Eyes Wide Shut (1999)

Sydney Pollack: Victor Ziegler

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Quotes 

• Victor Ziegler : Listen, Bill. Nobody killed anybody. Someone died. It happens all the time. Life goes on. It always does, until it doesn't. But you know that, don't you?

• Victor Ziegler : Bill, I don't think you realize how much trouble you got yourself into last night just by going over there. Who do you think those people were? Those were not just some ordinary people. If I told you their names... no, I'm not going to tell you their names... but if I did, I don't think you'd sleep so well at night.

• Dr. Bill Harford : The woman lying dead in the morgue was the woman at the party. Well, Victor, maybe I'm missing something here. You call it fake, a charade... Do you mind telling me what kind of fucking charade ends up with somebody turning up dead?

  Victor Ziegler : [getting angry and defensive]  Okay Bill... let's cut the bullshit, alright? You've been way out of your depth for the last 24 hours! You want to know what kind of charade? I'll tell you what kind. That whole play-acted, "take me" phony sacrifice that you've been jerking off with had nothing to do with her real death. The truth is nothing happened to her after you left that party that hadn't happened to her before. She got her brains fucked out. Period! She was just fine when they took her back to her hotel room. And the rest is all there in the paper. There was no foul play regarding her death. She OD'd. She was alone in her room, her door was locked from the inside, the police are happy... end of story! Come on, Bill. You said it yourself to Mandy... that woman with the big tits who OD'd in my bathroom? She was an addict. You told her yourself the other night that it was only a matter of time before it came to that.

• Victor Ziegler : Bill... What the hell did you think you were doing there? I couldn't... I couldn't even begin to imagine how you'd even heard about it, let alone got yourself through the front door. And then I remembered seeing you talking with that prick piano player, Nick... or whatever the fuck his name was, at my party here the other night. And it didn't take much to figure out the rest.

  Dr. Bill Harford : It wasn't Nick's fault. It was mine.

  Victor Ziegler : Of course it was Nick's fault! If he hadn't mentioned this to you in the first place, none of this would have happened. I recommended that little cocksucker to those people, and now he's made me look like a complete asshole by telling you about it!

  Dr. Bill Harford : [humbly]  Victor... what can I say? I had absolutely no idea you were involved in any way.

  Victor Ziegler : I know you didn't, Bill. But I also know that you went to Nick's hotel this morning and spoke with the desk clerk.

  Dr. Bill Harford : How did you know that?

  Victor Ziegler : Because I had you followed.

  Dr. Bill Harford : You... you had me followed?

  Victor Ziegler : Okay, yes I had you followed. I owe you an apology. I'm sorry. But it was for your own good. I know you went to Nick's hotel looking for him and I know what the desk clerk told you. But what the desk clerk didn't tell you was that those two men with Nick... all they did was drive Nick to the airport and put him on a plane back to Seattle. I assure you that Nick is safely back home and he's probably banging Mrs. Nick as we speak.

  Dr. Bill Harford : The desk clerk said that Nick has a bruise on his face... a black eye. That he looked frightened as if he was just badly beaten up.

  Victor Ziegler : Yeah? Okay, so Nick had a bruise. But that's the least he deserved for telling you about that party the other night.

• Dr. Bill Harford : There was a... there was a... there was, uh... a woman there. Who, uh, tried to warn me.

  Victor Ziegler : I know.

  Dr. Bill Harford : Do you know who she was?

  Victor Ziegler : Yes. She was... she was a hooker. Sorry, but... that's what she was.

  Dr. Bill Harford : A hooker?

  Victor Ziegler : Bill, suppose I told you that... that everything that happened to you there... the threats, the- the girl's warnings, her last minute intervention, suppose I said that all of that... was staged. That it was a kind of charade. That it was fake.

  Dr. Bill Harford : Fake?

  Victor Ziegler : Yes, fake.

  Dr. Bill Harford : Why would they do that?

  Victor Ziegler : Why? In plain words... to scare the living shit out of you. To keep you quiet about where you'd been and what you'd seen.

• Dr. Bill Harford : Was it the second password? Is that what gave me away?

  Victor Ziegler : Yes, finally. But not because you didn't know it. It's because there was no second password. Of course it didn't help you too much that those people arrived there in limos... and you showed up in a taxi. Or that when they took your coat, they found the receipt to the costume from the rental house in your pocket made out to you-know-who.

• Victor Ziegler : Bill, I... I know what happened to you last night. And I know what's been going on since. And I think you just might have got the wrong idea about one or two things.

  Dr. Bill Harford : [feigning ignorance]  I'm sorry Victor, but... what the hell are you talking about?

  Victor Ziegler : Please, Bill... no games. I was there. At the house. "The house". I saw you, Bill. I saw everything.

• Victor Ziegler : Alice, look at you! God, you're absolutely stunning! And I don't say that to all the women, do I?

  Illona Ziegler : Yes, he does.

• Victor Ziegler : Sorry to call you out so late tonight.

  Dr. Bill Harford : That's OK, I was out anyway.

  Victor Ziegler : How about a drink?

  Dr. Bill Harford : Are you having one?

  Victor Ziegler : Sure! What would you like?

  Dr. Bill Harford : Uh, I'll have a little scotch.

  Victor Ziegler : Good. How do you take it, neat?

• Victor Ziegler : You remember, the one with the great tits who OD'd in my bathroom?