Sandrine Quotes in Choses secrètes (2002)

Sandrine: What do you feel dancing naked with all those people watching?

Nathalie: Nothing.

Sandrine: But you excite them.

Nathalie: Usually it's routine.

Sandrine: Usually?

Nathalie: On stage once, I came the hardest I ever had.

Sandrine: Even with a guy?

Nathalie: That night I came the hardest I ever had.

Sandrine: Why?

Nathalie: Because people were watching.

Sandrine: Men were watching?

Nathalie: People were watching. It really got me off and I came. It's happened several times.

Sandrine: So that's it?

Nathalie: What?

Sandrine: What makes you so exciting. Did it happen tonight?

Nathalie: No such luck.

[Sandrine laughs with convulsive delight]

Nathalie: Did what I say shock you?

Sandrine: No. I'm a little jealous. Ii figure I'd never dare.

Nathalie: Never dare what? Show yourself naked? Get off by exciting them? Or just get off?

Sandrine: All that together. And I'm not pretty enough.

Nathalie: All us girls say that. I was afraid, too.

Sandrine: [narrating as we watch Nathalie and her walk through the streets of Paris, eating and drinking at a cafe, while wearing only heels and long coats] It felt funny being naked under our coats in the unsuspecting crowd. Funny, but really pleasant. So we kept it up. I had begun to dare. It gave me a sense of superiority over people I'd pass on the street.

Nathalie: Next chapter: Men, a user's manual. First pick a good one. But don't fall all over him. Play the good, innocent little girl. Let him play protector.

Sandrine: We can all do that. Guys just want to get laid and move on.

Nathalie: That's why you don't fuck 'em. At least not just like that. Without letting on, study them, get them talking. Discover their weak spots and passions: money, cars, I dunno... success, work. When you find out, you flatter them. Then, once you've chosen your man, you yield to him. Never on the first date. He'll think you're easy. Don't wait too long, either. After 3 or 4 dinners, then give him the works. Give him pleasure, make him think only he can make you climax, play the happy, docile woman, but not for too long. Soon in bed, you stop faking. Not seeing you climax will get him all worked up. Then without warning, drop him and start fooling around. Overtly. One night stands. If possible, with another woman. It'll humiliate him, drive him nuts. He'll come crawling back.

Sandrine: It works every time?

Nathalie: Just about. That's the mystery of human nature... we want what resists or escapes us.

Sandrine: Who taught you that?

Nathalie: Life. My mother. But she and I were poor. I also read a lot. I had schooling like you. It didn't keep us from enduing in the same strip club. We women lack confidence and daring. Someone always has to be behind us, egging us on. We're a bit like the working class. My mother said they'd stay that way for one reason: they didn't dare move up. "Dare!" That's what she'd always say. She knew about human nature.

Sandrine: Meanwhile, no guy ever made me come.

Nathalie: I know. And that's just fine!

Sandrine: If you say so.

Nathalie: You'll soon understand. What'd you do with your guy?

Sandrine: I faked it.

Nathalie: Why?

Sandrine: I wanted to make him happy.

Nathalie: No, you felt guilty, thinking it was your fault. You were wrong. Lesson 3: femmes fatales are usually narcissists or lesbians. They're frigid with men. They come when they want to, which isn't often. It's their strength. With famous courtesans...

Sandrine: Want to make me a call girl?

Nathalie: No, I'm teaching you about life. Now, with famous courtesans each guy wanted to succeed where others had failed. Pride will make a man spend a fortune to be seen with them. Frigidity helps with men. Sex enslaves you. The slave must be the other. Now you can come on your own, you're free. Get it?

Sandrine: What about love?

Nathalie: Our Enemy Number One. The real risk. In war, if you stop to think, you die. If we fall in love, we're done for. Has your life been such a thrill until now? Be realistic: no one'll help you change your life. True love can wait. Now show me how you fake it.

Nathalie: What's stopping you?

Sandrine: You're nuts, I'd never dare.

Nathalie: Are you drunk?

Sandrine: No.

[giggle]

Sandrine: No, I feel fine.

Nathalie: Then let's play a little game.

Sandrine: What game.

Nathalie: Daring. Daring to cross that forbidden think line that your friends will never cross. That will get you off.

Sandrine: [narrating] I wanted to get out of there fast.

[to Nathalie]

Sandrine: No.

Nathalie: Sit down. I won't jump you. First it has to happen in your head. Okay. Now close your eyes and let me guide you. The rest will come naturally. Go to the bed.

Sandrine: Do you think that we're all conditioned? That we do things at set hours?

Fred: You've been lying to me?

Sandrine: Every day.

Fred: You cheating on me?

Sandrine: No. I mean, yes. I touch myself every day.

Sandrine: Wouldn't it be really interesting to study the body? To know how and why a thought, a desire turns into pain or paralysis?

Fred: Where have you been?

Sandrine: I just had sex with a man in a hotel room.

Fred: Has he been your lover long?

Sandrine: Since this afternoon.

L'homme sur le banc: You know I just realized something really odd. Like you, I observe people and the world around me. All that exists. If I touch someone a woman, you for instance, she'll react. She may slap me. Or be glad about it. But in fact what are you if not a void? Did that shock you?

Sandrine: You didn't feel anything since I'm a void.

La mère de Sandrine: What got into you to touch yourself in the next room after making love with him?

Sandrine: I wasn't satisfied, that's all. It could have excited him. Hardly.

La mère de Sandrine: That's something you should only do to avoid seeing other men. And discreetly.

La mère de Sandrine: Usually, you're in love first, and all that changes later. For you it's the opposite. There are more than love matches. That's a good thing. Sure, society puts you in a cage. But that's how it is. So choose the most comfortable cage you can.

Sandrine: Your respectable straitjacket is not for me.

La mère de Sandrine: Don't get on your high horse. It's hard not living like other people. You'll learn that at your expense.

Sandrine: You men will never know how good it is.

Sandrine: So why did you get married?

Sophie: I don't know. To make my husband happy. To make everybody happy.

L'homme sur le banc: God loves those who dare.

Sandrine: I don't believe in God.

L'homme sur le banc: Neither do I. But sometimes it's useful to find a word to talk about certain things we don't know.

Sandrine: I thought you didn't believe in anything.

L'homme sur le banc: I don't believe in a god conceivable to the human mind that's all. Even that I have doubts about.

Sandrine: If you advertised female pleasure, you'd be overrun.

L'homme sur le banc: What is life, what is pleasure, what is love? Look at this landscape. What does it inspire in you?

Sandrine: A feeling of calm and harmony.

L'homme sur le banc: As it does for me. But, and you know this, it's first of all emptiness, yet at the same time filled with plants and insects, and thousands of animals that devour each other to survive. The plants grow thanks to the light, thanks to the sun. But the balance, the harmony depends on never-ending savagery and murder. Maybe we're nothing more than silly accidents in the universe. Or else fallen angels.

Sandrine: Fallen from what?

L'homme sur le banc: I don't know.