Max Skinner Quotes in A Good Year (2006)

Max Skinner: Forgive my lips. They find joy in the most unusual places.

Fanny Chenal: [Fanny approaches a customer who is behind a raised newspaper] Bonjour. Vous avez choisi?

Max Skinner: [lowers newspaper] I think so.

Fanny Chenal: [recognizing him] You sure you don't need more time?

Max Skinner: No, I know what I want.

Fanny Chenal: You're sure?

Max Skinner: Absolutely.

Fanny Chenal: So, what is it to be?

Max Skinner: How's the soup?

Fanny Chenal: The soup is finished.

Max Skinner: Like my job... The fish?

Fanny Chenal: We've run out.

Max Skinner: That's like me with excuses.

Fanny Chenal: Don't waste my time. Choose something we have.

Max Skinner: I would like a lifetime spent with an irrational and suspicious goddess, some short-tempered jealousy on the side, and a bottle of wine that tastes like you, a glass that's never empty.

[they kiss]

Francis Duflot: You know what Proust said. Leave pretty women to men without imagination.

Max Skinner: Francis, I'm a banker. I have no imagination.

Max Skinner: This place does not suit my life.

Fanny Chenal: No Max, it's your life that does not suit this place.

Max Skinner: [sticking his fist out of the sun roof] LANCE ARMSTRONG!

group of french cyclists: [grumbling and flicking him off] Fuck you!

Kenny: [reading "fan mail"] You're my hero.

Max Skinner: Who wrote that?

Kenny: Your lawyer.

Max Skinner: [gets in on the wrong side of the car] Bollocks.

Max Skinner: Look, I wasn't joking about what I said before about the wine they make here. It is not - I repeat, NOT - first class. Will that affect our price?

Charlie Willis: Well, how bad can it be?

Max Skinner: Uh, well, it gives you a blinding headache and it makes you angry... I can't imagine the damage a second sip might do.

Charlie Willis: Well, we'll just have to make sure our buyers don't know anything about wine. We'll concentrate on the Americans.

Max Skinner: Kenny, I want the 10 year yield, I want the figures for the Andserson account and I want you to get your scrawny little arse out of my chair. Thank you.

[hangs up]

Kenny: How did he know?

Max Skinner: [after hiring Max a smart car] This is because I didn't shag you at the Christmas party isn't it.

Gemma: Listen, I swear on my life, Max, they didn't have any other cars.

Max Skinner: [dealing with two obnoxious tourists] Macdonalds is in Avignon, fish and chips in Marseille. Allez.

Max Skinner: [points to his shirt] Fred Perry.

Francis Duflot: [points to his cap] René Lacoste.

Max Skinner: Kenny, why don't you go and find some small animals to hurt? I know, find a poodle and punt it off the balcony.

Charlie Willis: [Calling from London] How's the house, Max? Is it gorgeous?

Max Skinner: Well, to tell you the truth, Charlie, it's a little shabby.

Charlie Willis: We don't say "shabby," Max. We say "filled with the patina of a bygone era."

Francis Duflot: [Bringing out a special bottle of wine] C'est "Le Coin Perdu"... it's a local vin de garage.

Max Skinner: [confused] "Vin de garage"?

Christie Roberts: It's a "garage wine." Like a boutique wine. Small vineyards, small productions - *seriously* big prices.

Francis Duflot: [dismissively] It's overrated.

Christie Roberts: It didn't say that on the Web. Turns out "Le Coin Perdu" is a Provencal legend. It changes hands among collectors, but nobody knows who makes it.

Fanny Chenal: [Max has brought a bottle of the rare wine] Wow - "Le Coin Perdu"? I've never actually seen a bottle...

Max Skinner: Have you heard of it?

Fanny Chenal: It's expensive... Are you trying to seduce me, Max?

Max Skinner: Oh gosh, no, of course not. Thought would never even cross my mind. Not more than six, or ten times.

Max Skinner: Ludivine? Don't you think this is a bit much? I mean, she is my cousin.

Ludivine Duflot: Almost all French aristocrat have, how you say... liaison with their cousins, yes?

Max Skinner: [to Charlie Willis] Real men don't play bridge.

Max Skinner: Never pet a burning dog.

Max Skinner: [greeting two attractive women in a wine bar] Lucy! Ah, didn't know you two knew each other. Whoops.

Max Skinner: I have an obligatory cultural activity in the village tonight.

Charlie Willis: Can I come? Will there be girls?

Max Skinner: No and yes.

Max Skinner: When's my appointment with the notaire?

Gemma: A little over an hour from now.

Max Skinner: My time or your time?

Gemma: Shit.

Max Skinner: Gemma!

Max Skinner: Morning lab rats.

Max Skinner: Joan of Arc?

Fanny Chenal: Oh. Jacques Cousteau.

Max Skinner: [as the diving board breaks and he falls into the empty pool] Bollocks.

Max Skinner: You tried to drown me.

Fanny Chenal: And you tried to run me over in your little car.

Gemma: That's a lot of zeros Max.

Max Skinner: Or a partnership for life. My choice.

Gemma: Now you listen to mummy, Maxy. Partner, you're made for life. Sir Nigel didn't become a partner until he was 53 and look at him.

Max Skinner: Yeah. Look at him.

Max Skinner: [referring to Fanny Chanel] She's fantastic.

Christie Roberts: Are your memories of my father good?

Max Skinner: No they are extraordinary. My uncle loved women, although no one for a long time, and he never married. He loved England, yet lived in France. He was an adventurer, yet all my memories take place within 100 steps of this spot.

Max Skinner: Good morning, lab rats.

Assembled traders and staff: Good morning, Max.

Max Skinner: Today we're shifting gears. Today... is "greedy bastard" day.

[Assembled traders and staff let out a murmur of excitement]

Max Skinner: The secret to riches, lab rats, is the same as the secret to comedy: timing.

Max Skinner: [Surprised at the make of tractor he finds in the work-shed] A 'Lamborghini' tractor!

Francis Duflot: [Offering his hand] A Frenchman's hand is his word... Concord?

Max Skinner: [Reluctantly shaking hands] An Englishman's word is his bond... Deal.

Max Skinner: [Walking away, muttering] Frog toss-pot!

Francis Duflot: [Walking away, muttering] English prick!

Max Skinner: [Upon first encountering Christie, at the door] The only country that issues teeth like that is America.

Christie Roberts: Oh... you speak English.

Max Skinner: Like a native.

Christie Roberts: Huh! Back in Napa, we're known to gargle and spit on occasion.

Max Skinner: Well, well. Guess who knows a thing or two about wine?

Christie Roberts: Did you know that dad mixed a martini for Winston Churchill? He also danced a waltz with Amelia Earhart in 1975.

Max Skinner: Well, considering that Amelia Earhart died in the 1930's, that's a perfect example of the type of exaggerator Uncle Henry was. Want to know the real Uncle Henry? Not the one your overactive imagination is manufacturing? The *real* Henry Skinner was a man so afraid of committing to the real world, that he retreated from life to drink and shag his way to a lonely and loveless end.

Max Skinner: Your asparagus is - is lovely.

Ludivine Duflot: Thank you!

Max Skinner: Very chewy, but... lovely.

Charlie Willis: [Calling from London] Hello... You working out on the house?

Max Skinner: Charlie, yes. At it since daybreak.

Charlie Willis: Really... I hate to think of you, toiling down there all on your own.

Max Skinner: Well, we're English, Charlie, you know? Born to rule and sacrifice.

Charlie Willis: Yes...

Gemma: [re: Kenny assuming Max's place as head of the trading department] He's even taking credit for your trade this week. He's telling everyone in the office that HE's the one who gave you the idea.

Max Skinner: [Unconcerned] Well, if he wasn't an ambitious and mercenary little bastard, I never would have given him the job in the first place.

Francis Duflot: [Presenting various home-cooked dishes at the dinner gathering] ... and finally, civette of wild boar, marinated in red wine, and blood pressed from the carcass.

Max Skinner: Why would you have it any other way?

Sir Nigel: [Noticing Max admiring a valuable painting on the wall] Van Gogh.

Max Skinner: I hope you've got a good lock on the door, sir.

Sir Nigel: Don't be soft. It's not real. The REAL one's in my vault. It's a copy. Two hundred grand for a knockoff... Sit!

Max Skinner: In France, is it actually illegal to shag your own cousin?

Charlie Willis: Only if she's ugly.