Tarantino has stated that the projection booth scene is both romantic and a consummation of Shosanna and Fredrick's relationship. After going over this previously in discussions with pellnell andpiecesofalice (I love your brilliant minds), I decided to wrangle up screencaps and have at it. I've retread some previous ground, but it was necessary for the analyzation. Lots of screencaps along with key quotes from Tarantino and my rambling. Again, I'll let the actors' performances do most of the talking.







Now what intrigues me is how the publicity still of Shosanna from the projection booth is of her appearing confident and self-assured:



When the reality is entirely different. It's a split-second decision, but she's grimacing and apprehensive:



As discussed between Tarantino and Kim Morgan from this incredible interview:

"And, in that pivotal moment, she doesn’t want to shoot him. She doesn’t want to kill him."

Despite all that Shosanna and Fredrick have been through, they are still a couple of innocents. Her panic and realization of what she has done is simply moving, as Shosanna sees the contrast between the lavish, over-the-top Goebbels production of Fredrick, and the dying, damaged young man in the projection booth:



Her immediate guilt over acknowledging what she has done and what she feels is stunning, as she is drawn to both the film and Fredrick:



As the script states: "The Face on the silver screen, breaks the young girl's
heart..."



Shosanna hesitates briefly, as she knows what she must do:





Red is the color of passion, power, and love, whereas white is the color of purity and innocence. Dressed in red, Shosanna holds dominance over Fredrick; by using the suggestion of sex, she becomes the sexual aggressor. By shooting Fredrick, Shosanna initiates their consummation. And to go one step further, it can even be said that by using her pistol, a phallic object, Shosanna first penetrates him; as far as sexual positions are concerned, she is on top.

Pistol still in hand, she goes to Fredrick, who is bathed in white light. We see here, in Shosanna, the vulnerability and sensitive part of herself which she has kept private and guarded until now, until meeting Fredrick. Setting the pistol aside, she kneels beside him. The way Shosanna looks Fredrick over, the way she gently touches him, the tenderness she shows him is breath-taking:



Turning him over, to comfort him, Fredrick fires back, reciprocating the act and penetrating her. Shosanna started out on top, and now, the positions have been switched. In their act of consummation, they are both equals. The spray of blood - again, if you want to go that far - could be seen as ejaculate. Interestingly, the blood spray even spreads to between Fredrick's legs.



As her body falls to the floor, you can see Fredrick onscreen behind Shosanna. Getting into more phallic and sexual imagery, he is re-loading his rifle:



Watching her fall, you can see Fredrick's own agony and heartbreak:



Her facial expressions as she falls and writhes on the floor are quite sensual:



There is no hate, no malice in this scene. Fredrick is lovesick and grief-stricken more than anything, which is evident in his facial expression and how his hand violently shakes as he holds back on pulling the trigger once more. Even though Fredrick does so, it is an act of mercy, an act of love:



To get into the sexual connotations, Fredrick's final shot could be viewed as the final thrust to bring Shosanna to climax; it's all in her facial expressions and the way she cries out. And paying attention to them both, their expressions are as if they're in the throes of orgasm (Fredrick's luger is even held at crotch level):





Together, Shosanna and Fredrick die as Ennio Morricone's love theme, Un Amico plays.

It is here that it must also be noted, as Quentin's lovers lay together on the floor of the projection booth, that Shosanna is barefoot.

The sight of women's bare feet is something that any fan (or, even, casual viewer) of the films of Quentin Tarantino is well-acquainted with. However, here, the presence of bare feet extends far past the whims of a foot fetishist - indeed, there is even meaning to be found here.

Though far more obvious in the films Death Proof and Kill Bill, Tarantino utilizes women's bare feet as most other directors utilize nudity. Usually in moments of vulnerability and sexuality, bare feet are shown in place of a nude body, and as proven by this scene, they are no less effective than that of the nudity present in a traditional love scene.

Shosanna ends her scenes in the film as she did at the opening of Inglourious Basterds: bare foot.

But, whereas in the beginning, she is vulnerably in fear for her life, here, she is vulnerable in a manner like that of a tentative young lover and her paramour. It is present in her approach of Fredrick as he lays on the floor and in the absolute compassion she displays for him - truly, in the projection booth, Shosanna's barefoot state is entirely sexual.

Just as bullets and the blood represent their lovemaking, Shosanna's bare feet represents her own nudity with Fredrick. To add further to its importance, Fredrick is the only man she is shown barefoot with; Shosanna is willingly open, exposed, and laid-bare for Fredrick and Fredrick alone.



As discussed with pellnell, death and sex are when all is laid bare and when one is at their most vulnerable. Shosanna and Fredrick have allowed only each other to see those parts of themselves; by giving of themselves fully to one another, their feelings for each other were fully realized. The tragedy lies in the fact that due to the circumstance they are trapped in, Shosanna and Fredrick could not be together in life; however, the beauty is that they have in death what life denied them, to die by the hand of the one who loved them, uniting them for eternity. Even as chaos rages around them and Le Gamaar goes up in flames, Shosanna and Fredrick are as they should have always been: together, at peace, protected, and completely separate from the hideous reality that surrounds them. They remain innocents until their last breath; the war had taken everything from Shosanna just as it gave Fredrick everything, leaving both of them broken.

The deaths of Shosanna and Fredrick are an interesting contrast to the death of Bridget von Hammersmark at the hands of Hans Landa. Whereas Shosanna's and Fredrick's deaths were a consummation of their relationship and feelings for each other, Bridget's was a violation, a rape; aggressive and extremely personal, she did not return Landa's violent affections and opposed him every second of it.



Shosanna and Fredrick are two halves which form a whole. One way or another, it was their fate to be together, and nothing could get in the way of that, nor could anything come between them.