On August 21st, Inglourious Basterds finally made it’s epic debut to theatre’s worldwide. For Taratino, Pitt, Roth and Kruger fans it was a much-anticipated event.. but for Laurent fans, it was thee movie premiere to see. Mélanie’s first American movie debut, directed by a legend, co-staring some of the biggest names in American cinema today. It’s hard not to get excited just reading about the people behind the film and even harder once you’ve viewed the trailer. So, as a webmiss of this site (and Mélanie being one of my absolute favorites right now) I was adamant on seeing the film as soon as possible.
This past friday I was able to head out to the theatre to watch the movie. A bit of me wasn’t sure if I would even enjoy the film as much as I enjoyed seeing Mélanie for the first time on the big screen. As the beginning credits rolled and Mélanie Laurents name appeared in yellow on the screen, I felt the swell of excitement in my chest… (be warned for spoilers following the link)
The feeling seemed to last just long enough for me to realize the opening scene would feature Mélanie herself. We begin in a Nazi-infested France and meet a father and his three daughters. They are greeted by Col. Hans Landa who is looking for Shosanna’s family. Without giving too much of the plot away (the story is still fresh in my mind, so a complete recount is completely plausible), the action begins only a mere 10-15 minutes into the film. We meet Pitt and his gang momentarily later and a frustrated Hilter shortly thereafter. I was beginning to get excited just for the film itself and not only for Mélanie’s scenes..
Surprisingly, and a good surprisingly at that, we see a lot of Mélanie on the big screen. I was surprised at how much screen time her character had and what a big part she played in the film. Shosanna is a vital and important part of the plot, helping it digress to the very final chapter of the movie.
Mélanie did nothing short of a, dare I say, phenomenal job in this movie. Her quiet, yet dangerous demeanor, paired with her piercing and hard-to-ignore, smoldering green eyes were the perfect elements to bring together the completely lovable and heart-wrenching character Shosanna. “She’s really, really good, Sarah..” were the words whispered to me (by my friend) directly after the scene involving Shosanna’s second encounter with Col. Hans Landa. I grinned quite largely immediately after hearing that, feeling incredibly proud of Mélanie and her accomplishments. I must say, the one scene that completely blew me away was indeed the final chapter to the story (wherein Shosanna’s plans to eliminate the Nazi fleet in her theatre begins). I was simply blown away and that is simply the only way I can express how I felt.
In closing, I was not only completely taken by Mélanie’s performance. I was not just content as the webmiss of MML. I was throughly entertained by the movie, enjoying the thrill and action acted by each and every member of the cast. If you are on the rocks about watching this movie, I beg you now go out and watch it! Support Mélanie and get a thrill of a ride. You will not regret it. I must advise though, if you happen to have a weak stomach and don’t feel comfortable watching gory movies, I retract my suggestion. The movie contains a lot of gore and blood.
Now You See Me (2014)
Les Adoptés (2011)
Beginners (2011)
Et soudain tout le monde me manque (2011)
Requiem pour une tueuse (2011)
En t'attendant (2011)
Nesa Says:
I was totally impressed how good Melanie play her charakter. She has many scenes in this movie and is with Christoph Waltz, who plays Hans Landa my fav. Charakter in the Movie and makes a really good job. I thought she a a mini role and Brad Pitt or Diane Kruger have big roles, but she has for me the Main role together with Christoph Waltz. That was the first Movie with Melanie who i saw and i was totally impressed from her. I love the Scenes with Hans Landa in the Café and the end scenes of her with Daniel Brühl. She make a really good job there and i just fall in love with her.
Emilia Says:
I went to go see the movie on my own since no one else seemed to be interested in going, certainly not any of my girlfriends lol but i was happy to do so anyway.
Melanie was superb and even though there were a handful of outstanding performances(Waltz, Kruger!), at the end i just felt like someone had cut the movie short! I just really wanted to see more of her! She plays her role with this subtle intensity.. And even though she’s this strong and fierce character, bordering on cold with tragedy, you come away still feeling for this undeniably ‘lovable and heart-wrenching character Shosanna.’
Sammy Davis Jr Says:
Learn how to spell!!!! “it’s” should be “its”.
The rest is garbage since you can’t spell!!!!!!
Sara Amelia Says:
Sammy Davis Jr, I’m an English major. I know how to spell and speak quite well. Thank you for your comment but it was not necessary. I made one mistake.
Sandra Says:
The women were really a revelation in Inglourious Basterds! Laurent and Kruger both surprised me thoroughly with their strong, convincing performances. I haven’t seen any of Laurent’s earlier work, but Kruger particularly has come a LONG way since Troy, which I was most pleased to see. (It’s funny, though, how foreign actors perform far better in their own language than in English, of which Penelope Cruz — my personal favorite pet peeve — is living proof. I’m not necessarily saying it is the case here, but I’m pretty sure it helped. Except maybe Waltz, who had to speak in so many languages I lost count.)
Christopher Waltz as Landa was really one of the best, if not the best, onscreen performances I have seen in my life (and for a non-movie critic, I’ve seen quite a few). The scene in which Landa is introduced to “Emmanuelle” is just dead-on; with Tarantino’s flair for shoving popular culture into all of his films, appropriate or no, it’s sometimes very difficult to forget you’re watching a movie, but Waltz and Laurent had me the entire moment of Landa and Shosanna’s “talk”, and I was _endlessly_ pleased that Laurent as Shosanna didn’t show her discomfort too blatantly. It didn’t need spelling out, and I’m happy they didn’t.
Laurent was also particularly involving in the scene in which she discusses her plan to torch the cinema. You completely forget she is only an actress in character, and for a moment I though I really saw in her this kind of, bitter, vengeful woman who had once been able to have sympathy for everyone, but had since lost it, for obvious reasons. A person who had then gone to an extreme, which you as a sensible person almost understand and yet… don’t.
Also, the opening scene was phenomenal. Really, it was the quiet moments in the film that were the most realistic and genuinely involving. Tarantino’s clearly not big on reinventing himself (perhaps he feels he doesn’t need to, which I might not entirely agree with), but the great casting and (mostly) clever screenwriting really made up for whatever flaws this film had.
Sandra Says:
*It’s Christoph Waltz, of course, not Christopher. I keep typing his name wrong for whatever reason. haha