Last Tango in Paris (1972)

Marlon Brando: Paul

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Quotes 

• Paul : There's some butter in the kitchen.

  Jeanne : So you're here? Why didn't you answer?

  Paul : Go get the butter.

  Jeanne : I have to hurry. I have a cab downstairs waiting.

  Paul : Go get the butter.

• [alone at his dead wife's bedside during her wake] 

  Paul : Our marriage was nothing more than a foxhole for you. And all it took for you to get out was a 35-cent razor and a tub full of water. You cheap goddamn fucking godforsaken whore, I hope you rot in hell. You're worse than the dirtiest street pig anybody could ever find anywhere, and you know why? You know why? Because you lied. You lied to me and I trusted you.

  [gradually starts losing his composure] 

  Paul : You lied and you knew you were lying. Go on, tell me you didn't lie. Haven't you got anything to say about that? You can think up something, can't you? Go on, tell me something! Go on, smile, you cunt!

  [starts crying noticeably] 

  Paul : Go on, tell me... tell me something sweet. Smile at me and say I just misunderstood. Go on, tell me. You pig-fucker... you goddamn, fucking, pig-fucking liar.

• Jeanne : What's this for?

  Paul : That's your happiness and my - my ha-penis.

  Jeanne : Peanuts?

  Paul : Schlong. Wienerwurst. Cazzo. Bitte. Prick! Joint!

• Jeanne : You know, you're old! And you're getting fat.

  Paul : Fat, is it? How unkind.

  Jeanne : Half of your hair is out and the other half is - almost white.

  Paul : You know, in ten years, you're going to be playing soccer with your tits. What do you think of that?

• Paul : No, you're alone. You're all alone. And you won't be able to be free of that feeling of being alone until you look death right in the face. I mean that sounds like bullshit. Some romantic crap. Until you go right up into the ass of death. Right up in his ass. 'Til you find the womb of fear.

• [Jeanne is telling Paul about her first love] 

  Jeanne : I fell in love with him when I first heard him play piano.

  Paul : You mean the first time he got inside your knickers.

  Jeanne : He was a child prodigy; he was playing with both hands.

  Paul : I bet he was!

• Paul : You ran through Africa and Asia and Indonesia, and now I found you - and I love you. I want to know your name.

  Jeanne : Jeanne.

• Jeanne : You want to know what - why you don't want to know anything about me? Because you hate woman.

  Paul : Oh, really?

  Jeanne : What have they ever done to you?

  Paul : Well, either they always pretend to know who I am or they pretend I don't know who they are and that's very boring.

• Paul : It's me again.

  Jeanne : It's over.

  Paul : That's right. It's over and then it begins again.

  Jeanne : What begins again? I don't understand anything anymore.

  Paul : There's nothing to understand. We left the apartment, and now we begin and love all the rest of it.

  Jeanne : The rest of it?

  Paul : Yeah, listen. I'm 45. I'm a widower. I own a little hotel. It's kind of a dump, but not completely a flop house. Then I used to live on my luck and I got married, and my wife killed herself.

• Jeanne : What am I doing in this apartment with you? Love?

  Paul : Well, let's say we're just taking a flying - a flying fuck at a rolling donut.

• [alone at his dead wife's bedside during her wake] 

  Paul : [sobbing]  Rosa... I'm sorry, I... I just - I can't stand it to see these goddamn things on your face!

  [peels off her fake eyelashes] 

  Paul : You never wore make-up... this fucking shit.

  [wipes off her lipstick with a flower petal] 

  Paul : I'm gonna take this off your mouth, this - this lipstick...

  [falls over her, sobbing uncontrollably] 

  Paul : Rosa - oh GOD! I'm sorry! I - I don't know why you did it! I'd do it too, if I knew how... I just *don't know how*... I have to... have to find a way...

• [first lines] 

  Paul : [with his hands over his ears at the overwhelming sound of a passing train]  Fucking GOD!

• Paul : Anyway, to make a long, dull story even duller, I come from a time when a guy like me used to come into a joint like this and pick up a young chick like you and... call her a 'bimbo'.

• Paul : I'm awfully sorry to intrude, but I was so... struck with your beauty that I thought perhaps I could offer you a glass of champagne. Is this seat taken?

  Jeanne : No.

• Jeanne : Let's drink a toast to our life in the hotel.

  Paul : No fuck all that! Hey listen! Let's drink a toast to our life in the country.

  Jeanne : You're a nature lover? You didn't tell me that.

  Paul : Oh, for christ sake... I'm nature boy. Can't you see me with the cows and the chickenshit all over me? Huh?

  Jeanne : Oh, that's right. To the cows!

  Paul : Cow.

  Jeanne : I will be your cow too.

  Paul : I get to milk you twice a day. How about that?

• Paul : What about that? Can I open that? Huh? Wait a minute. Maybe there's jewels in it. Maybe there's gold.

  [unbuttoning Jeanne's jeans] 

  Paul : Are you afraid?

  Jeanne : No.

  Paul : No? You're always afraid.

  [turns Jeanne over on her stomach] 

  Jeanne : No, but, maybe there is some family secrets inside.

  Paul : Family secrets?

  [pulls down her jeans] 

  Paul : I'll tell you about family secrets.

  [grabs the butter] 

  Jeanne : What are you doing?

  Paul : I'm gonna tell you about the family. That holy institution - meant to breed virtue in savages.

• Marcel : [In French, lifting himself on a pole]  This is my secret. 30 times every morning.

  Paul : [in English, starting to leave]  Really, Marcello, I really don't know what she saw in you.

• Paul : I could dance forever! Oh, my hemorrhoid.

• Paul : [drunkenly]  Beauty of mine, sit before me. Let me peruse you and remember you always like this. Garçon! Champagne! If music be the food of love, play on.

• Paul : [as a frustrated Jeanne reaches down his pants in the dance hall]  Listen, that's not a subway strap, that's me cock!

• Paul : I'll save the asshole for you.

• Paul : I'm going to get yoooooooou! Bimboooooo!

• Paul : Well, first you have to take a hot bath and if you don't you're gonna get pneumonia. Right?... and then you know what happens? You get pneumonia... and then you know what happens? You die! And then, you know what happens then when you die? I get to fuck the dead rat!

• Paul : [puts on her father's military hat and salutes]  How do you like your hero? Over easy or sunny side up?

• Paul : [opens the door and sees his dead wife laying on a bed of purple flowers in a dark bedroom lit only by a dim table lamp]  You look ridiculous in that makeup. Like the caricature of a whore. A little touch of Mommy in the night. Fake Ophelia drowned in the bathtub. I wish you could see yourself. You'd really laugh. You're your mother's masterpiece.

• Paul : [Paul roughs up a john]  Get the fuck out of here! FAGGOT!

• [Paul and Jeanne are talking in bed about Jeanne's past experiences with men] 

  Paul : You started grabbing his joint?

  Jeanne : Your crazy!

  Paul : Well, he touched you, didn't he?

  Jeanne : I never let him! Never!

  Paul : Ugh! Liar, liar, pants on fire, nose as long as a telephone wire.

  [slight pause] 

  Paul : You mean to tell me he didn't touch you? Look at me straight in the face and say, 'He didn't touch me.'

  Jeanne : No, he touched me, but the way he did it.

  Paul : Aha! The *way* he did it.

• Jeanne : Why don't you go back in America?

  Paul : I don't know, bad memories, I guess.

• Paul : I want you to cut the fingernails on your right hand, these two. That's it. I want you to put your fingers up my ass.

  Jeanne : What?

  Paul : Put your fingers up my ass, are you deaf? Go on. I'm gonna get a pig. And I'm gonna have the pig fuck you. And I want the pig to vomit in your face. Then I want you to swallow the vomit. Are you gonna do that for me?

  Jeanne : Yeah.

  Paul : Huh?

  Jeanne : Yeah!

  Paul : I want the pig to die while you're fucking him. And then you have to go behind it. I want you to smell the dying farts of the pig. Are you gonna do all of that for me?

  Jeanne : Yes and more than that! And worse! And worse than before!

• Jeanne : I shall have to invent a name for you.

  Paul : A name? Oh, Jesus Christ! Oh God, I've been called by a million names all my life. I don't want a name. I'm better off with a grunt or a groan for a name.

• Paul : My father was a - a drunk. Tough. Whore-fucker Bar-fighter. Super-masculine. And he was tough. My mother was very - very poetic. And also a drunk. And one of my memories, when I was a kid was of her being arrested nude.

• Paul : My mother taught me to love nature. And - I guess that was the most she could do.

• Jeanne : Have you been in college?

  Paul : Oh, yeah. Yeah. I went to the University of Congo. Studied whale-fucking.

• Paul : Give me the soap. Listen, you dumb dodo. All the mysteries that you're ever gonna know in life are right here.

• Paul : [alone at his dead wife's bedside during her wake]  Even if the husband lives 200 fucking years he's never going to be able to discover his wife's real nature. I mean, I - I might be able to comprehend the universe, but I'll never discover the truth about you. Never. I mean, who the hell were you?

• Jeanne : This place is so pitiful.

  Paul : Yes, but I'm here, aren't I?

• Paul : You know, the tango is a rite. Do you understand "rite?" And you must watch the legs of the dancers.

• Jeanne : Maybe - maybe we can come without touching.

  Paul : Come without touching? Okay. Are you concentrating? Did you come yet?

  Jeanne : No. It's difficult!

  Paul : I didn't either yet. You're not trying hard enough.

• Jeanne : I don't know what to call you.

  Paul : I don't have a name.

  Jeanne : Do you want to know mine?

  Paul : No, no! I don't! I don't want to know your name. You don't have a name and I don't have a name either. No names here. Not one name.

  Jeanne : You're crazy!

  Paul : Maybe I am, but I don't want to know anything about you. I don't wanna know where you live or where you come from. I wanna know nothing, nothing, nothing. You understand?

  Jeanne : You scare me.

  Paul : Nothing. You and I are gonna meet here without knowing anything that goes on outside here. Okay?

  Jeanne : But, why?

  Paul : Because, we don't need names here. Don't you see? We're gonna forget everything that we knew. Every - all the people - all that we do - wherever we live - we're going to forget that, everything, everything.

  Jeanne : But I can't. Can you?

  Paul : I don't know. Are you scared?

  Jeanne : No.

• Jeanne : So what do I have to say? What do I have to do?

  Paul : [singing]  Come on the good ship, Lollipop...

• Jeanne : The Colonel had green eyes and shiny boots. I worshipped him. He was so handsome in his uniform.

  Paul : What a steaming pile of horseshit.

  Jeanne : What? I forbid you!

  Paul : All uniforms are bullshit. Everything outside this place is bullshit. Besides, I don't want to hear about your stories, about your past, and all that.

• Jeanne : Ooo, what a long tongue you have!

  Paul : The better to - to stick in your rear, my dear.

• Jeanne : You have been had!

  Paul : Really?

  Jeanne : [mocking Paul]  I don't wanna know anything about your past, baby!

  Paul : You think I was telling you the truth?

• Jeanne : So you think I'm a wore.

  Paul : I think you're a what? A what? A wore?

  Jeanne : A wore.

  Paul : You mean a whore.

  Jeanne : Yes, a whore. Whore.

  Paul : No, you're just a dear old-fashioned girl - trying to get along.

  Jeanne : I prefer to be a whore.

• Paul : Right here is the beautiful Miss Blowjob 1933. She still makes a few points when she takes her teeth out.

• Paul : When did you first come? How old were you?

  Jeanne : The first time? I was really late for school. I started running and it was downhill. All of a sudden, I felt a strong sensation here. So I ran and ran and I came as I ran. The faster I ran, the better it was and the more I came. A couple of days later, I tried to do it again - but no luck.

• Paul : Why were you going through my pockets?

  Jeanne : To find out ooo you are.

  Paul : To find out ooo you are.

  Jeanne : Yes.

  Paul : Well, if you look real close, you'll see me hiding behind my zipper.

• Paul : You want this golden, shining, powerful warrior to build a fortress where you can hide in. So you don't have to ever have to - you don't ever have to be afraid. You don't have to feel lonely and you never have to feel empty. That's what you want, isn't it?

  Jeanne : Yes.

  Paul : Well, you'll never find it.

  Jeanne : But I find this man.

  Paul : Well, then it won't be long until he'll want you to build a fortress for him out of your tits and out of your cunt and out of your hair and your smile and the way you smell. And - and some place where he can feel comfortable enough and secure enough so that he can worship in front of the altar of his own prick.

• Jeanne : To the house of the cows.

  Paul : Cows.

  Jeanne : I will be your cow, too.

  Paul : And listen, I get to milk you twice a day. How about that?

• Paul : So long, sister. Besides, you're a crummy-looking broad. I don't give a damn if I never see you again.

• Jeanne : It's finished!

  Paul : What's finished?

  Jeanne : We're never going to see each other again. Never!

  Paul : That's ridiculous. That's ridiculous!

  Jeanne : It's not a joke.

  Paul : [in a James Cagney accent]  You dirty rat!

  Jeanne : It's finished.

  Paul : Look, when something's finished, it begins again. Don't you see?

  Jeanne : I'm getting married! I'm going away. It's finished!

• Paul : Quo vadis, baby?