Cannes 2009: Christoph Waltz Best Actor Inglourious Basterds’

Tarantino has rescued many careers in the U.S, but with his latest, he brought German actor out of obscurity and into the limelight. Christoph Waltz‘s role as the key villain is one of the best things about a film where very little is going for it. While accepting the award in three languages, the actor thanked the director for giving him his vocation back.

Inglourious Basterds begins in German-occupied France, where Shosanna Dreyfus (Mélanie Laurent) witnesses the execution of her family at the hand of Nazi Colonel Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz). Shosanna narrowly escapes and flees to Paris, where she forges a new identity as the owner and operator of a cinema. Elsewhere in Europe, Lieutenant Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt) organizes a group of Jewish soldiers to engage in targeted acts of retribution. Known to their enemy as “The Basterds,” Raine’s squad joins German actress and undercover agent Bridget Von Hammersmark (Diane Kruger) on a mission to take down the leaders of The Third Reich. Fates converge under a cinema marquee, where Shosanna is poised to carry out a revenge plan of her own…