SHOSANNA
Well, I need to speak with you about that.
MARCEL
About what?
SHOSANNA
About these Hun swine, commandeering our cinema.
MARCEL
What about it?
She slowly walks up the stairs to Marcel. She makes him part his legs and sits on the lower step, between his legs, her back up against his chest, his arms around her shoulders, Shosanna has only known this type of intimacy with Marcel.
SHOSANNA
Well, when I was watching that Boche
(said in English)
Capra-corn abomination,
(back to French)
I got an idea.
MARCEL
I’m confused. What are we talking about?
SHOSANNA
Filling the cinema with Nazis and their whores, and burning it down to the ground.
MARCEL
I’m not talking about that. You’re talking about that.
SHOSANNA
No, we’re talking about that, right now. If we can keep this place from burning down by ourselves, we can burn it down by ourselves.
MARCEL
Shosanna—
SHOSANNA
No, Marcel, just for the sake of argument, if we wanted to burn down the cinema for any number of reasons, you and I could physically accomplish that, no?
MARCEL
Oui, Shosanna, we could do that.
SHOSANNA
And with Madame Mimieux’s three hundred and fifty nitrate film print collection, we wouldn’t even need explosives, would we?
MARCEL
You mean we wouldn’t need any more explosives?
SHOSANNA
Oui, that’s exactly what I mean.
She begins kissing his hands.
SHOSANNA
(CON’T)
I am going to burn down the cinema on Nazi night.
One of his fingers probes her mouth.
SHOSANNA
(CON’T)
And if I’m going to burn down the cinema, which I am, we both know you’re not going to let me do it by myself.
The back of her head presses up hard against him, as his hand both caresses and grips her lovely neck.
SHOSANNA
(CON’T)
Because you love me. And I love you. And you’re the only person on this earth I can trust.
She then TWISTS around so she’s straddling him. They are now face to face.
SHOSANNA
(CON’T)
But that’s not all we’re going to do. Does the filmmaking equipment in the attic still work? I know the film camera does. How about the sound recorder?
MARCEL
Quite well, actually. I recorded a new guitarist I met in a café last week. It works superb. Why do we need filmmaking equipment?
SHOSANNA
Because Marcel, my sweet, we’re going to make a film. Just for the Nazis.
She gives him a deep French kiss.
FADE TO BLACK
BLACK FRAME
CHAPTER TITLE APPEARS:
CHAPTER FOUR
“OPERATION KINO”
FADE OFF
INT—ENGLISH COUNTRY ESTATE—DAY
A young MILITARY ATTACHÉ opens the sliding double doors that serve as an entrance to the room.
MILITARY ATTACHÉ
Right this way, Lieutenant.
A snappy, handsome British lieutenant in dress brown steps inside the room. This officer, who has been mixing it up with the Gerrys since the late thirties, is LT. ARCHIE HICOX, a young George Sanders type (“The Saint” and “Private Affairs of Bel Ami” years).
Upon entering the room, Lt. Hicox is gobsmacked.
Standing before him is legendary military mastermind GEN. ED FENECH, an older George Sanders type (“Village of the Damned”).
But in the back of the room, sitting behind a piano, smoking his ever-present cigar, is the unmistakable bulk of WINSTON CHURCHILL.
The lieutenant was not expecting him.
Hicox salutes the general.
LT. HICOX
Lieutenant Hicox reporting, sir.
GEN. FENECH
(salutes back)
General Ed. Fenech. At ease, Hicox. Drink?
Hicox’s eyes go to the formidable bulldog behind the piano, who’s scrutinizing him behind his cigar. However, the man behind the cigar makes no gesture, and the general makes no acknowledgment of the three-hundred-pound gorilla in the room. Which Lt. Hicox knows enough to mean, if Churchill isn’t introduced, he ain’t there.
LT. HICOX
If you offered me a scotch and plain water, I could drink a scotch and plain water.
GEN. FENECH
That a boy, Lieutenant. Make it yourself, like a good chap, will you? Bar’s in the globe.
Hicox heads over to the bar globe.
LT. HICOX
Something for yourself, sir?
GEN. FENECH
Whiskey straight. No junk in it.
The lieutenant moves over to the Columbus-style globe bar and busies himself mixing spirits, playing bartender chappy.
Fenech, eyeing the lieutenant’s file.
GEN. FENECH
It says here you’ve run three undercover commando operations in Germany and German-occupied territories? Frankfurt, Holland, and Norway, to be exact?
Back to them, mixing drinks, he says:
LT. HICOX
Extraordinary people, the Norwegians.
GEN. FENECH
It says here you speak German fluently?
LT. HICOX
Like a Katzenjammer Kid.
GEN. FENECH
And your occupation before the war?
His back still to us, as he bartends…
LT. HICOX
I’m a film critic.
GEN. FENECH
List your accomplishments?
LT. HICOX
Well, sir, such as they are, I write reviews and articles for a publication called “Films and Filmmakers.” As well as our sister publication.
GEN. FENECH
What’s that called?
LT. HICOX
“Flickers Bi-Monthly,” and I’ve had two books published.
GEN. FENECH
Impressive. Don’t be modest, Lieutenant. What are their titles?
LT. HICOX
The first book was called “Art of the Eyes, the Heart, and the Mind: A Study of German Cinema in the Twenties.” And the second one was called…
He turns around with his whiskey and plain water and the general’s whiskey no junk. He finishes what he was saying, as he walks toward the general, handing him his drink.
LT. HICOX
“Twenty-Four Frame Da Vinci.” It’s a subtextual film criticism study of the work of German director G. W. Pabst.
He hands the general his whiskey.
LT. HICOX
What should we drink to, sir?
GEN. FENECH
(thinking, for a moment)
Down with Hitler.
LT. HICOX
All the way down, sir.
CLINK.
GEN. FENECH
Are you familiar with German cinema under the Third Reich?
LT. HICOX
Yes. Obviously I haven’t seen any of the films made in the last three years, but I am familiar with it.
GEN. FENECH
Explain it to me.
LT. HICOX
Pardon, sir?
GEN. FENECH
This little escapade of ours requires a knowledge of the German film industry under the Third Reich. Explain to me UFA, under Goebbels?
LT. HICOX
Goebbels considers the films he’s making to be the beginning of a new era in German cinema—an alternative to what he considers the Jewish German intellectual cinema of the twenties and the Jewish-controlled dogma of Hollywood.
SUDDENLY… bellowing from the back of the room:
CHURCHILL
How’s he doing?
LT. HICOX
Frightfully sorry, sir, once again?
CHURCHILL
You say he wants to take on the Jews at their own game? Compared to, say,… Louis B. Mayer… how’s he doing?
LT. HICOX
Quite well, actually. Since Goebbels has taken over, film attendance has steadily risen in Germany over the last eight years. But Louis B. Mayer wouldn’t be Goebbels’ proper opposite number. I believe Goebbels sees himself closer to David O. Selznick.
Gen. Fenech looks to the prime minister.
With a puff of cigar smoke, Churchill says:
CHURCHILL
Brief him.
GEN. FENECH
Lt. Hicox, at this point in time I’d like to brief you on Operation Kino. Three days from now, Joseph Goebbels is throwing a gala premiere of one of his new movies in Paris—
LT. HICOX
—What film, sir?
The general has to resort to peeking at his file.
GEN. FENECH
The motion pictures called “Nation’s Pride.”
LT. HICOX
Oh, you mean the film about Private Zoller?
GEN. FENECH
We don’t have any intelligence on exactly what the film that night will be about.
LT. HICOX
But it’s called “Nation’s Pride”?
GEN. FENECH
Yes.
LT. HICOX
I can tell you what it’s about. It’s about Private Fredrick Zoller. He’s the German Sargeant York.
Fenech can’t help suppress a smile. They have the right man.
GEN. FENECH
In attendance at this joyous Germanic occasion will be Goebbels, Goering, Bormann, and most of the German High Command, including all the high-ranking officers of both the S.S. and the Gestapo, as well as luminaries of the Nazi propaganda-film industry.
LT. HICOX
The master race at play, aye?
GEN. FENECH
Basically, we have all our rotten eggs in one basket. The objective of Operation Kino… Blow up the basket.
LT. HICOX
(reciting a poem)
… and like the snows of yesteryear, gone from this earth. Jolly good, sir.
GEN. FENECH
An American Secret Service outfit that lives deep behind enemy lines will be your assist. The Germans call them “the Basterds.”
LT. HICOX
“The Basterds.” Never heard of them.
GEN. FENECH
Whole point of the Secret Service, old boy, you not hearing of them. But the Gerrys have heard of them, because these Yanks have been them the devil. Their leader is a chap named Lieutenant Aldo Raine. The Germans call him “Aldo the Apache.”
LT. HICOX
Why do they call him that?
GEN. FENECH
Best guess is because he removes the scalps of the Nazi dead.
LT. HICOX
Scalps, sir?
GEN. FENECH
The hair.
He runs his finger along his hairline.
GEN. FENECH
Like a red Injun.
LT. HICOX
Rather gruesome-sounding little dickybird, isn’t he?
GEN. FENECH
No doubt the whole lot, a bunch of nutters. But you’ve heard the expression “It takes a thief.”
LT. HICOX
Indeed.
Gen. Fenech continues on with his exposition, moving over to a military map.
GEN. FENECH
You’ll be dropped into Franch about twenty-four kilometers outside of Paris. The Basterds will be waiting for you. First thing, you go to a little village called Nadine.
(He points it out on the map.)
Apparently the Gerrys never go there. In Nadine, there’s a tavern called La Louisiane. You’ll rendezvous with our double agent, and she’ll take it from there. She’s the one who’s going to get you into the premiere. It will be you, her, and two German-born members of the Basterds. She’s also made all the other arrangements you’re going to need.
LT. HICOX
How will I know her?
GEN. FENECH
I suspect that won’t be too much trouble for you. Your contract is Bridget von Hammersmark.
LT. HICOX
Bridget von Hammersmark? The German movie star is working for England?
GEN. FENECH
For the last two years now. One could even say Operation Kino was her brainchild.
In the back of the room the bulldog barks:
CHURCHILL
Extraordinary woman.
LT. HICOX
Quite.
GEN. FENECH
You’ll go to the premiere as her escort, lucky devil. She’ll also have the premiere tickets for the other two. Got the gist?
LT. HICOX
I think so, sir. Paris when it sizzles.
The three British bulldogs laugh.
EXT—CINEMA ROOFTOP—DAY
Shosanna and Marcel are on the rooftop of their cinema literally making a movie.
Marcel is behind an old (even then) BOLEX 35MM MOVIE CAMERA, positioned low, looking up.
Shosanna, the camera subject, stands on boxes looking down into it.
A old-timey MICROPHONE is positioned out of frame.
As they always do, and always will, they speak FRENCH SUBTITLED into you know what.
MARCEL
We need a sync mark.
SHOSANNA
What is a sync mark?
MARCEL
An action and noise put together, So we can sync up the picture and sound.
SHOSANNA
How do we do that?
MARCEL
Clap your hands.
She does.
MARCEL
In frame, imbecile.
She claps her hands in front of her face.
MARCEL
Ready?
Shosanna takes a deep breath, then:
SHOSANNA
Ready.
MARCEL
Action.
WE CUT, BEFORE SHE SPEAKS, TO…
THE SCENE EARLIER BETWEEN MARCEL AND SHOSANNA IN THE LOBBY, ON THE STAIRS, TALKING ABOUT BURNING DOWN THE CINEMA.
Big difference. This time, it’s in COLOR.
MARCEL
But how do we get it developed? Only a suicidal idiot like us would develop that footage. How do we get a 35mm print with a soundtrack?
SHOSANNA
Do you know one person who can do both things?
MARCEL
Of course, Gaspar. Very nice man, took care of all the experimental filmmakers. But nobody in their right mind would strike a print of what you’re talking about. If the Nazis found out, their life wouldn’t be worth this.
He snaps his fingers.
SHOSANNA
In a wolf fight, you either eat the wolf or the wolf eats you. If we’re going to obliterate the Nazis, we have to use their tactics.
MARCEL
What does that mean?
SHOSANNA
We find somebody who can develop and process a 35mm print. And we make them do it or we kill them. Once we tell them what we want to do if they refuse, we have to kill them anyway or they’ll turn us in.
MARCEL
Would you do that?
SHOSANNA
Like that.
Inglourious Basterds Page 8
