Emmanuelle Riva Quotes

Anne It's beautiful.

Georges What?

Anne Life. So long.

Anne What would you say if no one came to your funeral?

Georges Nothing, presumably.

Georges ... some banal romance or other about a nobleman and a lower middle-class girl who couldn't have each other and who then, out of sheer magnanimity, decide to renounce their love - in fact, I don't quite remember it any more. In any case, afterwards I was thoroughly distraught, and it took me a bit of time to calm down. In the courtyard of the house where grandma lived, there was a young guy at the window who asked me where I'd been. He was a couple of years older than me, a braggart who really impressed me. "To the movies", I said, because I was proud that my grandma had given me the money to go all alone to the cinema. "What did you see?". I started to tell him the story of the movie, and as I did, all the emotion came back. I didn't want to cry in front of the boy, but it was impossible; there I was, crying out loud in the courtyard, and I told him the whole drama to the bitter end.

Anne So? How did he react?

Georges No idea. He probably found it amusing. I don't remember. I don't remember the film either. But I remember the feeling. That I was ashamed of crying, but that telling him the story made all my feelings and tears come back, almost more powerfully than when I was actually watching the film, and that I just couldn't stop.

Anne There's no point in going on living. That's how it is. I know it can only get worse. Why should I inflict this on us, on you and me?

Georges You're not inflicting anything on me.

Anne You don't have to lie, Georges.

Georges Put yourself in my place. Didn't you ever think that it could happen to me, too?

Anne Of course I did. But imagination and reality have little in common.

Georges But things are getting better every day.

Anne I don't want to carry on. You're making such sweet efforts to make everything easier for me. But I don't want to go on. For my own sake, not yours.

Georges I don't believe you. I know you. You think you are a burden to me. But what would you do in my place?

Anne I don't want to rack my brain over this. I'm tired, I want to go to bed.