Last Tango in Paris (1972)

Maria Schneider: Jeanne

Photos 

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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.

• 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?

• [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.

• Jeanne : [in French; subtitled]  Olympia is the personification of domestic virtue: faithful, economic and racist.

• 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?

• Jeanne : Now, let's - let's just look at each other.

  Jeanne : It's beautiful without knowing anything.

• 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.

• [last lines] 

  Jeanne : [about Paul, in French]  I don't know his name...

• Tom - un cinéaste, le fiancé de Jeanne : [in French; subtitled]  How did you find it?

  Jeanne : [in French]  By chance.

  Tom - un cinéaste, le fiancé de Jeanne : [in French]  We'll change everything.

  Jeanne : [in French]  Everything! We'll turn chance into destiny.

• Jeanne : Love is not pop.

• Jeanne : Growing old is a crime.

• [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.

• Jeanne : Behind the house, there were two trees. A plane tree and a chestnut. I sat under the plane tree and he sat under the chestnut. And one, two, three - we each began to masturbate. The first who came - won!

• Jeanne : Have you been in college?

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

• Jeanne : You must find someone else.

  Tom - un cinéaste, le fiancé de Jeanne : For what?

  Jeanne : For your film.

  Tom - un cinéaste, le fiancé de Jeanne : Why?

  Jeanne : Because you're taking advantage of me. Because you make me do things I've never done. Because you're taking up my time. You make me do whatever you want. The film is over! I'm tired of being raped!

• Jeanne : This place is so pitiful.

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

• Jeanne : What's going on? Do you know them?

  Tom - un cinéaste, le fiancé de Jeanne : It's a long story. In short, "Portrait of a Girl." It's been accepted for television! And the girl is you. It's you!

• 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 : Tonight we improvise. You follow.

• 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 : 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.

• Jeanne : A secret about love, but which isn't love. What is it?

• Jeanne : Is it dirty or is it about love?

• Tom - un cinéaste, le fiancé de Jeanne : You're wonderful.

  Jeanne : It's the dress that makes the bride.

  Tom - un cinéaste, le fiancé de Jeanne : You're better than Rita Hayworth. Better than Joan Crawford. Better than Kim Novak! Better than Lauren Bacall! Better than Ava Gardner when she was Mickey Rooney's lover!

• Jeanne : It makes me crazy! That you're so damned sure that I'm coming back here. Do you really think that an American sitting on the floor in an empty flat eating cheese and drinking water is interesting?

• 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 : Do you like our flat? It's very light. There's a tiny room, too. It's too small for a double bed. It would be fine for a child. Fidel. That's a nice name for a boy. Fidel, as in Castro.

• 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?

• 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!

• Tom - un cinéaste, le fiancé de Jeanne : We can't play like children anymore, Jeanne. We're adults.

  Jeanne : Adults? That's awful!

  Tom - un cinéaste, le fiancé de Jeanne : Yes. It's awful.

  Jeanne : What do adults do?

  Tom - un cinéaste, le fiancé de Jeanne : I don't know. We'll have to invent the gestures and the words.