La Notte (1961)

Marcello Mastroianni: Giovanni Pontano

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Quotes 

• Giovanni : I no longer have inspirations, only recollections.

• Giovanni : Who wrote that?

  Lidia : You did.

• Mr. Gherardini : So as I was saying, my friend, it's absurd to speak of wealth now. No one's wealthy anymore. But should anyone still think of becoming rich, my only advice would be, "Don't worry about the money." I've always looked upon my businesses as works of art. Whatever profit I earned was of practically no concern to me. The important thing is to create something solid; something to be remembered.

  Signora Gherardini : But darling, not everyone can create something lasting.

  Mr. Gherardini : Please, do you mind? What sustains a writer - you for instance - is certainly not the idea of profit but a sense of necessity. You write because you have to...

  Signora Gherardini : Still, one has to live.

  Mr. Gherardini : I never worried about that. Life is what we make of it through our own efforts. What would you do if you couldn't write?

  Lidia : A few years ago he'd have killed himself. Now I don't know. Tell us.

  Giovanni : I don't consider myself that important. There are other solutions. A writer of today constantly wonders if writing isn't some sort of irrepressible but outdated instinct. This lonely craft of painstakingly joining one word to another that absolutely can't be mechanized.

  Mr. Gherardini : Are you sure of that?

  Giovanni : No. But you industrialists have the advantage of constructing your "stories" using real people, real houses, real cities. The rhythm of life today is in your hands. Perhaps even the future.

  Lidia : My husband's having a particularly bad day.

  Giovanni : I guess so.

  Mr. Gherardini : Are you one of the many worrying about the future? I'm building my own future, though the present keeps me plenty busy. Besides, the future will probably never come.

  Signora Gherardini : The future will be awful, don't you think?

• Giovanni : Life would be tolerable if not for its pleasures.

  Lidia : Is that your line?

  Giovanni : No, I no longer have ideas. Only memories.

• Valentina Gherardini : Promise not to make fun of me?

  Giovanni : I promise.

  Valentina Gherardini : [turns on tape recorder]  From the living room today you could hear dialogue from a film on television: 'If I were you, I wouldn't do that, Jim.' After that, the howling of a dog rising in a perfect arc and trailing off in great sadness. Then I thought I heard a plane, but there was silence - and I was glad. A garden's silence is made of sounds. Press your ear to a tree and listen - after a while you'll hear a sound. Perhaps it comes from within us, I'd rather think it's the tree. Within that silence were strange noises that disturbed the soundscape around me. I closed the window, but the noises persisted. I thought I'd go crazy. I don't want to hear useless sounds. I want to pick them out throughout the day. Same with voices and words. So many words I'd rather not hear, but you can't escape them. You must resign yourself to them like the waves when you float on your back in the ocean."

• Giovanni : Do you enjoy acting the cynic?

  Valentina Gherardini : No.

• Giovanni : I've been selfish. It's strange to realize only now that what we give to others comes back to us.

• Miss Resy : Tell me something.

  Giovanni : I'll tell you a bedtime story later.

  Miss Resy : Pretend I'm in bed.

  Giovanni : No, later, I"ll tell you about a hermit, an intellectual, of course. He drank only dew, until he came to the city where he tasted wine and became an alcoholic. How's that?

  Miss Resy : I'd like a true story about you.

  Giovanni : Worse has happened to me.

  Miss Resy : I wish I could understand writers.

• Giovanni : You bought it? I wanted to bring you a copy.

  Tommaso Garani : I didn't just buy it. I'm reading it too. I've only read 50 pages so far. I hope they'll let me finish it. I like certain parts very much, like the whole thing about the bath. It's your best work ever, if the morphine hasn't warped my judgment. Morphine makes everything seem important.

  Giovanni : Then it's definitely the morphine.

• Giovanni : You want to understand only writers?

  Miss Resy : No, others, too.

  Giovanni : I think you'll have your hands full.

• Giovanni : I know what to write, but how? It's a crisis affecting many writers today. But in my case, it's something secret inside affecting my whole life.

  Valentina Gherardini : You're just weak, like me. Why are you telling me this? I may not understand. After all, I like golf, tennis, cars, parties.

  Giovanni : Nothing else? Isn't there anything else?

  Valentina Gherardini : Yes. Everything.

• Giovanni : I never gave you anything. I was completely unaware. I go on wasting my life, like a fool, taking without giving or giving too little.

• Miss Resy : I'm your greatest admirer in Italy. You must allow me that privilege.

  Giovanni : Why not?

  Miss Resy : I'd like a novel about a woman who loves a man but the man doesn't love her. But, he does admire her intelligence, her character. They live together. But, how could such a story end?

  Giovanni : In so many ways.

  Miss Resy : She'd have to be a strong woman, who can sacrifice herself. She sacrifices herself for another woman's happiness.

  Giovanni : Why does she sacrifice herself?

  Miss Resy : I don't know. It makes me want to cry.

• Valentina Gherardini : That was not ruthless enough.

  Giovanni : Show me what you can do.

• Giovanni : This isn't a racetrack and don't take me for a horse.

  Valentina Gherardini : Is there a friskier horse?

• Giovanni : Valentina, I'm rather disappointed.

  Valentina Gherardini : In me? How can I put that right? Shall we read a few pages together?

  Giovanni : That would be one way of getting closer.

  Valentina Gherardini : Are you craving for affection?

  Giovanni : Aren't you?

• Giovanni : Don't forget.

  Valentina Gherardini : My memory seems to get worse every day.

• Giovanni : Sentiment is back in style even in novels these days.

  Valentina Gherardini : I see, you're gathering material tonight.

  Giovanni : No, I don't think I'll ever be able to write again.

• Valentina Gherardini : I don't have some overpowering vocation. Besides, Mother says scribbling indoors all day ruins the complexion.

  Giovanni : It's a sin to waste such intelligence.

  Valentina Gherardini : I'm not intelligent. I have a sharp eye. That's different. Observe things is enough. I needn't write about them. Last year I went to the United States to see Julia.

  Giovanni : Who's Julia?

  Valentina Gherardini : A hurricane.