Shosanna Dreyfus | |
---|---|
Vital statistics | |
Name | Shosanna Dreyfus |
Gender | Female |
Allegiance | Independent |
Title/Rank | None |
Nationality | French |
Fate | Killed by Fredrick Zoller |
Portrayed by | Mélanie Laurent |
- “My name is Shosanna Dreyfus and THIS is the face... of Jewish vengeance!”
- ―Shosanna Dreyfus
Shosanna Dreyfus (alias Emmanuelle Mimieux) is one of the main protagonists of the film. She is the owner of Le Gamaar Cinema. After some turn of events made her cinema the venue of the premiering of Stolz der Nation, she hatched a plan, independent of The Basterds, to eliminate the Nazi top command. She died with Frederick Zoller in the cinema's projector room. Throughout the film, she mostly speaks French and only spoke English once during her address towards the Germans on the movie screen, in which the Nazis are later killed by the Basterds.
Biography[]
Shosanna Dreyfus was born in France, circa 1923, in a dairy farm from a village in Nancy. She had a brother, Amos, a father, Jakob, a mother, Miriam, and an uncle, Bob.
Story[]
Chapter One - Once upon a time... in Nazi-occupied France[]
Shosanna was the only surviving member of the Dreyfus family, a Jewish rural French family who were murdered in 1941 by SS-Standartenführer Hans Landa. They were hiding in the LaPadite family's basement. Unfortunately, Hans Landa's interrogations quickly made Perrier LaPadite betray their whereabouts. She fled the house as Landa pointed his Walther at her with the intent to shoot, only to change his mind for some reason, instead he shouted a cruel "Au revoir, Shosanna!".
Chapter Three - GERMAN NIGHT IN PARIS[]
She later assumed the alias of "Emmanuelle Mimieux" and went to inherit the Parisian Le Gamaar Cinema from a sympathetic theater owner, Madame Ada Mimieux, who teaches her how to run and operate the theater. During a night in June 1944, she encountered Frederick Zoller, while she was removing the letters from the cinema marquee. Not interested to speak to him at all, she tried to avoid any conversation, visibly agitated. When Zoller asked her name, she tried to give him the cold shoulder by bluntly giving him her (fake) papers as if she were interrogated, in an effort to appear as unappealing as possible. After Zoller tells her his name, she watches him walking away, wondering if that will be the end of it.
The next day, she encounters him again in a bistro, where she is relaxing, by smoking and reading a book. She again rebuffs him, this time she's even more direct, telling him she doesn't want to have anything to do with him, as he's a German soldier in her country. Zoller tries to counter that telling her that he's more than a uniform, but she says not to her, and that if he wants a French girlfriend, he should try "Vichy". Before Zoller has a chance to reply, a German officer, who introduces himself as Captain Wolfgang, enters and shakes his hand, while being amazed at the sight of the young soldier. Shosanna is intrigued after this incident, and before Zoller has a chance to talk, another German officer, Walter Frazer and a French girl enter and ask him for an autograph. Shosanna learns that Zoller is a war hero, and that Joseph Goebbels is planning to make a propaganda film based on his deeds, called "Stolz der Nation". After a short discussion, she becomes angry for some reason and leaves in a hurry.
Some time later, either on the same day or a few days later, while she was cleaning the letters on the marquee, a car stops and a Gestapo Major gets down. He calls her down, telling her she must come with them. Believing that her cover is blown, she reluctantly comes with him. She is instead escorted at a restaurant, where many high-ranking Nazi officers were having lunch. She is greeted by Zoller and meets Joseph Goebbels himself, French actress and translator Francesca Mondino, as well as the Gestapo Major who brought her there, Dieter Hellstrom. Zoller tries to impress Emmanuelle by persuading Goebbels to hold the premiering of "Stolz Der Nation" to her cinema, La Gamaar, despite it being half the size of the original location, the Ritz cinema. Zoller however manages to persuade Goebbels with clever words. When Goebbels tells her he first wants to see a film before he can finally decide, Landa arrives at the table. Upon hearing his name, she almost has a panic attack, and it almost gets worst when he kisses her hand out of courtesy. When the other table guests stand up to leave, Landa gently stops her, saying that he just wants to ask her a few questions. Landa sits at the table after the others leave and orders some strudel for both as well as a glass of milk for her. He begins to ask her about her whereabouts and her cinema and before he leaves he tells her there's another thing he wanted to ask her. Thinking her cover is about to be blown for real, she pauses for a moment, with her cigarette in her hand, but then Landa changes his mind, saying that he forgot what he wanted to ask her, puts out his cigarette in his strudel, as if he wanted her to know that he might know who she really is and leaves. She immediately begins to breathe heavily, and almost cries when she realizes how close she was to being found out. After the film screening, Goebbels asks her if she liked "Lucky Kids", she says that she liked Lillian Harvey, which causes Goebbels to rant her name, and to never mention her name in his presence. Back in the cinema, she comes up with a plan, with her reluctant lover and assistant Marcel, to burn the Nazi High Command in the premiere night, thanks to her 350 nitrate film collection. She also asks him if the filming equipment still works, as she plans to make a film just for the Nazis.
Chapter Five - REVENGE OF THE GIANT FACE[]
Shosanna is seen in her room, by her window, looking down at the street, no doubt at the incoming Nazi crowd. As she prepares for the show, we see a flashback of her plan: she records herself, then she and Marcel kidnap a French movie developer and force him to develop their film into a reel film; Shosanna then has the film treated and edited into one of the movie's film reels, replacing Zoller's final clip with her message of vengeance.
After she meets the German actor Emil Jannings in the cinema lobby, she returns to the projector room where Marcel was handling the film reels and recap their plans. She seems to remain there until the final film reel is set to play. She kisses Marcel, knowing that it will be for the last time they'll both see each other, with the guy leaving the room to lock the auditorium doors. As she plays the final film reel, Marcel closes all the doors and goes in the screen room preparing to ignite the film reels.
As she is handling the projectors near the film's end, Zoller returns to talk to her. Afraid of her plans being foiled, she tries to stall him from entering, and once again rejects his advances, at first by pretending to worry for him, but this doesn't work, so she decides to yet again be blunt about their situation and practically tells him to fuck off. This causes Zoller to erupt in a fit of rage and force himself inside the room, accidentally hitting her wrist with the door, and angrily confront Shosanna about her coldness towards him despite everything that he has done. She tricks Zoller into locking the projector room door, then shoots him multiple times in the back with a pistol she hid in her purse, and then looks out of the projector window to see if anyone heard the gunshots, but thanks to the gunfire from the film, this didn't happen. As she sees an emotional Zoller in the film, and suddenly feeling a bit of pity for the young soldier, Shosanna hears him whimpering. She realizes he's not dead and approaches to check on him, seemingly showing remorse, only for Zoller to pull out his own pistol and fatally shoot her multiple times, before finishing her off with a last bullet.
As the battle in the film ends, the footage cuts to the recorded film, with Shosanna stating that the viewers will all die. Before anyone has any time to react and cut the projection, Shosanna tells Marcel to burn the cinema down. As the flames engulf the projection screen, the audience panics and tries to escape, but as Shosanna's image laughs, the Basterds rush in and begin shooting at the crowd, from Hitler's opera box. They manage to gun down many Nazi high officials before the cinema gets destroyed by the explosion, killing everyone inside.
Personality[]
Shosanna is a rather serious woman, and is also very brave and resourceful. She hates Nazis with a passion, largely due to the fact that one was responsible for the death of her family. This also shows that she's pretty loyal to her family and even willing to die for her family, but she's also willing to bring the Nazi regime to justice. Shosanna is similar to "Prince Hamlet", because of her will to bring the wicked people to justice, but also because she wanted to get her vengeance. Also, like Hamlet, she died while getting her vengeance, and also destroyed everything in her way. An example of this is her cold behavior towards Zoller, who was trying to prove his love towards her. An apparent moment of pity and dropping her guard is what led to her ultimate demise. Despite this, she still could be considered as a heroine because of her efforts to bring down the evil Nazi regime, thus saving many people in the process.
Trivia[]
- In earlier drafts of the screenplay Shosanna was a much more active member of the French resistance, sniping soldiers from rooftops and even compiling a death list of high ranking Nazi officials to cross off. But when Quentin Tarantino did his "Kill Bill" series, he put those plot details into that story, and decided it was redundant, so instead he decided to make Shosanna a more realistic character and have her keep a low profile.
- The name Emmanuelle Mimieux is a reference both the erotic Emmanuelle film series and American B-movie actress, Yvette Mimieux.[1]
- The "tomboy" look sported by Shosanna when seen removing the film letters and in particular her own "baker boy" cap are reminiscent of the kid character in 1921 Charlie Chaplin's film cited by Zoller during the first conversation with Shosanna in front of the cinema.
- The look of Shosanna in the final scene is inspired by that of Veronika Voss, character in the 1982 movie of the same name, directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder. The protagonist of the said film, in turn, was inspired by the figure of Sybille Schmitz, German actress well known at the time of the Third Reich.[2]
- In the original ending, Shosanna's movie for the Nazis was supposed to be in French. Mélanie Laurent was the one who suggested to Quentin Tarantino that it should be done in English to make the finale more powerful.
- It also acts as a bookend, before Shosanna's family was murdered, Landa spoke in English with her family not understanding what he talked about, while here the Nazis get murdered after someone spoke English, not understanding what was being said (not everyone in the Nazi High Command spoke English).
- In the script, Shosanna mentions that she was born in the region of Nancy.
- Shosanna is barefoot during the final scenes in the projection room.
- Zoller claims he killed 250 Allied soldiers in Sicily in three days. Shosanna killed 350 Germans in one night.
- After Zoller tells Shosanna about his deeds in Sicily, and how he will play himself in the film made about his exploits, Shosanna suddenly stands up angrily, wishing him good luck with his film and leaves in a hurry, as if she was offended by what he said. In the original script, the scene is a bit longer, with Zoller telling her that he doesn't get to rest, as he's busy doing things a movie actor usually does, which, combined with his constant referring to Goebbels as "Joseph", like he's talking about a close friend, angers Shosanna, and causes her to storm off.
- In Shosanna's fake papers, it's shown that she chose her birthday as 18th of May 1926. Since the last chapters take place in June 1944, this would mean she was barely 18, while Shosanna's real age was 21-22 (LaPadite says she was 18-19 in 1941). While not necessarily a big problem, her choice to lower her real age was risky, especially as she just inherited a cinema and that could draw unnecessary attention, with someone so young inheriting an entire cinema.
Behind the scenes[]
Shosanna Dreyfus was played by Mélanie Laurent.
Quentin Tarantino met Mélanie Laurent in three rounds and played all the characters on the first. On the second one, he shared the lines with her, and the third one, it was dinner face-to-face. During the dinner, he told Laurent, "Do you know something-there's just something I don't like. It's that you're famous in your country, and I'm really wanting to discover somebody." Laurent replied "No, no, no. ... I'm not so famous." And after four days he called and finalized her for the role of Shosanna.
When she talked about her role, she said: "When I read the script of 'Inglourious Basterds', I was like, wow, it's been my dream to kill Hitler since I was like four so I was kind of like Shosanna already. I'm Jewish. I read the script together with my grandfather and he told me, 'You have to make that movie, please.' So it was not just for me, it was for my family".
To prepare for her role, Mélanie Laurent worked as a film projectionist for a few weeks at New Beverly Cinema, projecting mostly cartoons and trailers before shows. The real test set by Quentin Tarantino was for her to screen Reservoir Dogs.
Shosanna Dreyfus is named after actress Julie Dreyfus, who appears in the film as Francesca Mondino.