Pulp Fiction: “I’m sorry, did I break your concentration?”
Quentin Tarantino’s seminal classic Pulp Fiction – like much of his filmmaking – is almost the reverse of the usual ratio of obvious-to-understated moments; many of the film’s most memorable parts are made effective precisely by the fact that hardly anyone in this messed up world has the sort of outwardly aggressive, violent attitude that we once upon a time-before-Tarantino expected from our villains – at least not consistently. For this reason, Pulp Fiction almost wasn’t included here. But understatements are part of the sheer glee of Tarantino’s style, and just for that it deserves a mention. And because otherwise there wouldn’t have been an excuse to talk about when Jules and Vincent visit Brett’s apartment.
The conversation that is going on between Jules (Samuel L. Jackson) and Vincent (John Travolta) as they make their way across town to a particular apartment is perfectly ordinary. Plus, we all learnt a little something. But despite this – or perhaps because of it – the audience are well aware that there is probably very good reason to be afraid of these two men. The suspiciously pleasant start to the interaction with the boys inside the apartment doesn’t help either. But it isn’t until Brett has started desperately trying to explain his way out of their involvement with Marsellus Wallace that Jules makes a proper move, calmly taking his gun from his hip and shooting the person lying on the sofa.
That infamous line “Oh I’m sorry – did I break your concentration?”, spoken at a normal volume with exactly the right inflection of genuine concern, is so at odds with the stark violence of what just happened that the tone of the scene is abruptly thrown onto a tightrope between tension and comedy, with the sort of speed that Tarantino has made into an absolute art. In the friendliest way possible, Jules lets the boys know that they are in more danger than they ever could have imagined.
There is very little else to say about this iconic moment. Which is fine, given that it is probably quoted somewhere around the world at least ten times a day.