Daily Dialogue — April 7, 2015

Col. Hans Landa: Now if one were to determine what attribute the German people share with a beast, it would be the cunning and the predatory instinct of a hawk. But if one were to determine what attributes the Jews share with a beast, it would be that of the rat. If a rat were to walk in here right now as I’m talking, would you treat it to a saucer of your delicious milk?
Perrier LaPadite: Probably not.
Col. Hans Landa: I didn’t think so. You don’t like them. You don’t really know why you don’t like them. All you know is you find them repulsive. Consequently, a German soldier conducts a search of a house suspected of hiding Jews. Where does the hawk look? He looks in the barn, he looks in the attic, he looks in the cellar, he looks everywhere *he* would hide, but there’s so many places it would never occur to a hawk to hide. However, the reason the Führer’s brought me off my Alps in Austria and placed me in French cow country today is because it does occur to me. Because I’m aware what tremendous feats human beings are capable of once they abandon dignity.

— Inglourious Basterds (2009), written by Quentin Tarantino

The Daily Dialogue theme for the week: Interrogation. Today’s suggestion by Jonathan Melikidse.

Trivia: Quentin Tarantino worked on the script for almost a decade.

Dialogue On Dialogue: Commentary by Jonathan: “It’s a long scene, but so full of anxiety and tension. This is exactly what Hitchcock meant when he referred to the tension on a scene based on the knowledge of the viewer. What I love about this interrogation is that it is based around story telling, not a demand for information. The way Landa gets the Farmer to give up the Jews he is hiding done so well. Unfortunately, this scene is too long to get all the clips and dialogue. But, you need to take the time to see how it is built and how it sets up so much more of the movie.”

If you have a suggestion for this week’s theme, please post to comments — and thanks!