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Monday, September 10, 2012

My Favorite Scene: the Silence of Tarantino


Quentin Tarantino’s films are known for many things: rapid-fire dialogue exchanges, operatic profanity, sneakily long takes, ceaseless pop culture references, and so on. All of these techniques have been discussed and dissected and scrutinized endlessly, but what rarely gets mentioned is Tarantino’s precise and beautifully timed bouts of silence.

Now, I don’t mean that every audio track on the soundtrack goes mute, but rather the character on screen falls silent. Below are three examples (and, subsequently, my favorite moment from each film) in which a character in a Tarantino film perfectly flexed the art of thinking. They say nothing, but they’re saying everything.

Pulp Fiction (1994) – “You lost your L.A. privileges.”
Midway through Pulp Fiction, nearly an hour and a half after we've watched crime boss Marsellus Wallace (Ving Rhames) pay boxer Butch (Bruce Willis) to take a dive in an upcoming fight, Marsellus and Butch run into each other in that uniquely Tarantino way.

Butch didn’t lose the fight like he was paid to, choosing to bet on himself and collect the winnings while on the run from a very pissed Marsellus. Push comes to shove, a gold watch (excuse me, the gold watch) comes up missing, and before we know it, Marsellus and Butch are beating the living shit out of each other on the floor of Maynard’s Pawn Shop. Maynard, a ponytail-sporting hick armed with a very big shotgun, breaks up the fight and soon has both Marsellus and Butch tied down and gagged up in his shitty basement.

Enter Zed, a scrawny redneck wearing a very unconvincing police uniform costume. Zed and Maynard discuss which one of the men they “wanna do first,” The Gimp is brought out from his locked cage to implement pathetic security and, after a quick but menacing game of Eeny Meeny Miny Mo, Marsellus is first up for a bit of torture.

Maynard and Zed drag Marsellus to a back room, the door closes, and horror takes hold. Horror that we hear, but do not see. Butch breaks out of his restraints, knocks The Gimp out, and quickly begins to exit the shop. He grabs the keys to Zed’s chopper and opens the door to leave.

He’s free.  Until he hears it.

The mixed sounds of Maynard and Zed’s ecstatic exclamations of satanic joy, garbled with Marsellus’ muffled screams and the blaring saxophone of The Revels’ “Comanche,” is enough to make Butch stop in his tracks. He opens the door to the shop, but can’t bring himself to leave. His sworn enemy, the man who wanted to kill him mere minutes earlier, will soon meet his demise, and Butch will be home free. But watch Willis’ face here. I mean, really fucking watch it. Bruised and bloodied to hell, Willis’ battered face says what, in hindsight, damn near anyone knows to be true: you can’t leave. You have to go back. You have to go back.

Jackie Brown (1997) – “It’s Jackie Brown.”
This moment of silence comes late in the game, long after the scene has been set and the plan executed.

Pam Grier’s titular badass has successfully managed to steal money from Samuel L. Jackson’s Ordell Robbie (that’s, O-R-D-E-L-L R-O-B-B-I-E). She has (supposedly) passed off more than half a million to Ordell’s bimbo lackey, Melanie (Bridget Fonda), who has hesitantly given it over to Ordell’s crime partner, Louis (Robert De Niro).

Louis is stressed out. Fresh out of prison, he’s feeling the heat of this job. So when he can’t remember where he parked the car in the giant lot of a shopping mall, Melanie sees it as a golden opportunity to fuck with him. She teases, he warns, she apologizes, he shoots.

Now, the moment comes when Louis picks up Ordell and Ordell realizes that the bag containing his $550,000 is actually full of beach towels and romance novels. Louis proclaims repeatedly that he has no idea where the money has gone (which he doesn’t), and also tries to convince Ordell that shooting Melanie was his only option (which it wasn’t).

Ordell tells Louis to pull the car over. And then Ordell thinks.

He sits in the passenger seat, facing Louis, with his head looking down at the floorboard of the shitty automobile. He thinks. The camera slowly pushes in, and after several brilliant seconds of controlled acting, he looks up and slowly let’s out, “It’s Jackie Brown.”

His ass may be dumb, but he ain’t no dumb ass.

Inglourious Basterds (2009) – “Ah ah ah, wait from the cream.”
By the conclusion of the epic, miraculous, revelatory opening scene of Inglourious Basterds, SS Col. Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz) has ordered the killing of the entire Dreyfus family. Young Shosanna (Mélanie Laurent) escapes, but mostly because Landa let’s her.

Three years later, Shosanna is a low-key cinema owner in Paris, living under the name Emmanuelle Mimieux. Upon meeting famous German sniper Fredrick Zoller, it is soon proposed that the premiere for Nation’s Pride, a Nazi propaganda film about Zoller, be held at Shosanna’s theater. However, the brass must approve of the venue, so an informal lunch is held so that Zoller’s superiors can question Shosanna.

And then in he walks.

Col. Landa, The Jew Hunter, walks up and stands ominously behind Shosanna, who conceals her assumed sudden, horrific panic. Landa slowly sits down before gently asking Shosanna about her cinema.

Take a look at what is going on here. She knows who he is, but does he know who she is? To add to the complexity, does she know that HE knows who she is, and visa versa? Basically, it all comes down to if he knows who Shosanna is, then why isn’t he doing anything about it? And if he doesn’t know who she is, when will he figure it out?

Now, this is a bit of an admitted cheat, as Shosanna does indeed engage Landa in (minimal) conversation. Although Shosanna isn’t literally silent, the sentiment remains the same: Laurent’s face is doing so much work, while her voice says very little. When you take in the full scope of the situation, it makes it very hard to believe that Laurent received not a shred of major awards attention for her work here. It’s as fine a moment of emotional expression that Tarantino has ever captured. 

Previous installments of My Favorite Scene include:

24 comments:

  1. Love love love. I think the Basterds one is my favourite of the lot. Just Waltz's and Laurent's faces- gahh.

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    1. Such a good scene, isn't it? Love love love indeed!

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  2. Brilliant! Love those iconic scenes. I just rewatched Jackie Brown, and that scene really stood out. Also dig the love for Laurent's performance.

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    1. Nice man. That was so funny that we randomly rewatched Jackie Brown at the same time. That's such a powerful moment from that flick.

      And Laurent's lack of awards attention still confounds me.

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    2. Actually I watched JB for the FIRST time the day before you rewatched it. Just watched it a second time yesterday. :)

      Hear, hear!

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    3. Oh really? Well either way, really glad you like it so much. Movie rocks!

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  3. That scene with Hans Landa and Shoshanna gave me chills. It's such a wonderfully-executed scene. I agree with you that Tarantino doesn't get much created for those silent moments. It underrates him as a filmmaker. And why did Melanie Laurent got overlooked in the awards season. I thought she should've gotten a Best Supporting Actress nod.

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    1. I completely agree with everything you said in this comment, and then some. A Supp. Actress nom would've been well deserved here.

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  4. I'm not a huge fan of Bruce Willis' films in general, but it's scenes like THAT, that make me like HIM. You're right, Laurent should've gotten a nom. Even the oscars, she could easily replace Farmiga or Gyllenhaal - they were good, bu Laurent was impressive. Looking back, she's the one we remember. The expression she makes on that screenshot gets me every time.

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    1. Nice, love that you like Willis so much in this movie. It's really solid work on his part. I agree that Laurent could've replaced a few of the nominees that year, but I suppose in the end, nothing in that category would've topped Mo'Nique. Oh well.

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  5. Excellent, excellent post! Love all of those scenes, especially the one from Pulp Fiction. come to think of it there is silence like that in Kill Bill 1 and 2 too - first when The Bride thinks she has a clear path to O-Ren right before she hears the motorcycles and cars of Crazy 88 approaching and then in the second part right before she says to Bill "you and I have unfinished business". Tarantino is a genious.

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    1. Thanks! Ah those are two fantastic sequences right there. Good call on both. A genius indeed!

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  6. First and foremost, Alex, thank you for adding the phrase "operatic profanity" to my lexicon. That's one of the best expressions EVER. Just sayin'

    Second ... wow! This is a brilliant post -- I can see I'm joining many other readers in gushing about it. I have long been a fan of well timed moments of silence and stillness in books and film. However, it's something I often find difficult to articulately describe.

    It makes me want to re-watch all 3 of these films, looking at those scenes from this perspective. I do remember loving that scene where Bruce Willis's character crosses paths with Marcellus Wallace. The long hilariously painful pause before Marcellus utters, in complete disbelief, "Mother...fucker!" *LOL*

    On an unrelated note, have you seen the video "The Short Version of Pulp Fiction" (I think that's what it's called)? They deleted everything from the film except for the F-Bombs. There is one for Burn After Reading, too. Granted, I don't set the bar very high with my level of humor, but I found those videos hilarious.

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    1. Ha, my pleasure... so I guess I should copyright it, right? haha

      That scene you mentioned from Pulp is such a good moment. Perfectly Tarantino.

      The Short Version of Pulp Fiction is hysterical. I had seen it before, but not for a few years. Thanks so much for reminding me! And thanks as always for commenting, you always have the kindest things to say!

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  7. Great idea for a post. You're totally right in that people, I think, tend to categorize Q.T. as a loud kind of filmmaker but he really does know when to pull back and let the actor speak for him or herself.

    That one in "Jackie Brown", that is spot-on. You never see people THINK in movies.

    I like that moment at the basement tavern in "Basterds" when they're all waiting for the scotch to be poured and everyone's face is conveying a different idea and you know - you KNOW - that Fassbender just gave away something even if you don't know right away what it is.

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    1. Thanks dude. You know, that scene you mentioned from Basterds is arguably as engaging as the one I wrote about. So tense in its silence. What a brilliant, reserved moment. QT knows when to shut the fuck up when need be.

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  8. I love that scene in Inglourious Basterds, it's so tense! Melanie got my hypothetical Oscar nomination from that alone.

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    1. Hell yeah man. Glad you like the scene and her performance as much as I do!

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  9. Brilliantly chosen and described scenes,I definitely fell in love with Mélanie Laurent after watching Inglorious Basterds.

    Another Tarantino silent scenes that impressed me is the scene in Reservoir Dogs where the cops stare at Tim Roth while drying their hands in the bathroom,a wonderful surreal scene.

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    1. Thanks dude! Oh man, had I remembered that scene from Res Dogs, I definitely would've included it here. Excellent moment.

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  10. That moment in Inglorious Basterds is pure Brilliance. It a subtle breakdown but oh man do you feel it. Great post Alex

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    1. Thanks man, so glad you appreciate that moment.

      Thanks so much for stopping by and commenting!

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  11. On of mine is the scene in Pulp Fiction with Travolta and Thurman sitting in the car efter Thurman's charachter had an overdose and nearly lost her life. No words, but still powerfull

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    1. Great, great scene. The desperation in Travolta's face is so telling there.

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