Limelight - Theater as a Home and Identity
Terry:
If all else fails, there's always that little home in the country.
Calvero:
My home is the theater.
Terry:
I thought you hated the theater.
Calvero:
I also hate the sight of blood, but it's in my veins.
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Limelight - The Value of True Feelings and Opportunities
Terry:
So few of us have the ability to really feel.
Calvero:
Or the opportunity.
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Limelight - The Thrill of Making People Laugh
Terry:
What a sad business, being funny.
Calvero:
Very sad if they won't laugh. But it's a thrill when they do. To look out there and see them all laughing, to hear that roar go up, waves of laughter coming at you.
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Limelight - Self-Despair in a Troubled World
Terry:
I'd despise myself if I thought that.
Calvero:
That's the trouble, you do. That's the trouble with the world. We all despise ourselves.
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Limelight - The Complexity of Love and Admiration
Calvero:
I want to forget the public.
Terry:
Never. You love them too much.
Calvero:
I'm not so sure. Maybe I love them, but I don't admire them.
Terry:
I think you do.
Calvero:
As individuals, yes. There's greatness in everyone. But as a crowd, they're like a monster without a head that never knows which way it's going to turn. It can be prodded in any direction.
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Limelight - Embracing the Present Amidst Hopelessness
Calvero:
At this stage of the game life gets to be a habit.
Terry:
A hopeless one.
Calvero:
Then live without hope. Live for the moment. There are still - there are still - there are still wonderful moments.
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Limelight - The Value of Life Across Generations
Terry: [after attempting suicide]
I'm sorry.
Calvero:
You should be. A young girl like you wanting to throw your life away. Heh! When you are my age you want to hang onto it.
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Limelight - The Beauty and Struggle of Life
Terry:
What is there to fight for?
Calvero:
Ah, you see, you admit it. What is there to fight for? Everything! Life itself, isn't that enough? To be lived, suffered, enjoyed! What is there to fight for? Life is a beautiful, magnificent thing, even to a jellyfish. Huh, what is there to fight for? Besides, you - you have your art, your dancing!
Terry:
I can't dance without legs!
Calvero:
I know a man without arms who can play a scherzo on a violin and does it all with his toes. The trouble is you won't fight! You've given in, continually dwelling on sickness and death. But - there's something just as inevitable as death, and that's life. Life, life, life! Think of the power that's in the universe, moving the earth, growing the trees. That's the same power within you if you only have courage and the will to use it!
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Limelight - Humor and Perception in Unexpected Places
Terry:
Worms can't smile!
Calvero:
Oh, how would you know, have you ever appealed to their sense of humour?
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Limelight - The Struggle of Aging in Comedy
Calvero:
As a man gets on in years he wants to live deeply. A feeling of sad dignity comes upon him, and that's fatal for a comic. It affected my work. I lost contact with the audience, couldn't warm up to them.
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Limelight - Retirement from Humor and Clowning
Calvero:
I'm through clowning. Life isn't a gag anymore. I can't see the joke. From now on, I'm a retired humorist.
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Limelight - The Inevitability of Time's Narrative
Calvero:
Time is the great author. Always writes the perfect ending.
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Limelight - Courage and Imagination Make Life Wonderful
Calvero:
Life can be wonderful if you're not afraid of it. All it needs is courage, imagination... and a little dough.
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Limelight - The Nature of Amateurism in Life
Calvero:
That's all any of us are: amateurs. We don't live long enough to be anything else.
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Limelight - Embracing the Street Life's Appeal
Calvero:
There's something about working the streets I like. It's the tramp in me I suppose.
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Limelight - Desire Defines Life's Purpose and Meaning
Calvero:
What do you want meaning for? Life is a desire, not a meaning. Desire is the theme of all life! It makes a rose want to be a rose and want to grow like that. And a rock want to contain itself and remain like that.
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Monsieur Verdoux - Conflict with Man, Peace with God
Henri Verdoux: [the priest visits Verdoux in his jail cell, shortly before execution]
Ah, Father. And what can I do for you?
Priest:
Nothing, my son. I want to help you, if I can. I've come to ask you to make your peace with God.
Henri Verdoux:
I am at peace with God. My conflict is with Man.
Priest:
Have you no remorse for your sin?
Henri Verdoux:
Who knows what sin is? Born as it was from God's fallen angel. Who knows the ultimate destiny it serves? After all, what would you be doing without sin?
Priest: [clanking noises are heard]
Exactly what I'm doing now, my son: trying to help a lost soul in distress. They're coming. Let me pray for you.
Henri Verdoux:
As you wish. But I don't think these gentlemen want to be kept waiting.
Priest:
May the Lord have mercy on your soul.
Henri Verdoux:
Why not? After all, it belongs to Him.
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Monsieur Verdoux - Success Requires Organization, Even in Crime
Reporter:
You'll have to admit, crime doesn't pay, does it?
Henri Verdoux:
No, sir. Not in a small way.
Reporter:
What do you mean?
Henri Verdoux:
To be successful in anything, one must be well-organized.
Reporter:
You're not leaving the world with that cynical remark?
Henri Verdoux:
To be idealistic in this moment would be incongruous, don't you think?
Reporter:
What's all this talk about good and evil?
Henri Verdoux:
Arbitrary forces, my good fellow. Too much of either will destroy us all.
Reporter:
We can never have too much good in the world.
Henri Verdoux:
Trouble is, we've never had enough. We don't know.
Reporter:
Listen, Verdoux, I've been your friend all through the trial. Now, give me a break, a story with a moral to it! You, the tragic example of a life of crime.
Henri Verdoux:
I don't see how anyone can be an example in these criminal times.
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Monsieur Verdoux - Monsieur Verdoux - Dialogue 4
The Prosecutor:
Never, never in the history of jurisprudence have such terrifying deeds been brought to light. Gentlemen of the jury, you have before you a cruel and cynical monster. Look at him! Observe him, gentlemen. This man, who has brains, if he had decent instincts, could have made an honest living. And yet, he preferred to rob and murder unsuspecting women. In fact, he made a business of it. I do not ask for vengeance, but for the protection of society. For this mass killer, I demand the extreme penalty: that he be put to death on the guillotine. The State rests its case.
Judge:
Monsieur Verdoux, you have been found guilty. Have you anything to say before sentence is passed upon you?
Henri Verdoux:
Oui, monsieur, I have. However remiss the prosecutor has been in complimenting me, he at least admits that I have brains. Thank you, Monsieur, I have. And for 35 years I used them honestly. After that, nobody wanted them. So I was forced to go into business for myself. As for being a mass killer, does not the world encourage it? Is it not building weapons of destruction for the sole purpose of mass killing? Has it not blown unsuspecting women and little children to pieces? And done it very scientifically? As a mass killer, I am an amateur by comparison. However, I do not wish to lose my temper, because very shortly, I shall lose my head. Nevertheless, upon leaving this spark of earthly existence, I have this to say: I shall see you all...very soon...very soon.
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Monsieur Verdoux - Love and Admiration in Human Relationships
The Girl:
You don't like women, do you?
Henri Verdoux:
On the contrary, I love women. But I don't admire them.
The Girl:
Why?
Henri Verdoux:
Women are of the earth. Realistic. Dominated by physical facts.
The Girl:
What nonsense!
Henri Verdoux:
Once a woman betrays a man, she despises him. In spite of his goodness and position, she will give him up for someone inferior. That someone is more, shall we say, "attractive.
The Girl:
How little you know about women!
Henri Verdoux: [coyly]
You'd be surprised.
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Monsieur Verdoux - The Nature of Kindness in Relationships
The Girl:
It's nice seeing you again, You'll never realise what your kindness meant to me.
Henri Verdoux:
Kindness is a convenient thing at times, my dear.
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Monsieur Verdoux - The Fear of Life and Death
Henri Verdoux:
It's the approach of death that terrifies.
The Girl:
I suppose, if the unborn knew of the approach of life, they'd be just as terrified.
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Monsieur Verdoux - The Impermanence of Troubles in Life
Henri Verdoux:
Nothing is permanent in this wicked world, not even our troubles.
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Monsieur Verdoux - The Ruthlessness of Business
Henri Verdoux:
Business is a ruthless business, my dear.
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Monsieur Verdoux - A Promise of Soon to Come
Henri Verdoux: [to the court, after being found guilty of murder]
I shall see you ALL soon - very soon.
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Monsieur Verdoux - The Business of War and Morality
Henri Verdoux:
Wars, conflict - it's all business. One murder makes a villain; millions, a hero. Numbers sanctify, my good fellow!
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Monsieur Verdoux - The Indifference of Despair
Henri Verdoux:
Despair is a narcotic. It lulls the mind into indifference.
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