7. Quentin Tarantino Was The One Strangling Diane Kruger (For Real) - Inglourious Basterds (2009)
Quentin Tarantino is without a doubt the master of the ill-judged movie cameo. Time and time again, the otherwise great director forces himself into making some seriously bewildering appearances in his own movies. And it's not just because he's a relatively bad actor (he is) that Tarantino cameos are so particularly frustrating, it's because the man himself is so unique and recognizable as a human being that they only ever serve to drag you right out of the movie-going experience. And Tarantino movies are all about the immersive experience - that's exactly what the guy does best. Still, his 2009 war/western Inglourious Basterds is thankfully - for the most part, anyway - Tarantino-free, though the director's filthy mitts do make a brief appearance towards the end of the movie, when Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz) strangles Diane Kruger's Bridget von Hammersmark after discovering she's a traitor. But those aren't - as you'd expect - Waltz's hands wrapped around Kruger's neck, but Tarantino's, who insisted that he perform the difficult task personally, and that they did it for real. Kruger agreed, maybe because she's insane, and the shot that made it into the movie is - literally - the first one they filmed. Is it the only shot ever committed to celluloid that shows a famous Hollywood director actually strangling an actress 'til the eyes begin to pop out of her head? Answers on a postcard.