Preface
I think it’s very Tarantino towards the middle and end. Think inglorious bastards meets from dusk til dawn/sinners. Especially with the violence and dialogue. I think it should have a moment where the movie flips. Where you’re expecting it to go in one direction and then everything flies off the rails. Ive toyed with the idea of a 3 act structure but where you re enter the story from a different perspective maybe overlapping the timelines to reveal more information. I think this would allow for a change in tone (think parasite or the handmaiden). The violence to me should be very much b movie/grindhouse but the set up until there should feel more polished.
The setting
It is 1942 and we are in occupied France. Along the loire River Valley there is Château montgovourne a 16th century château surrounded by vineyards up on the cliff overlooking the city of tours. The Château itself has been converted into a bed-and-breakfast for SS command and Nazi commanders whenever they are traveling to and from Germany to the western front. The château itself is three stories with hidden passages for servant to move through the Château without being seen by the guest. There is a large kitchen with direct access to the secret passages. Beneath the castle, there is a subfloor for the servants to walk freely. As well as storage of goods. This is also where the entrance to a labyrinth of tunnels major during the 16th century that connects the Château to a series of caverns that exist within the cliffs along the river. It is within these passage ways in caverns that both Jews and the French resistance used to move around and hide during World War II. Sidenote, one of the caverns attached to the series of passageways is the cavern in which the wine was stored and aged. This cavern in particular is extremely bizarre because along the walls of this cavern giant noses and breasts were carved. Other features of the chateaux were a hounds cage, and a birds of prey cage. There was also at one point a fountain in the middle of the driveway up to the chateaux.
Act one
The first act should start establishing the brothel and how it operates. The brothel acts as a bed-and-breakfast-and-brothel for Nazi soldiers usually SS command as they go from one city to another. Because of its status and the status of the guest, the SS command usually parties when they are in town. Beneath the surface, the brothel operates as an Underground Railroad to hide and help both the Jews hide and escape, as well as gather information for the French resistance to get to the allied powers. Within the brothel, you have the kitchen staff. The prostitutes. And the servants that tend to the chateaux and the property. When an unplanned SS regiment decides to come to the brothel for one night, the ladys must hide a family of Jews and a prominent French resistance fighter before their arrival.
Act two
The SS command and accompanying soldiers arrive at the Château and we are introduced to the Germans. From the get go they are both demeaning and rough with the prostitutes and the servants. The Germans begin to settle in for the night while the ladies must both hide the family and seduce and extract information from the germans. The night devolves as the germans get more and more drunk until one soldier is killed upon his discovery of the jewish family. The body is discovered and the Nazis lockdown the Château.
Act three: chaos
This act starts with an interrogation and torture of the prostitutes and the workers. Things come to a breaking point when the Germans find the tunnels beneath the chateaux. When the secret comes to light the Lady’s must keep their secret hidden. And this is where the massacre happens. In my mind, it’s almost as if there is a Commander that doesn’t want to ruin the party so behind the scenes, he is locking down the Château and doing his own investigation meanwhile, the Nazi and SS higher-ups are still having a good time and some of the ladys continue to try and get the intel of this important German plan. Maybe the ending is where they try and cover up the massacre and stage it as if the Germans were ambushed before they arrived somewhere nearby. (Also not sure if we should even take it that far)
Scenes in mind/Ideas
I like the idea of a love interest between one of the ladys and another member at the chateaux. Could be someone they are hiding or someone that works/lives there
I think the ladys and the kitchen staff/staff of the brothel are kind of like a family.
I think the chef could be a knife, wielding maniac, a butcher of Nazis.
I want there to be a big party scene think eyes wide shut mixed with Babylon with a camera moves from the grand dining ballroom area through the Château to the different rooms where we get a visual of what goes on there. Maybe we follow one character who leads us to another character and then we begin to follow that character. In that sequence, we should explore how the secret passage ways link through to the different rooms.
I have one scene in my head of a prostitute, completely naked, drenched in blood from head to toe with a machine gun in hand as she mows down some soldiers before getting shot herself.
Another scene of a prostitute on top of a German soldier as she seducing him where she ties his hands to the bed post and then murders him brutally.
Inside the Château, there was a place that was beneath the floor that had vents that allowed a pianist to play music from underneath the floor in the vents and the way it was designed so it would allow the music to fill the room without the musician having to be seen. I think from that location there should be a moment where someone perhaps one of the workers is listening and here’s of this German plan. The information would be highly valuable tactically for both resistance and the Allied powers. Maybe later in the film from the same vantage point beneath the soldiers we fire up through the floor and kill kill them. Maybe the person below can tell when it’s a prostitute high heels versus a German soldiers boot and that’s how he’s able to know when to shoot him.
One of the last scenes of the film, I think should just be of a drain as blood is being scrubbed and washed down, and then in German soldiers bodies are being stacked in the catacombs and they wall that section in
