Inglourious Basterds, with which he surprised viewers and critics as it offers an alternate version of World War II.
Inglourious Basterds followed different subplots with one common goal: kill as many Nazis as possible, including Hitler. The story centers on two plans: one by a group known as the “Basterds”, led by Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz), a cold-blooded SS officer who didn’t hesitate on killing those he considered a threat, Jewish or not.
As mentioned above, Landa killed Shosanna’s family, but let her escape. Years later, and now living as Emmanuelle Mimieux, Shosanna was approached by Fredrick Zoller (Daniel Brühl), a soldier who starred in Joseph Goebbels’ latest movie, and who wanted the film to premiere at her cinema. Landa, appointed head of security for the premiere, interrogated Shosanna at a restaurant, and many details in that scene have made viewers question if he recognized her or not. First off, he ordered a glass of milk for her, which seems odd and raised some red flags as Shosanna grew up on a dairy farm. Landa made a lot of emphasis on the cream for the strudel and even told her to wait for it to start eating. Landa’s interrogation continued, and he asked her to explain how a young lady like her owned a cinema. The final clue was when he told her there was something else he wanted to ask, and stared at her for what felt like an eternity, only for him to say that he forgot.
However, Landa never saw Shosanna’s face, as she was already far when he realized she was alive and running away. With that in mind, it seems unlikely that he recognized her at the restaurant, though that doesn’t mean he couldn’t have suspected it. Shosanna being a young woman owning a cinema and with Marcel working for her surely made Landa suspicious, and ordering the milk and cream were subtle ways in which he was looking to provoke a reaction from her that gave her away. As Shosanna never broke, especially after he stared at her for so long, he ended the interrogation. Landa was always a step ahead and even boasted about what an excellent “Jew hunter” he was at the beginning of the movie, to the point where – as confirmed by Tarantino – he brought a pipe with him because he knew LaPadite smoked a pipe.
Tarantino has described Hans Landa as a detective, which makes him even more dangerous and terrifying – and while he might have not known that Emmanuelle Mimieux was Shosanna Dreyfus, he surely suspected that she was hiding something. Like many other scenes in other Tarantino movies, the restaurant scene in Inglourious Basterds is left open to interpretation, and either way, it makes Hans Landa a very evil character.
