Jean-Paul Belmondo credited as playing...
Louis Mahé
- Louis Mahé: Here we go. You're sulking. I knew it. Now you're just pretending to be mad because inside you're not really mad. You put on that cold look... but inside you're smiling. Come on. Show me your smile.
- Julie Roussel: I'm fed up with all that smile crap! It doesn't work anymore! Don't speak to me. For Christ's sake, leave me alone!
- Louis Mahé: All right. Okay. That's fine with me. It's not difficult to know what you're thinking of me. And you're asking yourself... "Why the hell am I with this guy who's broke... and can't even knock over an old lady in the street to steal her purse?"
- Louis Mahé: [Continues, as Julie maintains an air of indifference] You only think of yourself. You're not a selfish girl. You're selfishness personified. You think that you're a real person, that you're unique. But you're not. You're just one in a growing multitude of girls now... not really bitches, not really adventuresses or whores, no... But some kind of parasite... who live outside normal society. You're not women or girls. You're "chicks". What else you are doesn't have an exact name. Mindless, with your heads full of garbage or air. You're in love with your own bodies. You're always going out in the sun, always tanning. You spend hours fixing your face. You can't pass by a car without looking at your reflection in the windshield. But you know where to find most of these girls? In airports. Yes! Everywhere planes are taking off for faraway spots. Because you are beautiful girls, and beautiful girls get fought over. They're invited from one big city to another. And they go there. They stroll around everywhere... with their little purses in hand, all made up.
- Louis Mahé: [as Julie slightly glares at him] Now you're really mad. That makes me happy. Because when you're mad, your mouth gets twisted... it gets crooked. And you turn ugly. Really ugly. So dreadfully ugly.
- Louis Mahé: You are beautiful. When I look at you, it hurts.
- Julie Roussel: Really? Yesterday you said it was a joy.
- Louis Mahé: It is a joy and yet it hurts.
- Julie Roussel: [Having doubts, after Louis has hidden money in their apartment] Do you think the maid looks honest?
- Louis Mahé: You see evil everywhere.
- Julie Roussel: I don't see evil everywhere. It *is* everywhere.
- Louis Mahé: Yes, I know you don't like it when I tell you that you're beautiful. You think I'm exaggerating. Wait. I'll explain. Wait.
- Julie Roussel: I'm waiting.
- Louis Mahé: I won't talk about your beauty anymore. I'll even tell you you're ugly, if you want. I'll try to describe you as if you were a photograph or a painting. Be quiet. Your face - your face is a landscape. You see? I'm neutral and impartial. There are two eyes. Two small, brown lakes.
- Julie Roussel: Brown-green.
- Louis Mahé: Two small brownish-green lakes. Your forehead is a plain. Your nose, a very little mountain. Your mouth - a volcano. Open it a little. I love to see your teeth. No, no. Not too much. There. Like that. You know what comes out of your mouth when you're bad? Toads. Yes, yes. Toads. And pearl necklaces when you're nice. Wait.
- Julie Roussel: I am waiting.
- Louis Mahé: Let's talk about your smile now. No, not that one. That's the one you make on the street to shopkeepers. No. Give me the other one, the real one. The happy one. There you go. That's it. Great! No, that's too much. It hurts my eyes. I don't want to look at you anymore. Wait.
- Julie Roussel: I am waiting.
- Louis Mahé: My eyes are closed, but I still see you. I'm visualizing. If I were blind, I would while away my time caressing your face. Your body too. And if I were deaf, I would learn to read your lips with my fingers - like that. Even if it all had to end badly, I am delighted to have known you, Madame.
- Julie Roussel: [as the two of them sit in a busy restaurant] It seems to me that you're looking at a lot of girls.
- Louis Mahé: Me? Oh, no, no, I'm not.
- Julie Roussel: Yes, Monsieur Mahé. You've taken to looking at women, and you look at them well.
- Julie Roussel: The picture I sent you wasn't really of me. It was one of my neighbors. It's hard to confide in someone in a letter. I was pleased with your letters, but, well, especially at first I was a bit afraid of you. That's why. But then, after you had proposed to - I mean, when you'd asked me to marry you, I was too embarrassed to send a real picture of me. And besides, Berthe, my sister, said, "When Mousieur Mahé sees you, he will forgive you."
- Louis Mahé: Your sister's absolutely right.
- Julie Roussel: You're not disappointed?
- Louis Mahé: Look at me. Do I look disappointed?
- Julie Roussel: Who were these women? Did they come here to marry?
- Louis Mahé: I doubt anyone asked their opinion. Many came from La Rochelle. they were orphans, like you. But I'm not sure they were as beautiful.
- Louis Mahé: It's difficult to get to know someone, even if we told each other a lot of things in our letters. Exactly because we have told each other a lot.
- Louis Mahé: Julie, you are adorable. You know what that means, "adorable"? It means worthy of adoration. Adorable.
- Louis Mahé: I went to see you at the Phoenix one night. I hid in a corner and watched you. I watched you dancing with those other guys. And your face had such an expression of joy. It was incredible. An expression that I'd never seen before. I knew then that I had given you nothing.
- Julie Roussel: Hey, why did you brush me off in front of her?
- Louis Mahé: I didn't see any reason why she should look at you. I didn't want her to see your thighs.
- Julie Roussel: Did that annoy you?
- Louis Mahé: No, no. I rather liked it. I really wanted you, right at that moment. And I've been thinking about it ever since.
- Julie Roussel: What are you doing?
- Louis Mahé: I'm closing the shutters.
- Julie Roussel: You're crazy. It's only four o'clock.
- Louis Mahé: I know it's four o'clock. Do you have anything against love in the afternoon?
- Julie Roussel: Against what?
- Louis Mahé: Against love in the afternoon.
- Julie Roussel: Well, no, but...
- [laughs]
- Julie Roussel: If we can't go to a hotel, we'll rent a house.
- Louis Mahé: But it's so much work. You need servants.
- Julie Roussel: I can keep a house on my own, you know. I'm a woman like any other. I can do housework, the cooking, and the...
- Louis Mahé: And the dishes, and the washing...
- Julie Roussel: Of course! You'll see. I'll surprise you.
- Louis Mahé: That's right. Surprise me.
- Julie Roussel: I wish you'd hurry up and lose your hair. I've always been attracted by men who are going bald.
- Louis Mahé: That's because you never met your father.
- Julie Roussel: You always have such complicated explanations.
- Louis Mahé: It's not complicated. It's simple. It's pure logic.
- Julie Roussel: Listen to this one. "Farmer, man of few words, seeks to wed Roman Catholic, even if physically handicapped. Will answer all." Ah, well.
- Louis Mahé: You shouldn't make fun of them. Obviously, I have my reasons for feeling this way, but I think that people who use these classified ads are idealists. In five lines they try to transform their lives. And on those five lines, they spend hours writing and rewriting. They try to put everything in a few words, their hopes and their dreams, their ideas about what life should be.
- Louis Mahé: Before I met you, I thought life was so simple. But now I realize it's not simple. You mixed everything up.