Except that sometimes they do, it seems.
I noticed that in the opening scene, “merci” was subtitled as “merci” twice. The third time it was used, however, the subtitle read “thank you.”
Similarly, “oui” was sometimes “oui” and sometimes “yes.”
It seems hard to believe the captioners did such a sloppy job accidentally, but on the other hand, I can’t for the life of me think of a reason they’d be intentionally inconsistent.
Unless it’s just Tarantino messing around.
It’s gotta be intentional. With Tarantino, EVERYTHING is intentional.
Definitely. Probably a “Homage” to bad subtitling of old foreign language films or something.
Either that or he just felt like messing with the audience. 
Incidentally, our friends at The Onion have produced an absolutely brilliant article relevant to this thread, too… 
I wish they’d explained how Shoshana really got the theater; were her “aunt” and “uncle” actually Resistance members who gave her the false identity?
There was a whole section of movie about this that got cut out due to flow issues. It will be on the DVD extras.
Saw it last night. I am certain Colonel Landa knew exactly who “Emmanuelle” really was, and he was just fucking with her. He is the type to keep important pieces of information to himself until he finds the absolute best time to reveal it.
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You sure about that? I thought Tarantino is notorious for not wanting to add the deleted scenes into his DVD’s… Because I’ve heard there are some great early scenes w/ Eli Roth’s character that I hope will be included somewhere as extras.
The cut at Cannes was longer than what ended up getting released. Among others, there was a scene showing Shoshanna beng hired by the original theater owner, and there was a scene showing the “Bear Jew” (Eli Roth) taking his baseball bat around his New York neighborhood getting all the Jews to sign their names on it. That gave a significance to the bat itself that was lost in the final cut.
ooh, that’s the scene that I was hoping would be included. :nod:
Here’s hoping you’re right then.
I finally saw this movie today and I was really impressed. I thought Brad Pitt was really funny and very good in his role. I’ll agree that Christoph Waltz really nailed his part and should get an Oscar nomination nod at the very least. I felt so badly for Shosanna and Frederick Zoller; they looked like they could have been a cute couple in normal circumstances. This is the first time I’ve been to a Quentin Tarantino movie while still in the theater and I have this thread to thank for it. It was great to have advance knowledge of cues and such to fully enjoy the experience.
Some comments:
Tarantino shows his foot fetish again. I didn’t understand though. Wouldn’t the shoe be for the other foot?
Also it seemed too careless to me that the bastards didn’t clean up the tavern of incriminating objects.
I can’t believe there is a discussion about whether Landa recognised Shosanna. He ordered her milk! How could he possibly say it more clearly without actually saying it.
The excessive complaint about foreign languages and subtitles is one of the reasons us people in Europe think you are idiots over there.
I believe this is even winked at in the film, with von Hammersmark asking Aldo something like “This is probably a stupid question, but can you Americans speak anything besides English?”
Hey, as a member of the HOH (Hard of Hearing) community, I LOVE when any film has Subtitles in it. 
I’m all for every movie even English ones having Subtitles. But yeah- it’s an annoying complaint to hear.
Saw it…loved it.Great, moving preformances Diane Kruger and Christopher Waltz…wow! QT obviously saw their talent, too.
I thought Brad Pitt was very average and the weakest link. He was the box office draw, but I don’t think the guy can really act. The other actors gave serious preformances and BP was stuck
doing a two dimentional King of the Hill type character.
I vote for Landa not knowing Shoshana’s true identity. He ordered her a glass of milk because hey,the guy likes milk.
Nonsense. He ordered coffee for himself. If he liked milk so much, he would have ordered it for them both.
I used to think Europeans generally grew up knowing many languages. Then I spent time in Europe, particularly Germany, and met so many who spoke only their own native language.
We always have the subtitles turned on when we watch DVDs. Even though the wife has excellent English, it still helps, particularly if it’s a difficult accent, like from northern England. (We’re watching the first season of Life on Mars right now, set in Manchester. The set does not have subtitles, and I’m having to explain a lot to her.)
Landa only saw the back of Shoshana at approximately a hundred yards as she sprinted away. There’s nothing in the film to suggest that he’s ever seen her face before.
There’s also no reason at the point in the film that he meets her (in the restaurant) for him to not only recognize her, but also keep it secret from Goebbels and the other higher ups. While he does eventually hitch his wagon to the Basterds plan, there’s no reason for him to let this Jewish girl potentially be outed and bring shame to this premier. He cannot possibly fathom a beneficial outcome from keeping her real identity secret.
Actually, I don’t think I’ve seen any complaints in this thread about there being subtitles in the film. A couple of people have remarked it seemed odd to subtitle things like merci as “merci” sometimes and “thank you” at other times, but that’s an observation, not a complaint.
I love the argument about Landa knowing Shoshana, because Tarantino left it ambiguous on purpose. There is no answer.