7. Once Upon A Time In Nazi-Occupied France - Inglourious Basterds (2009)
Quentin Tarantino's western disguised beneath World War II iconography is a brilliant and ballsy exploitation thrill-ride, though - looking back on it - there's one scene in particular that clearly stands out from all the others: the anxiety-clad, claustrophobic opening, which introduces us to Colonel Hans Landa of the S.S, as played to perfection by the irreplaceable Christoph Waltz. Tarantino's movie is great from start to finish, but it's here, as we meet the deliciously evil "Jew Hunter," that the film is at its most brilliant. Landa arrives on a farm in France looking for hidden Jews, and proceeds to interrogate a local farmer. We know that the farmer is hiding enemies of the state beneath his floorboards, of course, and so does Landa, but it's the passive/aggressive way that Tarantino writes his character that makes for such stomach-churning viewing here. Things don't ever quite reach the heights of this masterfully constructed sequence anywhere else in the movie, though that's not necessarily a bad thing.