4. Madame Mimieux
In the script for Inglourious Basterds we find out how Soshanna went from being a fleeing Jew on the run from the Nazi's with no shelter to her name, to a cinema owner in just a few years. This filling in the blanks was omitted from both the Cannes print and the final version of the movie but it briefly went like this; A character by the name of Madame Mimieux, the original owner of the French cinema, takes in this 'orphan' girl who keeps turning up night after night to watch the films (which by now are almost exclusively Goebbels' propaganda films), presumably for a temporary roof over her head and to avoid running into Germans. Madame Mimieux finds an exceptional quality about Soshanna and is impressed by her spirited, intelligent and honest attitude and she teaches her the ropes of how to work the projections and although it's only a brief character, Madame Mimieux is just one of a few players in Tarantino's movie who don't quite know why, but must feel that there's an important, perhaps mythical reason to keep helping this young girl with her struggle. She is even the one who plants the idea in Soshanna's head, subconsciously, to blow up the cinema to end the war with dialogue that in the final cut is given to the narrator
Samuel L. Jackson;
MADAME MIMIEUX if I ever see you light up a cigarette in my cinema again, I'll turn you into the Nazi's, do you understand? Shosanna is shocked by this statement. SHOSANNA Oui, Madame. MADAME MIMIEUX And for bringing a open flame in my cinema, you deserve far worse then a Nazi jewish boxcar. With your thick head, what do you think the highest priority of a cinema manager is? Keeping this fucking place from burning down to the ground, that's what! In my collection, I have over 350, 35mm, nitrate film prints, which are not only immensely flammable, but highly unstable. And should they catch fire, they burn three times faster then paper. If that happens.. .POOF...all gone, cinema no more, every body burned alive. If I ever see you with a open flame in my cinema again, I won't turn you into the Nazi's I'll kill you myself. And the fucking Germans will give me a curfew pass. Do you understand me? SHOSANNA Out, Madame. MADAME MIMIEUX Do you believe me? SHOSANNA Out, Madame. MADAME MIMIEUX You damn well better. It was a nice few scenes on paper and Tarantino even went to the trouble of shooting them with the great Asian actress
Maggie Cheung to play the part (how a Chinese woman came to own a French cinema is itself the kind of fantasy story that only exists in Tarantino's mind) but ultimately he cut it for length and for the belief that the mystery of how Soshanna escaped evasion from the Nazi's and came to own the cinema was better left to the imagination. Usually, I agree with Tarantino on this statement. We certainly don't need to know what is in the briefcase in Pulp Fiction, we don't need to know why Aldo Raine has a rope burn scar on his neck... but how Soshanna came to own the cinema, given her circumstances, is a criminal snippet of information not to tell us. It feels lazy, too conveniently cut, and the absence of it is more irritating than it is intriguing. The eventual extended cut of Inglourious Basterds which we will probably get around 2021, will probably include the scene and I bet the film plays better...