21 quotes
A Letter of Unrequited Love
Lisa Berndle
By the time you read this letter, I may be dead. I have so much to tell you and perhaps very little time. Will I ever send it? I don't know. I must find strength to write now before it's too late, and as I write it may become clear that what happened to us had its own reason beyond our poor understanding. If this reaches you, you will know how I became yours when you didn't know who I was or even that I existed.
[voiceover]
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
The Pain of Unrecognized Love
Lisa Berndle
Oh, if only you could have recognized what was always yours, could have found what was never lost.
[voiceover]
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
Fading Hopes of an Idealized Love
Stefan
She fascinates you, too. You remember the Greeks built a statue to a god they didn't know, but hoped someday would come to them...Well, mine happens to be a goddess.
[looking at a Greek statue]
Lisa
And you never found her.
[smiling]
Stefan
For years, I never woke in the morning, but I said to myself, Perhaps today she will come...and my life will really begin. Sometimes it seemed very near. Well, now I'm older and I know better.
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
Life in a Garrison Town at Eighteen
Lisa Berndle
You who have always lived so freely, have you any idea what life is like in a little garrison town? I was eighteen now and was expected to take my place in society.
[voiceover]
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
The Search for Artistic Fulfillment
Lisa
Well, I can't say it very well, but...sometimes, I felt when you were playing that...that you haven't quite found - I don't know what it is - what you're looking for.
Stefan
How long have you been hiding in my piano? Never mind explaining. I'll just assume you're a sorceress and that you can make yourself very tiny. It might be a good thing to have a sorceress for a friend. Who knows, you may be able to help me someday.
[Lisa laughs]
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
The Impact of Small Moments on Life
Lisa Berndle
The course of our lives can be changed by such little things. So many passing by, each intent on his own problems. So many faces that one might easily have been lost. I know now that nothing happens by chance. Every moment is measured; every step is counted.
[voiceover]
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
The Enchantment of Familiarity in Dance
Stefan Brand
You are a sorceress. Now, I'm sure. How else could we dance this way unless we've danced together before? And yet if we had, I should have remembered.
[to Lisa]
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
Unspoken Barriers in Communication
Lieutenant
Naturally, it's too soon to discuss any definite steps. We should know each other for a reasonable time...
Lisa
But lieutenant, I'm sorry. It's impossible.
[shaking her head]
Lieutenant
Impossible?
Lisa
Please don't ask me to explain, but...
Lieutenant
But I certainly must insist. Is there someone else?
Lisa
Yes, I'm engaged to be married.
Lieutenant
Engaged to be married?
Lisa
I should have told you before, but I didn't realize how...
Lieutenant
The whole time you've been in Linz I haven't seen you in anyone's company.
Lisa
He doesn't live in Linz. He lives in Vienna.
Lieutenant
In Vienna?
Lisa
He...uh...writes music. He's a musician.
[She nods]
Lieutenant
But how can that be? Your mother and father, they have given my uncle every encouragement...
Lisa
They don't know about it.
Lieutenant
You mean you're engaged to a man and your parents don't even know him.
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
The Burden of Honor in Relationships
Stefan Brand
This is one engagement I have no intention of keeping. Honor is a luxury only gentlemen can afford.
[about the duel]
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
A Love Unrecognized and Longing for Connection
Lisa Berndle
Now I'm alone. My head throbs and my temples are burning. Perhaps God has been kind, and I too have caught the fever. If this letter reaches you, believe this - that I love you now as I've always loved you. My life can be measured by the moments I've had with you and our child. If only you could have shared those moments, if only you could have recognized what was always yours, could have found what was never lost. If only...
[voiceover]
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
A Conversation on Problems and Identity
Lisa
How could I help you?
Stefan
So that's what you've been thinking about. You're a very strange girl, whoever you are and wherever you came from. Don't you have any problems?
[She smiles and sighs]
Lisa
Not important ones.
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
Devotion Through Self-Improvement and Sacrifice
Lisa Berndle
Yes, I was blushing, and hard as it may be for you to realize, from that moment on I was in love with you. Quite consciously, I began to prepare myself for you. I kept my clothes neater so you wouldn't be ashamed of me. I went to dancing school. I wanted to become more graceful and learn good manners for you. And so I would know more about you and your world, I...I went to the library and studied the lives of the great musicians of the past. Though I was not able to go to your concerts, I found ways of sharing in your success.
[voiceover]
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
Unrequited Love and Lost Memories
Lisa Berndle
I'd come to tell you about us, to offer you my whole life, but you didn't even remember me.
[voiceover]
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
A Promise Amid Uncertainty
Stefan
Promise me something.
Lisa
Anything.
Stefan
And I don't even know where you live. Promise me you won't vanish.
Lisa
I won't be the one who vanishes.
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
The Duality of Birth and Consciousness
Lisa Berndle
I think everyone has two birthdays, the day of his physical birth and the beginning of his conscious life. Nothing is vivid or real in my memory before that day in Spring when I came home from school and found a moving van in front of our building. I wondered about our new neighbor who owned such beautiful things.
[voiceover]
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
Imagining the Future in Changing Seasons
Stefan
I never come here in the season. It's more pleasant in the winter. I don't know why.
[at the Viennese fairgrounds]
Lisa
It's perhaps because you prefer to imagine how it will be in the Spring because if it is Spring, then there's nothing to imagine, nothing to wish for.
Stefan
Is there anything about me you don't know?
Lisa
A few things. For instance. I don't know if one day, they'll make a wax figure of you and put you in there because you'll be so famous.
Stefan
Well, if they do, will you pay your penny to come in and see me?
Lisa
If you'll come alive.
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
A New Beginning with the Flower
Stefan
Did I guess right? Is it your flower?
[giving her a white rose]
Lisa
From now on, it will be.
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
Confronting Choices in a Complicated Marriage
Lisa
Johann, you don't think I wanted this to happen.
Johann
No. What are you going to do?
[Pause]
Lisa
I don't know.
Johann
Lisa, we have a marriage. Perhaps it's not all you once hoped for, but you have a home, and your son, and people who care for you.
Lisa
I know that, Johann. I'd do anything to avoid hurting you, but I can't help it.
Johann
And your son, you think you can avoid hurting him?
Lisa
He won't be harmed. I'll see to that.
Johann
There are such things as honor and decency.
Lisa
I told myself that a hundred times this one evening.
Johann
You talk as though it were out of your hands. It's not, Lisa. You have a will, you can do what's right, what's best for you, or you can throw away your life.
Lisa
I've had no will but his, ever.
Johann
That's romantic nonsense.
Lisa
Is it? Johann, I can't help it. I can't. You must believe that.
Johann
What about him? Can't he help himself either?
Lisa
I know now that he needs me as much as I've always needed him.
Johann
Isn't it a little late for him to find out?
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
Truth and Freedom in New Beginnings
Lisa Berndle
Well...I...I only told him the truth...I told him I wasn't free. My poor parents, for them this was the end. For me, it was a new beginning.
[voiceover]
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
A Chance Encounter Between Two Characters
Stefan
Excuse me. You must realize where there is a pursued, there must also be a pursuer. I've seen you somewhere, I know. I followed you upstairs and watched you in your box. But I couldn't place you, and I had to speak with you. Oh, I know how this sounds. I assure you in this case it's true. You believe that, don't you?
Lisa
Yes.
Stefan
Thank you. Now please, just a moment. Is there anyplace we could have met, that I might have seen you? Like one of my concerts? It must have been some time ago. I haven't given any concerts in Vienna lately - or anywhere else for that matter.
Lisa
You don't play anymore?
Stefan
Oh, it's not quite as final as that. I always tell myself I'll begin again next week, and then when next week comes, it's this week, so I wait for next week again.
Lisa
What are you waiting for?
Stefan
That's a very disturbing question.
Lisa
My carriage.
Stefan
You can't ask such a question and just walk away. I have a feeling - please don't think I'm mad. I know it sounds strange, and I can't explain it, but I feel that you understand what I can't even say, that you can help me. Have you...have you ever shuffled faces, like cards, hoping to find the one that lies somewhere just over the edge of your memory, the one you've been waiting for. Well, tonight when I first saw you and later when I watched you in the darkness, it was as though I had found that one face among all others. Who are you? Promise I'll see you again. I must see you.
[Lisa turns to leave and walks away]
Lisa
I don't know.
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.
The Complexity of Love and Mystery
Stefan
I don't want to go. Do you believe that?
[preparing to board a train]
Lisa
I'll be here when you get back.
Stefan
I still know so little about you.
Lisa
You like mystery.
Stefan
That a woman like you exists, and I've found you, that's mystery enough. Say Stefan the way you said it last night.
Lisa
Stefan.
Stefan
It's as though you said it all your life...Goodbye...It won't be long. I'll be back in two weeks. Goodbye. Two weeks!
Lisa
Two weeks. Stefan, how little you knew yourself. That train was taking you out of my life.
[voiceover]
Quotes sourced from Wikiquote (© Wikiquote contributors), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Modified for formatting/length.