Understanding the Opening Scene of Inglourious Basterds | Scene Study Film Analysis

hey guys today I'm gonna break down the opening scene of inglorious basterds this is an in-depth scene study I'm gonna show you coverage schemes I'm gonna explain composition and framing you're gonna understand everything about this scene and if you don't know a lot about filmmaking and directing you might just learn some cool stuff spoiler warning if you haven't seen the movie I'm gonna go into detail although I'm only spoiling the beginning so you could probably watch the rest of the film anyway you've been warned first this is the shot number this right here is the

setup and what that refers to is the position of the camera I've broken the scene into six parts each part represents a dramatic shift in the action part one centers around Hans Londos arrival Tarantino draws a moment out as opposed to just cutting to him knocking at the door or just starting with them sitting at a table our second set up is a low English shot of La Petite chopping wood if we examine this framework closely it's interesting to note the contents of the frame because there's meaning that ties into what's going to happen we

have La Petite and his home in the background I think chopping wood represents an aspect of domestic life it tells us that La Petite is hardworking it also tells us that he's a strong man who could probably defend himself you know as opposed to starting with him milking a cow as a dairy farmer might do our third shot is his daughter with a clothing line showing us another domestic duty the reason for this is evident in shop for because Tarantino creates a sort of curtain with the laundry that reveals the Nazis approaching and it kind

of represents the domestic life that is being intruded upon it interrupts La Petite mid-swing and showing the Nazis from far away both puts us in La Petite perspective it makes their arrival much more ominous if we were in the car with Wanda it would put us in his perspective but instead it's like this looming danger approaching and we know it's a looming danger because we can see the way the family is behaving the daughter's Russian side while La Petite sits and seems to gather himself [Music] this is the first close up of lapa deeds face

we still don't know what's happening but he doesn't look happy the over-the-shoulder shot connects the imagery it's lapa deep the barrier of domestic life embodied by the laundry being penetrated by an approaching car full of Nazis he does a great job of establishing the geography of the scene showing us the house the stump the clothing line the water pump and lapa deep with only a few basic camera positions and look at the symbolic potential of the objects in the composition it's a man and his home with a buried hatchet and at this point we have

spent roughly three and a half minutes watching Londo approach from lapa deeds perspective and the effect is building tension [Music] the shot of La Petite washing himself shows us that this meeting is important but also is an external action that shows us how he must be internally preparing himself this is the first time the camera moves beyond panning if we watched him approach from lapa deeds perspective he would look small we could have done a follow shot which would keep him mysterious by not showing his face but once again he would put us in his

shoes I think the point of moving with him from the side shows us the laundry and the acts and it kind of puts Londe in control because the camera hasn't moved yet the contrast of movement makes him stand out and makes him important Tarantino has taken his time to make us feel Landa's approach and is present without really showing us him part 2 centers around Londe exchanging polite social graces he is almost uncomfortably polite and I think the purpose is both to build tension by showing us how the family reacts but also to show us

how well andhe speaks French and how duplicitous he is the first set up is behind la petits daughters this gives us their perspective but there in the foreground reminding us that they are what Londe is looking at and the focus of this part of the scene the camera trucks to the left with LAN Desmond notice the final framing Londa is in-between leopardy and his daughters to add to the nervous tension of the moment not to mention the window in the background frames and Nazis waiting outside as a reminder of the dangerous threat awaiting them should

this encounter go wrong which reminds me of Citizen Kane where Orson Welles used a window to frame little Kane in the background as his parents discussed him in both cases the window frame in the background of the discussion reminds us what is at stake if killed only bellagio CG the vote from be shot to death before the missile appetit Russia so to usually listen to desert she's up you guys you should you don't put her good in it and this is the key moment of this section LaVonda takes control the situation and says that he

prefers milk over wine and it's not exactly clear what my initial reaction was that he wanted to treat himself to what they are known for farming milk or maybe he prefers not to drink on duty because he needs to be sharp and then it hit me Hans Landa is a detective and it's like his superpower is observation I mean look at the way he's staring at Charlotte he knows they're hiding something but to get information he needs to get them to let their guard down he doesn't want them to know he's observing them so in

a way the milk is about pretending to be something innocent and pure he's pretending to be harmlessly enjoying himself but really he's in control Charlotte shares a glance with her father and we know something's wrong just watch londa closely he is a hawk and you can almost see the very moment he puts his polite face on the framing is eye level with Londe which makes him important we're meeting him at his level if we saw him from lapa deeds perspective we would be looking down on him and he would look smaller and weaker but here

he dominates the frame he also dominates the scene by chugging the milk entirely it's definitely a power move Monsieur the camera frames them at almost even positions they're equals and the scene is about to take another dramatic shift as he asked to speak in private Dundas of you Charlotte should be on you too so no I'm not going any more at home with you the camera setups will completely change so I'll start back at setup a part three is about the two men sitting at the table and Londo pretending that is questioning is a bureaucratic

formality but before I get into that we need to talk about coverage this is the most basic type of coverage for two people talking establishing shot then go to over the shoulders and this is what it looks like to shot over the shoulder over the shoulder and then punch in for close-ups of the dramatic moments so we can see the actors and Moe but Tarantino doesn't do that here at first it's close but his choices are a lot more interesting we start with his establishing shot notice that he didn't use the previous setup from before

and remember the scene isn't really broken into six parts I just did that to show where Tarantino has changed his coverage style said Abby has lapa deets in her frame setup si has londa Center frame each time they speak their respective coverage has the speaker centered dominating most of the frame it's not quite the typical framing but it's balanced Londa is just trying to shift the conversation in English but once they switch to English Tarantino moves to a new framing F set up D yes his position favors the right third of the frame which can

be typical but notice what has happened we cut back to lawn Desiro gional C setup that favors him towards the right side of the frame let's look at them overlaid over each other as we cut back and forth between these setups it looks like Linda is cornering lappa D in the right side of the frame the reason for this is because Londa is asking la petite if he is aware of his reputation londa in a way is the aggressor lapa D is unsure of where this questioning is going and it's kind of on the defensive

the external action is just that they are talking but the internal action is that Londe is dominating the conversation and pushing lapa deep into a corner and the framing reflects that please tell me what you've heard I've heard that difference between charge of running up to G was left in France while the hiding are passing for ten time the Fuhrer couldn't have said it better himself but the meaning of your visit doesn't do it it is mysterious to me the Germans looked through my house nine months ago for hiding Jews and found nothing set up

a is the first and only time we get a single shot of londa in part threes coverage scheme reserving shot changes for key moments makes them stand out and feel important it also seems like it's coming from lapa deeds point of view we can see him get out as paperwork and it's all part of londa Zeus that this is merely a bureaucratic formality and nothing more nevertheless I just have a few questions miss you love the leader if you can assist me with answers my department can close a file on your family No before the

occupation there were four Jewish families in this area all dairy farmers like yourself and the conference's said Corrine at this moment we go back to sit up be from earlier but because of the dramatic shift in what's happening I'm gonna go ahead and call it set up F if we follow the same framing ideas as before this time lapa D is the aggressor answering landis questions confidently pushing londa into the left corner to my knowledge and does what the Jewish family's among the dairy farmers decadent would disturb you if I smoked my pipe please Monsieur

separately this is your house make yourself comfortable according to these papers all the Jewish families in this area of been accounted for except the consciousness somewhere in the last year would appear they vanished which leads me to the conclusion but they've either made good their escape or someone is very successfully hiding with them what have you heard about that time versus machine Appetit I love rumors facts could be so misleading were rumors true or false so often revealing setup G is lapa deeds first single shot in this part of the conversation notice that his framing

favors him on the left third of the frame encroaching on Landa's compositional territory this is probably because he just made himself comfortable and got his pipe out for smoking and also because he is about to bold-faced lie to Londa again this is just a rumour but we heard the dreyfuses had made their way into Spain notice that he doesn't look nervous here Vonda doesn't seem to know anything he's been searched before he might be feeling like he's going to make it out of this ok we get a close-up of La Petite lighting his pipe and

this is where things are going to take the largest dramatic shift of the entire scene so the rule is you've heard of gonna miss cake wait yes having never met the dreyfuses would you confirm for me the exact members of the household and their names part 4 is all about shifting the action line and it's where both figuratively and literally the tables turn on La Petite what is shifting the action line well when you film two characters talking there is an imaginary line we call the line of action or the access line all the cameras

action is supposed to stay on one side or the other this also is referred to as the 180 degree rule if the camera jumps this line it can be confusing or disorienting to the audience we might not know who's talking to who or we can get confused about the geography of the room Tarantino chooses to break this roll in this case we rotate around the table and it represents a dramatic change in point of view I'll dispel 15 continue and chindan ages of the children londa shifts gears and stops pretending to be the polite bureaucrat

who likes to drink milk and becomes a true danger that he is nine or ten Thank You Sheila a profile shot is often used when a character is hiding something because we can't see their eyes online and this move reveals to the audience that lapa deed has been lying they probably had to build a set just for this move but doing it in one shot as opposed to using a cut gives us a better sense of the geography and shows us that they're directly underneath him a cut might have been a little more disorienting but

also the move makes this moment more dramatic eww are you aware the nickname the people of France have given me no interesting but you aware of what they call me part 5 is where Londe talks about the difference between a hawk and a rat and we stay on the side of the action where the tables have turned because londa is no longer here pretending that he isn't here to hunt down the Dreyfus family the reason this section stands out and gets its own part is that the framing is mostly matching between the two and the

two shot has them at opposite ends of the frame suggesting the distance between them because La Petite doesn't yet know what londa does know they call you two joined klonda's coverage gives him a single shot in profile but rather than placing him Center or have him pushing La Petite to the left we get him leaning back in his chair where we can see the glass of milk why he would hate the name the hangman's baffling to me it would appear he's done everything in his power to earn it but I am the other hand love

my unofficial title precisely because I friended lapa Deek gets his own profile shot favoring his side of the screen effective hunter of the Jews is as opposed to most German soldiers I can think like a Jew where they can only think like a German soldier now if one were to determine what attribute the German people share with a beast there would be the cunning and the predatory instinct of a hawk but if one were to determine what attributes the Jews share with the beast it would be that of the rats the few hundred of us

propaganda have said pretty much the same thing but where our conclusions differ is I don't consider the comparison an insulting consider for a moment the world are perhaps lives in so hostile world indeed if a rat were to scamper through your front door right now would you greet it with hostility I suppose I would as a rat ever done anything to you to create this animosity you feel toward them right sprint is easy to bite people rats were the cause of the bubonic plague but that's some time ago I proposed to you any disease a

rat could spread a squirrel could equally carry would you agree right yet I assume you don't share the same animosity with squirrels if you do with rats dear no yet they're both rodents are they not and except for the tail they even rather look alike don't they it's an interesting thought currently however interesting as the thought maybe it makes not one bit of difference to how you feel if a rat were to walk in here right now as I'm talking would you create it with a sauce of delicious milk probably no 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 a cellar he looks everywhere he would hide but there's so many places it wouldn't have occurred to hog too hard however the reason the fuel has brought me off my outs in Austria and placed me in French cow country today is because it doesn't current

to me because I'm aware of a tremendous sheets human beings are capable of once they abandon dignity Londa politely asked to smoke his pipe may I smoke my pipe as well and the coverage scheme changes yet again part 6 the last and final part of this section is where Londe finally reveals what he knows this big change is signified by jumping the action line again the pipe is not the same as the milk because this time it's a Power Move when he puts his cards on the table but also I think it reminds me of

Sherlock Holmes celebrating his powers of deduction now my job dictates that I must have my men into your home conducted a thorough search before I can officially cross your family's name off my list and if there are any irregularities to be found rest assured they will be that is unless you have something to tell me that makes a conducting of search of necessary and Tarantino has reserved the close-ups for this moment I might add also that any information that makes a performance of my duties yeah will not be met with punishment actually quite the contrary

it will be met with reward and that reward will be your family will cease to be harassed in any way whether German military during the rest of our occupation of your country look at the hidden horror on lappa deeds face as Londe offers him a deal and you better believe the hawk and see it you're sheltering enemies of the state I not yes you shall bring them underneath your floats aren't you yes why talk to me the areas where they're hiding we jump the action line again so we can see the other side of the

house and also Salon des can go back to pretending that nothing is wrong since I haven't heard any disturbance I assume while they're listening they don't speak English it's no to switch back to French nod I want you to follow my mask around separately it's mr. la petite removal mercy I'm not gonna break down every single shot here I'm just gonna let you watch it and think about the choices [Music] I mean I'm [Music] the reverb to me [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] shushanna okay so at the very end of the

scene Londa calls out shoshanna's name shushanna how did he know well he probably could guess from her age which one of the Dreyfus family she was someone may have also already given up information about the family he says all the Jewish families in this area of unaccounted for they could have also told him that the Dreyfus family was close to the lapa deep family which is probably why he was at the house to begin with the only confirmation he needed was the La Petite families nervous behavior and I think the key moment was when La

Petite knew the names and ages of the children because he says again this is just a rumor but knowing their ages meant that he knew the family having never met the dreyfuses would you confirm for me the exact members of the household if he had never spoken to any of them he wouldn't know so much about them the scene does a lot to establish the villain of the movie we know he is excellent at deductive reasoning he's manipulative he's duplicitous and he's ruthless let's do a quick recap the scene has six parts in the first

section Tarantino sets up the locations and it's geography by showing a sloppy D and his home the approaching danger the family running around preparing and Lapid eat waiting in part two lapa D introduces his daughters Vonda exchanges polite hospitality and Tarantino builds the tension by showing how the family reacts then in part three they sit at the table and he uses framing to show a kind of cat-and-mouse game as Londa and lapa D push each other on two different sides of the frame in part four he flips the action line and reveals that the family

is hiding under the table in part five Londa tells the hawk and rat story and Tarantino uses edge-to-edge framing to show us their distance in the last section Londa gets his pipe out and reveals that he knows that they are hiding under the table he also tells La Petite that cooperation will life and then it's pretty much a bloodbath and we walk away knowing what kind of man Londa is I think we end up with a total of a hundred and thirty-three shots he uses an average of eight setups per section for a total of

47 setups to tell the scene thanks so much for watching I know this was a long one they won't all be like this I just love the scene it's a true master class and how to use coverage to narrate the dramatic shifts in your scene please like and subscribe to support me you can follow me on social media at emotion designer you can also watch my other video on cinema language until next time I'm a motion designer