Written and directed by Quentin Tarantino, the screenplay of ‘Inglourious Basterds’ cooked up over past years. The title references the name of a film by Italian director Enzo G. Castellari, whom takes on a cameo role in the film. Tarantino’s ‘Inglourious Basterds’ is an original creation, his producer Lawrence Bender recalled. Ten years later and after many amendments, the film finally materialized in 2008. In the duration, the film briefly took shape of a short TV series and a novel in Tarantino’s mind.
Bender considers the studio of ‘Inglourious Basterds’ to be legendary. Many well-known classics, such as ‘Metropolis’, ‘The Blue Angel’ and even films made in the Nazi era, were filmed in the very same studio. It was also the chosen location of Paul Joseph Goebbels, the head of promotion in Hitler era who was known as ‘the genius for propaganda’. All these historic moments conjure up a unique aura which is now re-interpreted by Tarantino.
For Tarantino fans, the most important location in this film is the underground bar ‘La Louisiane’. A nostalgia of ‘Reservoir Dogs’, the characters are now Nazi and Germans, the location an underground bar. The whole crew rehearsed for three full weeks, no wonder Diane Kruger described the experience to be like acting in theatre.
The story takes place during World War II, when the Germans occupy France. Shosanna Dreyfus (Mélanie Laurent) witnesses the murder of her own family under the hands of Nazi officer Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz). She has a lucky escape, establishes a fake identity as a cinema owner and plans her own revenge. At the same time, the first lieutenant of allied nation forces Aldo (Brad Pitt) joins forces with Jew gangs to form ‘The Basterds’, along with undercover actress Bridget Von Hammersmark (Diane Kruger) to plan an assassination of Hitler.
