Rebecca (1940)

Laurence Olivier: 'Maxim' de Winter

Photos 

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Quotes 

• Maxim de Winter : I'm asking you to marry me, you little fool.

• Mrs. Edythe Van Hopper : She's spoiled, Mr. de Winter. That's her trouble. Most girls would give their eyes for the chance to see Monte!

  Maxim de Winter : Wouldn't that rather defeat the purpose?

• Maxim de Winter : I can't forget what it's done to you. I've been thinking of nothing else since it happened. It's gone forever, that funny young, lost look I loved won't ever come back. I killed that when I told you about Rebecca. It's gone. In a few hours, you've grown so much older.

  The Second Mrs. de Winter : Oh, Maxim, Maxim.

• The Second Mrs. de Winter : [about her father]  He had a theory that if you should find one perfect thing, or place or person, you should stick to it. Do you think that's very silly?

  Maxim de Winter : No, I'm a firm believer in that myself.

• Maxim de Winter : Happiness is something I know nothing about.

• Maxim de Winter : Please promise me never to wear black satin or pearls... or to be 36 years old.

• The Second Mrs. de Winter : It's not too late. You're not to say that. I love you more than anything in the world. Oh, please, Maxim, kiss me, please.

  Maxim de Winter : No, it's no use. It's too late.

  The Second Mrs. de Winter : We can't lose each other now. We must be together always, with no secrets, no shadows.

• The Second Mrs. de Winter : I've been thinking...

  Maxim de Winter : Now why would you want to go and do that for?

• The Second Mrs. de Winter : How could I even ask you to love me when I knew you loved Rebecca still?

  Maxim de Winter : What are you talking about? What do you mean?

  The Second Mrs. de Winter : Whenever you touched me, I knew you were comparing me with Rebecca. Whenever you looked at me or spoke to me or walked with me in the garden, I knew you were thinking, "This I did with Rebecca," and this and this. Oh, it's true, isn't it?

  Maxim de Winter : You thought I loved Rebecca? You thought that? I hated her!

• Maxim de Winter : "I'll make a bargain with you," she said. "You'd look rather foolish trying to divorce me now after four days of marriage. So I'll play the part of a devoted wife, mistress of your precious Manderley. I'll make it the most famous showplace in England if you like. Then, people will visit us and envy us, and say we're the luckiest, happiest, couple in the country. What a grand show it will be! What a triumph!"

• Maxim de Winter : That's not the Northern lights. That's Manderley!

• Maxim de Winter : I knew where Rebecca's body was, lying on that cabin floor on the bottom of the sea.

  The Second Mrs. de Winter : How did you know, Maxim?

  Maxim de Winter : Because - I put it there.

• Maxim de Winter : [greeting guests arriving at his Costume Ball]  What's the idea? Adam and Eve?

  Beatrice Lacy : Oh, Maxim, don't be disgusting.

  Major Giles Lacy : Strong man, Old man.

• Maxim de Winter : [after he has asked her to marry him]  My suggestion doesn't seem to have gone at all well, i'm sorry.

  The Second Mrs. de Winter : Oh, but you don't understand! It's that I... well I'm not the sort of person men marry.

• Maxim de Winter : [to his wife at breakfast]  Have a look at "The Times"; there's a thrilling article on what's the matter with English cricket!

• Maxim de Winter : Oh, I was carried away by her, enchanted by her, as everyone was. And when I was married, I was told I was the luckiest man in the world. She was so lovely, so accomplished, so amusing. She's got the three things that really matter in a wife, everyone said. Breeding, brains and beauty. And I believed them, completely. But I never had a moment's happiness with her. She was incapable of love or tenderness or decency.

• The Second Mrs. de Winter : [before their marriage]  Oh, I wish I were a woman of 36, dressed in black satin with a string of pearls!

  Maxim de Winter : [chuckles]  You wouldn't be here with me if you were.

• Maxim de Winter : [to the Second Mrs. de Winter]  Remember the precipice? I frightened you, didn't I? You thought I was mad. Perhaps I was. Perhaps I am mad. It wouldn't make for sanity, would it, living with the devil?

• Mrs. Edythe Van Hopper : It's so nice to run into you here, just when I was beginning to despair of finding any old friends here in Monte. But do sit down and have some coffee.

  [to her traveling companion, the future Mrs. de Winter] 

  Mrs. Edythe Van Hopper : Mr. de Winter is having some coffee with me. Ask that stupid waiter for another cup.

  Maxim de Winter : I'm afraid I must contradict you. You shall both have coffee with me.

• The Second Mrs. de Winter : [before their marriage]  Would you please tell me, Mr. de Winter, why you asked me to come out with you? Oh, it's obvious that you want to be kind, but why do you choose me for your charity?

  Maxim de Winter : I asked you to come out with me because I wanted your company. You've blotted out the past for me more than all the bright lights of Monte Carlo. But if you think I just asked you out of kindness or charity, you can leave the car now and find your own way home.

• Maxim de Winter : I hate the place. If you had my memories, you wouldn't go there or even think about it!

• Maxim de Winter : Rebecca has won. Her shadow has been between us all the time, keeping us from one another.

• Maxim de Winter : You despise me, don't you? As I despise myself.

• Maxim de Winter : I'm afraid I cling to the old motto: "He travels fastest who travels alone." Perhaps you've not heard of it. Good night.

• Mrs. Edythe Van Hopper : Are you playing the tables much here at Monte?

  Maxim de Winter : No, I'm afraid that sort of thing ceased to amuse me years ago.

  Mrs. Edythe Van Hopper : I can well understand that. As for me, if I had a home like Manderley, I should certainly never come to Monte. I hear it's one of the biggest places in that part of the country and you just can't beat it for beauty.

• Maxim de Winter : Tell me, is Mrs. Van Hopper a friend of yours or just a relation?

  The Second Mrs. de Winter : [before their marriage]  No, she's my employer. I'm what is known as a paid companion.

  Maxim de Winter : I didn't know companionship could be bought.

  The Second Mrs. de Winter : I looked up the word "companion" in the dictionary once. It said, "a friend of the bosom."

  Maxim de Winter : I don't envy you the privilege.

• Maxim de Winter : I wasn't being polite. I should have asked you to have lunch with me even if you hadn't upset the vase so clumsily. Come along. We needn't talk to each other if we don't feel like it.

• The Second Mrs. de Winter : [before their marriage]  I wish there could be an invention that bottled up the memory - like perfume. And it never faded, never got stale. Then whenever I wanted to, I could uncork the bottle and live the memory all over again.

  Maxim de Winter : And what particular moment in your young life would you want to keep?

  The Second Mrs. de Winter : Oh, all of them, all these last few days. I feel as though I'd - I'd collected a whole shelf full of bottles.

  Maxim de Winter : Sometimes, you know, those little bottles contain demons that have a way of popping out at you just as you're trying most desperately to forget.

• Maxim de Winter : Of course, if you don't love me, that's a different thing. Fine blow to my conceit, that's all.

  The Second Mrs. de Winter : [before their marriage]  Oh, I do love you. I love you most dreadfully. I've been crying all morning because I thought I'd never see you again.

  Maxim de Winter : Bless you for that. I'll remind you of this one day and you won't believe me. It's a pity you have to grow up.

• Maxim de Winter : This isn't at all your idea of a proposal, is it? It should be in a conservatory, you in a white frock with a red rose in your hand and a violin playing in the distance, and I should be making violent love to you behind a palm tree. Poor darling. Never mind.

• Maxim de Winter : Please don't call me Mr. de Winter. I have a very impressive array of first names. George Fortescue Maximilian. But you needn't bother with them all at once. My family call me Maxim.

• Maxim de Winter : This is Mrs. Danvers.

• Major Giles Lacy : I say, old boy, I'm trying to find out exactly what your wife does do.

  Maxim de Winter : Well, she sketches a little.

  Major Giles Lacy : Sketches. Not this modern stuff, I hope. You know, portrait of a lampshade upside-down to represent a soul in torment.

• Maxim de Winter : We should have stayed away. We should never have come back to Manderley. Oh, what a fool I was.

• The Second Mrs. de Winter : I'm awfully sorry, darling. It was very careless of me. Mrs. Danvers must be furious with me.

  Maxim de Winter : Oh, hang Mrs. Danvers. Why on earth should you be frightened of her? You behave more like an upstairs maid or something, not like the mistress of the house at all.

  The Second Mrs. de Winter : Yes, I know I do. But I feel so uncomfortable. I - I try my best every day, but it's very difficult with people looking me up and down as if I were a prize cow.

• The Second Mrs. de Winter : Maxim, can't we start all over again? I don't ask that you should love me. I won't ask impossible things. I'll be your friend, your companion. I'll be happy with that.

  Maxim de Winter : You love me very much, don't you? But it's too late, my darling. We've lost our little chance of happiness.

  The Second Mrs. de Winter : No, Maxim, no.

  Maxim de Winter : Yes. It's all over now.

• Maxim de Winter : I've loved you, my darling. I shall always love you. But I've known all along - that Rebecca would win in the end.

  The Second Mrs. de Winter : No, no! She hasn't won. No matter what happens now, she hasn't won.

• Maxim de Winter : She was lying on the divan, a large tray of cigarette stubs beside her. She looked ill, queer.

• Maxim de Winter : I can't get over the feeling something's wrong.