2. Inglourious Basterds - Strudel Scene
The awkward moment when... you're having strudel with the man who killed your family and nearly you! Quentin Tarantino again, this time with the amazing Inglorious Basterds. Shosanna is a Jew in France during the Second World War and she manages to escape her place of hiding just before Col. Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz) and his soldiers kill the rest of her family. The awkward moment happens months later when Shosanna (now Emmanuelle) has a new identity in Paris running her own cinema. She feels she has gotten away safely until an annoying Nazi war hero takes a shine to her and she is literally dragged out to dinner with him and some other high-ranking Nazis including Landa. She instantly recognises him of course and has to sit there, eating strudel, desperately trying to hide her terror and praying that he doesn't recognise her. Whilst this is happening the audience is praying with her and there's a good few minutes where everyone holds their breath. It is the performance by Christoph Waltz that makes this scene really work; he makes you think he does recognise her at some points and really terrifies everyone watching.