La Ronde (1950)

Danielle Darrieux: Emma Breitkopf

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Quotes 

• Emma Breitkopf : This is madness. My heart is pounding.

• Charles Breitkopf : What are you doing?

  Emma Breitkopf : Reading Stendhal.

  Charles Breitkopf : Is it good?

  Emma Breitkopf : Very instructive.

• Emma Breitkopf : Alfred. Oh, Alfred. Alfred. Alfred, what are you doing to me? What time is it?

  Alfred : I don't know.

  Emma Breitkopf : I thought it was later. Oh, Alfred. Alfred.

• Emma Breitkopf : Don't torture yourself, darling.

  Alfred : Have you read Stendhal?

  Emma Breitkopf : Stendhal?

  Alfred : Yes. Stendhal's book "On Love."

  Emma Breitkopf : No.

  Alfred : There's something quite illuminating in it. Some cavalry officers are discussing their romantic exploits. You follow me?

  Emma Breitkopf : Yes. Their romantic exploits. And?

  Alfred : And they all say that it was with the woman they desired the most that the same thing happened to me. It's quite typical. Quite. Quite. Quite typical.

  Emma Breitkopf : Quite. Quite.

• Emma Breitkopf : Oh, no. No, Alfred. Oh, Alfred. No. I have to go. It must be terribly late. Oh, Alfred. It was so nice just being good friends.

• Emma Breitkopf : What is it?

  Charles Breitkopf : I should be asking you that?

  Emma Breitkopf : Why?

  Charles Breitkopf : You look lovely at the moment. You've been transformed.

  Emma Breitkopf : Was I so ugly before?

  Charles Breitkopf : You were very young. Now you're in full bloom.

  Emma Breitkopf : You're very gallant tonight.

  Charles Breitkopf : Business is going well.

  Emma Breitkopf : I can tell.

• Alfred : Won't you sit down?

  Emma Breitkopf : My legs are trembling. It must be the emotion.

  Alfred : Take off your cape. You'll feel better.

  Emma Breitkopf : You think so?

  Alfred : Yes. And your veil.

  Emma Breitkopf : There's two.

  Alfred : Two. One.

  Emma Breitkopf : One.

  Alfred : Two. Take off your hat. You'll feel better.

  Emma Breitkopf : You think so?

  Alfred : You're so beautiful. More beautiful every day.

• Charles Breitkopf : Alternation is the basic principle of life. Marital love is - How shall I put it? Marriage - is a disconcerting mystery. You well-bred young ladies come to us ignorant and pure. You haven't lived. You couldn't know. But we knew. And what a price we paid! Who wouldn't be disgusted with love after the woman we're condemned to start out with? But we have no choice.

  Emma Breitkopf : Tell me about it. Tell me about - those creatures. I find it fascinating.

  Charles Breitkopf : I trust you're joking!

  Emma Breitkopf : I've always asked you about your youth with those - creatures.

  Charles Breitkopf : No! No-no! You don't understand. It'd be a sort of - defilement.

  Emma Breitkopf : Oh, it was all so long ago.

• Emma Breitkopf : I came as you asked.

  Alfred : Don't be cruel.

  Emma Breitkopf : You promised to behave.

  Alfred : I will.

• Charles Breitkopf : Emma, you must swear to me that you'll never befriend a woman you think is less than irreproachable. I know you wouldn't seek out such friendship, but these women of dubious reputation often seek out the company of respectable women out of a sort of nostalgia of virtue. What I just said is very profound: It's a nostalgia of virtue. Their own unworthiness pains them.

  Emma Breitkopf : You think so?

  Charles Breitkopf : I'm absolutely positive. Think of their dreadful lives: trickery, lies, and constant danger. They pay dearly for the tiny bit of happiness - not even happiness...

  Emma Breitkopf : Pleasure?

  Charles Breitkopf : How can you call that pleasure?

  Emma Breitkopf : I'm just guessing. Otherwise they wouldn't...

  Charles Breitkopf : It's intoxication.

  Emma Breitkopf : Intoxication?

  Charles Breitkopf : Yes, intoxication.

• Emma Breitkopf : Alfred, Alfred. Why did I listen to you?

  Alfred : Emma, I've thought so much about you. I know you're unhappy.

  Emma Breitkopf : Yes.

  Alfred : Yes. Life is so banal.

  Emma Breitkopf : Yes.

  Alfred : Yes. Yes and so empty.

  Emma Breitkopf : Yes.

  Alfred : And so short.

  Emma Breitkopf : Yes.

  Alfred : So terribly short.

  Emma Breitkopf : Yes.

  Alfred : The only real happiness is meeting someone you love.

• Emma Breitkopf : Who was it? Was it long ago?

  Charles Breitkopf : Very long ago. She's dead.

  Emma Breitkopf : Dead?

  Charles Breitkopf : Women like that all die young.

  Emma Breitkopf : Are you sure?

  Charles Breitkopf : It's a fact. It's justice.

  Emma Breitkopf : Did you love her?

  Charles Breitkopf : Darling, you don't love women like that. True love is only possible where there's truth and purity.