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Inglourious Basterds Could Have Had A Wetting


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One of my favorite movies of all time, amazing film and phenomenal acting.

One of the best scenes in the movie is this right here:

Obviously those who have watched the movie know that the girl, Shosanna, has plenty of reason to be afraid of him. Those who haven't, some simple context - she's a Jew who managed to escape (barely) after the man in front of her, Landa, had killed her entire family.

I recently just read the original script written for the movie - and apparently at the end of this scene, Shosanna had wet herself out of fear.

Here's the the specific part of the script:

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Why it never made it into the the filming, I don't know and I'm quite disappointed. Not just for omorashi, I think it'd have highlighted the emotions and context of the scene very well.

Anyone has any inputs about this? Or perhaps other movies that had the same fate?

Edited by Nephron (see edit history)
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8 hours ago, stranger said:

Maybe they wanted to make her appear braver or it would have been weird that Landa wouldn't recognice her wet herself

Agreed, I think that as believable as a fear wetting would be, she's supposed to be a bit braver than that, plus it would be incredibly difficult for her not to be noticed as having wet herself in a restaurant, especially with the oh so shrewd colonel landa

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Honestly?  I see your point of view, and you may be right.  But I kind of think that Mélanie Laurent's acting in this scene is so perfect that the wetting wouldn't really add anything.  She does maybe the best job I've ever seen of conveying absolute terror on the inside while maintaining a thin veneer of composure on the outside

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11 hours ago, kyrieelleison14 said:

Agreed, I think that as believable as a fear wetting would be, she's supposed to be a bit braver than that, plus it would be incredibly difficult for her not to be noticed as having wet herself in a restaurant, especially with the oh so shrewd colonel landa

I think Landa knew who she was from the beginning and was simply toying with her for the hell of it, note that he ordered her a glass of milk when he complimented the farmer's milk shortly before killing Shoshanna's family.

He probably would have ignored that she had pissed herself, just to screw with her some more. And it's possible that Shoshanna wasn't the first person to piss themselves in his presence. 

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3 hours ago, crashdriver said:

I think Landa knew who she was from the beginning and was simply toying with her for the hell of it, note that he ordered her a glass of milk when he complimented the farmer's milk shortly before killing Shoshanna's family.

He probably would have ignored that she had pissed herself, just to screw with her some more. And it's possible that Shoshanna wasn't the first person to piss themselves in his presence. 

I think less of Landa because yeah he does seem to know who she is, but other people (especially the soldier whose name escapes me who is in love with Shoshanna) may notice if she has peed herself. Awkward questions may draw out the scene so to speak, but it would have been appreciated nonetheless

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2 hours ago, kyrieelleison14 said:

I think less of Landa because yeah he does seem to know who she is, but other people (especially the soldier whose name escapes me who is in love with Shoshanna) may notice if she has peed herself. Awkward questions may draw out the scene so to speak, but it would have been appreciated nonetheless

I can still think of ways to explain that away. It is possible that it is not uncommon for people to pee themselves in Landa's presence. And Pretty Boy could have noticed, but didn't bring attention to Shoshanna's accident to avoid embarrassing her.

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On 4/20/2018 at 8:27 AM, kyrieelleison14 said:

but other people (especially the soldier whose name escapes me who is in love with Shoshanna) may notice if she has peed herself

Frederick Zoller (the soldier you were thinking of) along with Goebbels and all the others who were at the lunch left the restaurant so that the Colonel and Shoshanna could have their Strudel chat so he might not have been there to notice. I have a link here:


I heard about her wetting in the script not long after the movie came out and have rewatched it a few times since. You'll notice in the script that it doesn't actually say when Shoshanna wet herself, just that it happened "during the conversation and strudel with the man who exterminated her entire family". Well, I've always wondered exactly when in the script's version of the scene it was supposed to have been that she accidented. To me it seems like there are two times that are most likely:

Scenario 1) The minute Colonel Landa suddenly appears behind her and kisses her hand (0:14 in the video);

Scenario 2) 'Et pour la 'demoiselle... un verre de lait!' (1:59 in the video)

From the script's point of view, 2) makes the most sense. In the most literal sense it is "during the conversation [while eating] strudel" while 1) is not. It would also help to explain why nobody else drew attention to her accident, because the other guests had not yet left in the case of Scenario 1), and even if none of them had noticed it as they were leaving it'd be hard to imagine the waiter returning to the table three times without noticing the, uh, spillage.

On the other hand, I have always liked to imagine that 1) is true because of the wonderful acting and specifically the body language in that moment. When being introduced by Zoller, Landa smiles down at Shoshanna, but then he sways his head very slightly to the right as if noticing something happening lower down (maybe something dripping beneath her chair?) and leaning to get a better look. He then kisses her hand and knowingly says 'Enchanté, mademoiselle' and her shocked expression requires no explanation.

To me the idea that the sheer shock of his arrival was enough to cause her to wet herself enhances the scene a lot, especially if he immediately notices it as I theorised. If it happened like that, then Landa isn't just testing his suspicions about her with the milk and cream, but he's actively toying with her like a cat with a mouse that it's caught. The fact that he doesn't even act on his confirmed suspicions would help to portray Landa as being more of a psychopath who gets off on power trips rather than him simply being a Nazi who's good at his job.

In defence of 1) you could also argue that maybe the long tablecloth and a dark coloured carpet may have prevented the others or the waiter from noticing that she'd wet herself.

As to why it wasn't included in the movie, the most obvious explanation is that it was considered a bit crude and Melanie Laurent (the actress who portrayed Shoshanna) said no.

 

edit: I should point out that the times I included in my scenarios are for the video I linked rather than the one at the top of the page. I know it's lower quality, but it includes Hans Landa's arrival which is why I used it.

Edited by desertfc (see edit history)
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