- Léocadie: Don't just run off!
- Franz: [Bugle blowing in the distant] Can't you hear? I'll get four days for this.
- Léocadie: At least tell me your name.
- Franz: What's it matter?
- Léocadie: I'm Léocadie.
- Franz: Strange name!
- Léocadie: You at least got a farewell cigarette?
- Franz: I'm all out. Gotta run. Good night.
- Léocadie: Good night. That beats all! Some time I'd have if everyone was a bum like you! Beat it, cheap stake! Look at the bastard running off! The filthy swine! Not even a cigarette! That's men for you!
- Lover Girl: And to think I didn't want to at first! You remember?
- Lover Boy: It's not my fault that you're so pretty.
- Charles Breitkopf: What are you doing?
- Emma Breitkopf: Reading Stendhal.
- Charles Breitkopf: Is it good?
- Emma Breitkopf: Very instructive.
- Anna: Oh, that naughty champagne! The things it made me do. What you must think of me!
- Charles Breitkopf: I think you like me.
- Anna: Yes, but that champagne!
- Charles Breitkopf: What about it? When two young people like each other, there's no need to drug the champagne, I assure you.
- Anna: I was only saying that. We all have our pride. I'm a bit ashamed.
- 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.
- Anna: Will I see you soon?
- Charles Breitkopf: I don't live in Vienna. I just visit from time to time.
- Anna: I bet you're married. When a man says he doesn't live in Vienna, he's usually married.
- Charles Breitkopf: And you wouldn't feel guilty about seducing a married man?
- Anna: Not at all. I imagine his wife would be off doing the same.
- 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.
- Robert Kuhlenkampf: I can't see you at all. Are you blonde or brunette?
- Anna: You should have written it down.
- Robert Kuhlenkampf: That's incredibly profound! In one phrase you sum up the whole tragedy of desire.
- 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.
- Alfred: You know, you dress very nicely. Aren't you warm?
- [Starts to take off here clothes]
- Marie: It's too bright in here.
- Alfred: You're right. It's too bright.
- [Starts to close all the blinds]
- Alfred: Mind you, you needn't be embarrassed on my account, or anyone else's either, as pretty as you are. Oh, Marie, Marie, your hair smells so nice. You know, I saw you once. I came home late one night. I went in the kitchen for some water. The door to your room was open and I saw - lots of things. You have such pale skin.
- Marie: What if someone rings?
- Alfred: We won't answer. We won't answer.
- 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.
- Anna: For you I think love must be something...
- Robert Kuhlenkampf: Yes?
- Anna: Something...
- Robert Kuhlenkampf: Intangible. Take off your dress.
- Anna: Robert!
- Robert Kuhlenkampf: Take it off! Night envelops us in her veil of stars. She's spread the Milky Way at our feet. A thousand stars sparkle before us. Take it off!
- Anna: But I'm cold.
- Robert Kuhlenkampf: Night reveals 20, 30, 50 suns hidden by the light of day. Imagine we're in the Indies, in a mysterious palace. Take off your slip. The nights are hot. The humid night air surrounds us. Take off your slip.
- Anna: Do you love me?
- 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.
- Robert Kuhlenkampf: Let's go away, shall we?
- Anna: Go away?
- Robert Kuhlenkampf: For three months - or three weeks.
- Anna: What about your lawyer? And my mother?
- Robert Kuhlenkampf: They'll console each other. We'll live naked in the forest, drink from babbling brooks, eat nature's golden fruit, and then say farewell.
- Anna: Why? I thought...
- Robert Kuhlenkampf: There is no true love without farewells. Kiss me.
- 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.
- Anna: There must be something in the champagne. My head is spinning.
- [Lays down on a couch]
- Anna: Oh, what will happen if I can't get up?
- Charles Breitkopf: I adore you.
- Raconteur: [First lines] And me? What part do I play in this story of "la ronde"? The author? An accomplice? A passer-by? I am you. That is, any one of you. I'm the personification of your desire to know everything.
- Raconteur: People never know more than one side of reality. Why? Because they only see one side of things. But I see all sides... because I see... "in the round." That allows me to be everywhere at once. Everywhere.
- Raconteur: But just where are we? On a stage? A film set? One doesn't know anymore. On a street. We're in Vienna. It's 1900. Let's change our costume. 1900.
- Raconteur: We're in the past. I adore the past. It's so much more peaceful than the present and so much more certain than the future.
- Raconteur: The sun is out. It's Spring. You can tell from the scent in the air that love is just around the corner, can't you?
- Raconteur: What's still missing for love to start its rounds? A waltz - and here it is. The waltz turns, the carousel turns and the merry-go-round of love can begin turning too.
- Raconteur: [singing] They turn and turn, my characters turn, As night turns to day and joy to pain, Rain, once fallen, rises to heaven, Turns into clouds and rains again, Working girl or woman of breeding, Aristocrat or proud dragoon, Love comes calling, sudden and fleeting, And they all dance to love's same tune...
- Léocadie: How about it, handsome? Want to come with me?
- Franz: You calling me handsome?
- Léocadie: Who else? I live nearby. Come and warm up. The Spring air is cool.
- Franz: I have to get back to the barracks.
- Léocadie: It's still early. My place is cozier.
- Franz: I'm sure it is.
- Léocadie: Not so loud. There are cops around.
- Charlotte: Why'd you send Carlotta away?
- Alfred: I wanted to kiss you. But we have all night, don't we?
- Charlotte: Must we really go? Two hours by sleigh at night? If only we didn't perform tomorrow.
- Alfred: You're the only one who wanted to go. You asked me to reserve rooms. Two, in fact, I have no idea why.
- Charlotte: Never know what turn things may take.
- Alfred: The theater is an incredible thing. We always know our next line in advance. You chose that inn because it reminds you of your ex-lover, didn't you?
- Charlotte: Yes.
- Alfred: You like comparing the present with the past. You'll be stirring up old memories all evening. Think it's pleasant for me? You'll send me away 20 times.
- Charlotte: Yes. But you also know that the 21st time, I won't, don't you?
- Alfred: Yes, I know.
- Charlotte: Exactly what pleasures do you enjoy at your age?
- Le comte: My friend Count Bobby and I often discuss that.
- Charlotte: Love?
- Le comte: They who believe in love will always find a woman.
- Charlotte: And is that happiness?
- Le comte: Pardon me, but happiness doesn't exist. It's the things one speaks of most that are the least real.
- Charlotte: Too true.
- Le comte: Drunkenness and pleasure exist. Let's say I feel pleasure. I know I feel it. Or let's say I'm drunk. Fine, it's a fact. When it's over...
- Charlotte, Le comte: It's over!
- Le comte: The future is unknown. The past is melancholy. We only have the present. It's hard to get one's bearings.
- Charlotte: Well, ask me something.
- Le comte: I ask permission to come back tonight.
- Charlotte: No. Why put off to the evening what can be done in the morning?
- Le comte: I'll tell you why: Love in the morning? No. I see things differently.
- Charlotte: How do you see them?
- Le comte: I'll wait for you at the stage door in my carriage. We'll dine together.
- Charlotte: And then?
- Le comte: We'll go home.
- Charlotte: And then?
- Le comte: And then matters will follow their natural course.
- Charlotte: You're so sweet! Don't you find it warm in here?
- Le comte: You're right.
- Charlotte: Quick, unbutton this. It's so dark that we can pretend it's night. And no one can see us... but ourselves.
- Le comte: Shall we say the day after tomorrow?
- Charlotte: Why? You said tonight.
- Le comte: It wouldn't mean anything anymore. I mean - morally speaking.
- Charlotte: Morally speaking, I absolutely must see you tonight. I'd like to discuss the state of our souls.
- Le comte: Good. Then I'll wait for you at the stage door.
- Charlotte: No, you'll wait for me here.
- Le comte: In your home?
- Charlotte: In my bedroom.
- Le comte: No supper at L'Imperial?
- Charlotte: No. It would be meaningless, philosophically speaking.
- Le comte: Very well. I must take my leave. For a courtesy call, I've stayed a bit too long.
- Charlotte: Charmed to have made your acquaintance.
- Le comte: Please give my regards to you mother.