Not Really The Face of Evil

Congratulations to Christoph Waltz for his Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his performance as the truly creepy, unsettling, double-dealing, and downright evil Hans Landa as portrayed in Inglourious Basterds. When we screened Inglourious Basterds here last summer, Mr. Waltz did not join Quentin Tarantino, Eli Roth, Melanie Laurent or Diana Kruger (she was in the lobby, most of the audience didn’t get to see her).

Because he wasn’t there, the audience could not ask how he felt playing “The Jew Hunter.” In an interview in Time magazine last week, Mr. Waltz said he “ignored the Nazi part” of the role. When asked to clarify, he said:

“My opinion about it would have interfered with the character. What I know about it is historical information. A person who lived in 1944 didn't have the historical evaluation of this whole event, this whole catastrophe, this whole disaster. Also, for the character himself, I thought it was not that relevant. I found him very early on to be nonideological. He's a detective. He's not really a Nazi. He's just wearing the uniform.”

His response has been the basis of some debate here. He is an actor, not an historian, and he can use whatever motivation he chooses to create his character. And, of course, our audience should be able to separate the character from the actor. I think if Mr. Waltz had shared those thoughts on our stage, the protestations from the audience would have drowned him out.

In other Oscar news, if you enjoy seeing every movie nominated for an Academy Award, you’ll be pleased to know that we will be screening A Serious Man (nominated for Best Picture) on June 2 and Ajami (nominated for Best Foreign Film) on July 28. These two offerings are part of our new summer film club. You’ll hear more about that in the weeks to come.

Image found on Creative Commons http://www.flickr.com/photos/kuvshinova/