Alexandre Quotes in Day for Night (1973)

Alexandre: In 80 movies I've died 24 times - electrocuted twice, hanged twice. I've been knifed, committed suicide, died in accidents, but never a natural death. Anyway, I don't think death is natural.

Alexandre: Remember when we first met in Hollywood?

Séverine: No dates! Never mention numbers! Or I'll tell everyone you had a facelift!

Alexandre: Not yet. It's coming!

[Séverine laughs]

Ferrand: Quiet! A full rehearsal. Let's go, Séverine.

Séverine: "I don't understand you Alexander! You're - "

Alexandre: "Peculiar"

Séverine: Oh, yes.

Ferrand: It's all right! Take it from the top, right away. Let's go, Séverine.

Séverine: "I don't understand you Alexander! You've been peculiar, lately. Walking out on dinner last night! That was an insult to Julie." Damn! I said Julie instead of Pamela.

Ferrand: Not to worry.

Séverine: I've got an idea! I'll use numbers, the way I do for Fellini! Instead of "I don't understand you Alexander..." I'll say, 22, 83, 16, 72, 5, 3, 18, 9, 14, 7, 9. 17, 10, 10, 4, 18, 69...

Ferrand: Impossible, Séverine. In France, we have to say the lines.

Alexandre: How's your mother?

Julie: Very good. I told her we were working together. She sends her love.

Alexandre: Marvelous woman! Everyone in Hollywood loved her. Too bad she quit when she did.

Julie: But she's still very busy.

Alexandre: She hated the way we shoot movies - in bits and pieces! I remember escorting her to the premiere of her first big Hollywood movie. A fantastic evening! When the film ended, she sat there, then turned to me and said: "I did all that? All I remember is the waiting."

Julie: It's so true!

Alphonse: Alexandre, excuse me. Can I ask you something?

Alexandre: Yes.

Alphonse: In your opinion, are women magic?

Alexandre: Some are, yes. Others, no!

Alexandre: Actors are so vulnerable!

Dr. Michael Nelson: Of course they are. Everyone is afraid of being judged. But actors are always being judged. In your work, and in your life!

Alexandre: Yes. We wonder what people think of us, if they love us. It must be the same for all performers. As a child, when Mozart was asked to play, he'd reply: "Gladly, but first say you love me."

Dr. Michael Nelson: And in your job, you're always kissing.

Alexandre: As you say, yes, we do a lot of kissing. The handshake was invented to show you're unarmed, friendly. We went one better: we show our love.

Alexandre: Any champagne left?

Bernard, l'accessoiriste: No, we'll have to move on to Pernod.

Alexandre: Champagne's gone. You won't get drunk.

Alexandre: Movie people may be more obvious about it, but love makes the world go round!

Alexandre: There was an Austrian actress, Hedy Lamar, became a big Hollywood star. She really missed the rainy climate of her native Tyrol. So, in her garden in California, she installed a rain-making machine.

Bertrand: That's not nice or friendly. Aren't we one big family?

Alexandre: So were the people in Greek tragedies!

Alexandre: Why, mother, nothing happens as we wish? Why? Why does one have to rot in silence torn between pain and desire? Why did I live my life in exile. Tell me mother, why can't one learn to love?

Alexandre: I know that one you will leave. The wind pushes your eyes away but today give me this day as if it was the last.

Alexandre: My only regret, Anna - but is it only one? - is to not have finished anything. I left all as a draft, shattered words here and there.

Alexandre: All passed by so quickly. This suspect pain... my stubbornness to want to learn,to want to know... then the darkness... the silence around me... the silence. All made me believe that before the end of winter with the ethereal silhouettes of the boats,and their sudden breakthroughs in the sky, with the lovers along the promenade,in the declining sun, and the hypocritical promise of the spring, all made me believe that before the end of winter... My only regret, Anna... but is it only one?... is not to have finished anything. I left it all as a draft, shattered words here and there.

Veronika: [after seeing Alexandre making the bed by jumping with the sheets on top of it] Funny way to make a bed.

Alexandre: I saw it done in a film. Films teach you how to live, how to make a bed.

Alexandre: I never lose my way when it comes to liquor.

Alexandre: How do you want to make love? Tenderly, or violently?