Children of Paradise (1945)

Pierre Brasseur: Frédérick Lemaître

Photos 

Quotes 

• Frederick : Words and phrases leave you cold. You tell your story without speaking. And you do it so well. You really astonished me. Your legs speak, your hands answer. A glance, a shrug, a step forward, back and they understand up in the Gods.

  Baptiste : They understand, though they are poor. I'm like them. I love them, I know them. Their lives are small, but their dreams are vast.

• Frederick : I'm dying of silence, like others die of hunger and thirst.

• Frederick : Jealousy belongs to all if a woman belongs to none.

• Garance : Listen to the Gods! I used to laugh like that once. I'd burst out laughing, just like that, without thinking. But nowadays -...

  Frederick : You're sad.

  Garance : No, but I'm not cheerful either. A spring broke in the music box. The tune is the same but it's in a different key.

• Édouard, Count de Montray : Monsieur, you play the bloodthirsty brute so naturally.

  Frederick : You're too kind. I merely played him as Shakespeare wrote him, as naturally as possible.

  Édouard, Count de Montray : A peculiar fellow, this Monsieur Shakespeare. I hear he made his literary debut as a butcher's apprentice.

  Frederick : Why not?

  Édouard, Count de Montray : Which would explain the bestial nature of his plays and his popularity among dockers and carters.

  Frederick : And kings!

• Frederick : [Repeated pick-up line]  You smiled! Don't deny it! You smiled! Marvelous! Life is beautiful! And you're just as beautiful!

• Frederick : This mulled wine is splendid! It goes down like a seraph in red velvet tights.

• Frederick : To your health, Baptiste. And to yours, friends. Tonight you drank with Julius Caesar. Julius Caesar or another. Charles the Bold, Attila, Henri IV, Ravaillac! Yes, I know it! It's my destiny to revive the giants of this earth. They played their parts. It's my turn now. Let me have my chance. Rise, Julius Caesar! Frederick is before you. I'll dust him off and cast his shadow across the boards. He'll live again to astonish the world once more! Thanks to me!

• Frederick : You can't abandon me all alone on the Boulevard of Crime! When will I see you again?

  Garance : Soon, perhaps. Chance will tell.

  Frederick : Oh, Paris is so big.

  Garance : Paris is small for those who share so great a passion as ours.

  [Walks away] 

• Frederick : Is your door locked, my love?

  Garance : I'm not afraid of thieves. What's there to steal?

• Frederick : It's all nonsense, fantasy, air! What I like is reality.

  [Grabs an actress on her behind] 

  Frederick : Only two acts, but well made. Compliments to the authors.

• Frederick : Where did you go? Where did he take you? That nabob. To India?

  Garance : I did go to India. But not for long. I lived in England most of the time. And Scotland.

  Frederick : Is Scotland beautiful?

  Garance : Yes... but it's so far away. I love only Paris.

• Frederick : This can't be happening to me. This is absurd.

  Garance : What is it?

  Frederick : I think I'm jealous. I don't know. I've never felt anything like this. It's insidious, unpleasant. It infects your heart. You reason, but your reason fails you.

• Frederick : First, my name, Frederick. Now tell me yours.

  Garance : They call me Garance.

  Frederick : Garance. How lovely!

  Garance : It' a flower.

  Frederick : A red flower, like your lips.

• Édouard, Count de Montray : How do you ply your talents these days?

  Pierre-François Lacenaire : Since you ask, I'm putting the finishing touches on something that will cause a sensation.

  Édouard, Count de Montray : A tragedy, no doubt.

  Pierre-François Lacenaire : No, a comedy, a farce. Or a tragedy, if you prefer. It's all the same. There's no difference. Or very little. For example, if a king is deceived, it's a tragedy of infidelity. He's deceived not by his wife...

  Frederick : But by Fate.

  Pierre-François Lacenaire : Yes, Fate. But if it's a poor devil like you or me, Monsieur de Montray - and I use "me" as a figure of speech - it's no longer a tragedy, but mere buffoonery, a sorry tale of cuckolds.

• Garance : Well, good-bye... Frédérick.

  Frederick : You can't abandon me, all alone on the Boulevard of Crime. When will I see you again?

  Garance : Soon, maybe. Chance will tell.

  Frederick : Paris is so big.

  Garance : Paris is so small for such great lovers as we...

• Frédérick Lemaître : It's Nathalie. Oooh, you're a real beauty now.

  Nathalie : I'm not beautiful, Frederick. Just happy.

  Frédérick Lemaître : Beauty and happiness go together.