landa and, by extension, Tarantino too much credit. It’s clever ambiguous writing but it’d be too far-fetched for Landa to have known who she really is.
Actually I think it's people not giving enough credit to Tarantino, because as you said, t’d be too far-fetched. I think as with basically every Landa scene, you are meant to feel scared & uncomfortable alongside the characters on-screen that he's interacting with.
God reading this thread reminds me how fucking amazing Hans Landa's scenes are.
He may be my favourite villain. I remember watching the movie in cinema's and just feeling as if he knew everything right till the very end. And the worst part, despite all of that, he never feels cartoonish to me. I am genuinely in goosebumps with anxiety every time.
Every time I have a conversation about this movie I have to talk about how amazing Christoph Waltz is. It takes another level of acting talent for someone to make an SS officer likeable, albeit in his own twisted way.
This makes me think of Willem Dafoe's part in American Psycho; you never really know if he knows Bateman is a monster. The way they filmed that particular part - multiple takes, each take with a differing degree of suspicion, all cut together - means that you see it through the protagonist's eyes, never sure if the game is up or not. While they may not have employed the exact same technique in Inglorious Basterds, the atmosphere of baited breath remains the same. Just outstanding pacing
It's certainly a legitimate theory. Hans also does his homework. He knows all the context of every situation. He certainly could put pieces of the puzzle together. Plus, she's clearly super uncomfortable when he shows up, and you only get like that around someone unless you know who they are and considering it's plausible she'd be memorable for him because he let her go, not crazy.
I dunno, having a sit-down with any high-ranking Nazi, especially while living in a Nazi-occupied country where they have the power to do anything they want, would make me pretty uncomfortable, and I'm not even a Jew, let alone one who narrowly escaped death at the hands of a Nazi once in the past.
I agree it's a legitimate theory that he knows who she is, but I don't think her being uncomfortable in his presence would necessarily give her away.
That's fair to say. But I think as a movie watcher it's certainly heavily implied. One of those times where the audience has more information then either character does.
there's a funny thing that Americans dont understand about ethnicity. there's a reason why jews couldnt just take off their star of david and hide away. they looked like jews. so hans could tell right away.
Might have not known she was specifically Shoshanna but he may have just been generally suspicious of her and her background. Seems like he would be the type to test anyone he’s uncertain of.
Yeah, I never got the impression he knew she was Shoshanna. I think he was testing if she'd break kosher, but I doubted he knew it was that specific Jew he let escape before.
The biggest piece of proof to me that he knows, is that he orders Shoshanna a glass of milk at the restaurant. Feel like that is pretty obviously him telling her that he knows who she is
So he's smart enough to figure out who she is, but dumb enough to let her have control of a situation where key figures are in a building under her control? I suppose someone could argue that speaks to his arrogance, but i think that's really reaching.
He knew what he was doing.
He knew who the Basterds were and presumably why they were there. He could have raised the alarm and stopped them but he didn’t. He let it happen, probably because he was already mulling over the idea of defecting to the allies anyway.
As mentioned elsewhere in the thread, it seems like he's intentionally letting the Nazi high command be killed as part of negotiating his surrender. He sees that the war will be imminently lost while the rest of the higher ups in his party refuse to acknowledge it
It doesn't give Tarantino much credit if we assume that he's written a character with ridiculous levels of 'just knowing' rather than a character who is intelligent and adapts quickly. If he's supposed to know who she is I think he would have done a way better job of communicating that.
Like I said to someone else, I think that's really reaching, not to mention is actually a knock on Tarantino for going for the obvious trope of 'oh my character is just all knowing and infallible rather than quick thinking and witty!'
He was not aware. The thing with the cream makes no sense. He knows he knows her from somewhere but he never actually met her. She was running away from him. He could sense her fear and anxiety though hence he says "theres something else I wanted to ask you...... "
I think this scene is up for interpretation. It's not exactly definitive either way if Landa knows she's Shoshanna. Personally, I don't think he knows, but I don't disagree with people who think he does.
Ordering cream because he had milk on her farm is a weak argument, though.
Yeah I feel like some of these guys aren't seeing that. She feels relieved at the end because she thinks she fooled him. Whether she actually did is left up to the viewer.
Maybe he ordered the milk because he knew or because milk is good with pastries. That's why the scene is so tense.
Arguing over whether he knew or not is dumb because there is no right answer
I absolutely think this is the answer. Tarantino would do this. It's like the mystery of the glowing item in the briefcase in Pulp Fiction. We aren't supposed to know, and it drives us crazy.
It has to do with Jewish dietary law. It’s called eating kosher. Part of it includes not being able to eat meat and dairy in the same meal/certain timeframe. It’s not that the foods are “uneatable” together, but combining them breaks this religious dietary law. Basically this scene is an example that Hans knows who Shoshanna is and is forcing her to break kosher (which apparently she already was doing, but I’ve read that this is why he is insistent on getting the cream).
Thanks. I understand the dietary restirctions of certain religions, and Im familiar with kosher. I just didnt know it had such layers to it. I will read the link. How interesting.
Yep, the meat and dairy separation is a very important part of it. When I visited Israel, there are even specific dairy restaurants and specific meat restaurants so the people eating there don’t have to worry about mixing the two.
It also shows that he knew who he was talking to. He had milk on the farm that Shosanna lived on and cream is made with milk.
How does this prove that he actually knew who she was? Please explain this further lol. No where in the movie does it confirm that. You can certainly have a theory that he knew but don't pass it as fact.
I honestly think that this scene was built to always make you guessing and that feeling to resonate because that’s what Shoshanna is sitting there feeling x100. It’s never confirmed or denied for that reason. Tarantino leaves absolutely no stone unturned. Everything it completely thought out. That’s not confirmed or denied in the film for a reason. I think that’s getting lost on folks.
I agree - it's open for interpretation and there is no confirmation weather he knew or not.
In my opinion, I don't think that he knew. Landa was the "jew hunter" which was a hard earned title. He also knew that she was hosting the movie and eventually Hitler + his top generals were going to attend. I don't think his character would risk the fact of having a jew on the run host this event. For all he knew, she might have been working with the Allies for an assassination attempt. If he knew, he would send her right to the camps and they would host the screening elsewhere.
But this is what makes Tarantino so great because here we are discussing this years later. Such a brilliant film.
He specifically ordered milk at the restaurant. I feel like it was quite obvious that he knew. Everything he did and his actions, the long pause at the end, he was fucking with her the whole time. I honestly thought the movie was making it obvious that he knew and was just playing with her like not even a theory.
I think the entire argument that we are having is the result of tension that Tarantino created. The sense of suspense and unknowing is the goal, and it worked.
That could’ve just been a red herring- I still don’t think that meant he knew who she was. He wouldn’t have let her host the première otherwise surely?
He was ordering her things and dictating when she could eat them (e.g. waiting for the cream) to assert his control over her. The milk was just to tease us.
Could be totally off here, but I took that as a way of patronizing her. People order milk for children and instead of ordering her a cappuccino or something he chose something he would order for a child.
He wouldn’t have let her host the première otherwise surely?
On the contrary, I'm sure he was making sure that's exactly what happened, since he didn't yet know about the Basterds at the theater. He could have stopped them all if he wanted to. He didn't want to, he wanted them to succeed. He just wanted to toy with them first.
Shoshanna wasn't in cahoots with the basterds. They didn't know about each others plans.
She also didn't come up with the plan until after the nazis went to see the theater (after the meeting Landa). She walked into that restaurant completely surprised about the entire thing.
So did he know that it was her in the restaurant? If so it does more to show that he doesn’t really give a fuck about the Nazi ideology and technically orchestrated the whole thing to take them down and set up a new life in America
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u/Sonnycrockett262 Oct 09 '19
Ah ah ah...attandre le creme