Fredrick feels more grounded around Shosanna

It's so obvious, isn't it? He's proud, but so uncomfortable about Goebbels et al, but he becomes the boyish charmer with a love for the movies and pretty girls he probably had to leave behind in Germany. Daniel does such a good job showing the two extremes (three if you count his actions in the projection room), and, yeah, like you, I tried to see him as The Big Bad Nazi Guy, but there was simply too much to ignore. There was this layer of hopefulness and hopelessness that sort of left you wondering if Fredrick always knew he'd end up in a Romeo and Juliet-style death (because you know he's kind of a romantic under the uniform).

YES YES YES to the faceless aspect of the entire theatre being easier than Fredrick's death. Her face when she looks to the screen, and there he is - bigger than life, some sort of indicator of her past and their futures, and that's what sends her to the floor when he moans. Kills me, everytime. The layers, man! The layers!

I'm the same with the unsympathetic characters, don't worry. That moral grey area is so interesting, especially when (like with Fredrick and Shosanna) the people doing "bad" things are, at heart, good people. There's less of us, I think, than those who loves the Goodies and the Baddies. ;)

Oh, the AU possibilities are just ENDLESS. I love the idea of Vigilante!Basterd!Fredrick - with a butchered Nazi uniform and a penchant for French cigarettes and a pistol. I wish to see this fic and it's soundtrack, stat!!

(I think I have gone into a Daniel Bruehl/Melanie Laurent frenzy, by the by.)