French Kiss (1995)
Kevin Kline: Luc Teyssier
Photos
Quotes
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Kate : Happy, smile. Sad, frown. Use the corresponding face with the corresponding emotion. But no. You want this mysterious...
Luc : Non. No no no. It is not me who wants it. I don't want it.
Kate : Well what do you want?
Luc : I want you... I want you...
Kate : You want me...
Luc : I want you... to... make Charlie suffer. To make him feel like even though you are right there in front of him, he can't have you.
[he realizes then that he is talking about himself]
-
Luc : [about Luc's brother, Antoine] One night, he got me very drunk. You must understand, I owed him a lot of money. But he knew what he was doing.
Kate : What was he doing?
Luc : I lost all of it. One hand of poker.
[starts to laugh]
Kate : You lost your birthright... in one hand of poker.
Luc : I'm an asshole, what can I tell you?
Kate : Uh-huh. So that's why he hates you and you hate him.
Luc : Oui... that and I slept with his wife.
-
Kate : Do you believe in love? The kind that lasts forever?
Luc : I loved my mother.
Kate : No, everybody loves their mother. Even people who hate their mothers love their mothers. The question is, one man meant for one woman. That is the question.
Luc : But it is not an interesting question. It is the question of a little girl who believes in fairy tales.
-
Kate : You know, all men are bastards.
Luc : Well, not all. I mean, some are just trying to help.
Kate : You know, I never thought I'd be the kind of woman to say this, but it's true. All men are bastards.
Luc : The guy who was talking to you, he was...
Kate : A bastard. A Eurotrash-in-Armani kind of bastard.
Luc : He was wearing a black suit? With a yellow shirt?
Kate : Yeah.
[Luc groans, then pulls Kate up from the sofa]
Kate : You know him?
Luc : Come on.
Kate : Of course you know him. All you bastards know each other.
[Luc pulls Kate toward the hotel exit]
Kate : [to the conierge] Bastard!
-
Luc : Why are you chasing after him after what he's done to you?
Kate : Because I love him! And I'm afraid that if he doesn't come back that I'll... it'll hurt so much that I'll just shrivel up and I'll never be able to love anyone ever again.
Luc : You say that now, but... after a time, you would forget. First, you would forget his chin, and then his nose, and after a while, you would struggle to remember the exact color of his eyes, and one day you wake up and, pfft, he's gone: his voice, his smell, his face. He will have left you. And then you can begin again.
-
Kate : Did you know that there are 452 official government cheeses in this country? Don't you think that's incredible? To come up with 452 ways of classifying what is basically a bacterial process?
Luc : You would prefer one cheese? One cheeseburger to put it on and one restaurant to eat it in?
Kate : I'm saying I *like* the cheese. God! What side of the train did you wake up on?
-
Luc : For me, bullshit is like breathing.
-
Luc : You know, I am feeling some very strange emotions right now. Guilt, remorse, my self-esteem is rock bottom. I am trying to think, what can I possibly do to say I'm sorry?
Kate : Shut up! You haven't spent sixty seconds with me when you weren't after something, so what is it this time? Buy, sell, or trade?
Luc : Oui, it is so true. I used you... a lot. You helped me to get my vine and I left you with nothing. So now, I ask myself what I can possibly do to make it up to you.
[sees the police waiting for him]
Luc : And so now, I am here for you.
[runs away]
-
Luc : [in French] I love the sea. So beautiful, so mysterious... so full of fish.
-
Luc : First, you must take some wine.
[Kate sips from her glass]
Luc : Can you describe it, the taste?
Kate : It's a nice, red wine.
Luc : I think you can do better.
Kate : A bold wine with a hint of sophistication and lacking in pretension.
[beat]
Kate : Actually, I was just talking about myself. I...
Luc : No, no, you are not wrong. Wine is like people. The vine takes all the influences in life all around it, it absorbs them, and it gets its personality. Here.
[uncorks a small bottle]
Luc : Smell.
Kate : Rosemary.
[another bottle]
Kate : Some kind of mushroom?
Luc : Very good.
[pointing to other bottles]
Luc : Currant, cassis, mint, lavender. They are all in the ground here, and in the air. Now, taste the wine again. Close your eyes.
Kate : [does so] Hmm... the currant, I can taste that right away. And, uh, from the brown bottle... lavender?
[Luc nods, smiling]
Kate : Incredible.
-
Luc : I like you. But I don't like the way you say with your face all scrunched up, "you're French, aren't you?" And then I don't like how you say, with your eyes all squinty, "all men are bastards."
-
Kate : Let me ask you something. If you know so much about men and women, how come there was no one waiting for you at the airport?
Luc : Oh, please! I'm finished with women.
Kate : Oh, so you're afraid of commitment.
Luc : I'm not afraid of anything.
Kate : You know what your problem is? You have no staying power.
Luc : What do you mean?
Kate : You can't stick it out.
Luc : [nervously] What are you talking about?
Kate : It's obvious.
Luc : It is?
Kate : You are afraid of commitment.
Luc : [relieved] Commitment! Oh, sorry. I thought you meant...
Kate : What? What did you think I meant?
Luc : Nothing.
Kate : Oh...
[crooks her finger]
Kate : *This* problem.
Luc : It's not a problem!
-
Kate : And we had plans together, okay? We had plans for a home and a family. I would remind him of that, too.
Luc : He was obviously very attached to them.
Kate : And if all else failed...
Luc : You would get down on your knees and beg?
Kate : It's possible.
Luc : Oh ho! Now I can see it: There is the goddess, standing next to Charlie in her negligee, and you are there on your knees, begging. Poor Charlie - tough decision!
-
Luc : [looking at a photo of Charlie] How did you meet?
Kate : At a party. I'd just come to Toronto on a teaching exchange. We started talking. I had this feeling about him, same for him. It wasn't exactly a thunderclap or a lightning bolt, it was more like a...
Luc : Light drizzle?
Kate : [rolls her eyes] You really, honestly never had that feeling about anybody in your whole entire life, honestly?
Luc : If I did, I would not admit it. His chin looks a little weak, if you ask me.
Kate : It doesn't, and I didn't, and why wouldn't you admit a feeling like that?
Luc : Why should I? Look where it has got you.
Kate : Maybe if you did, you wouldn't have that little problem we're not supposed to talk about.
Luc : It's not a problem, it's just a temporary...
-
Kate : [describing her first sexual encounter] I didn't rush, you were right. But I didn't hide from it, either. I wanted everything to be perfect. I was 18. Jeff the Jock, my basement, Valentine's Day, "Jeopardy!" on in the background. It's a game show on TV.
Luc : Oui, "Le Jeopardie". We have it.
Kate : Jeff said it would last longer with the show on to distract him. Got all the answers wrong except for sports. By Double Jeopardy!, he was done; by Final Jeopardy!, he was on his way home.
-
Luc : That's all? You have no strategy, no armor, no bullshit?
-
Luc : You were how old when you lost it?
Kate : It? What "it"?
Luc : You know, *it*. Your, uh, flower.
Kate : My flow... oh!
[indignant]
Kate : My flower is none of your business!
Luc : I ask you because some people, they rush towards that fateful moment, their bodies bursting to discover. Others, they guard it like some precious gift.
Kate : And you, I suppose, rushed.
Luc : Like a bull.
Kate : Yeah, I have a picture in my mind. It's very clear.
-
Luc : Okay, so I try to understand. He tells you he has met this women... no, no, this goddess. He breaks your heart, he...
Kate : Hurts me. Humbles me.
Luc : Humiliates you.
Kate : Humiliates me!
Luc : Okay, and then, so you come here to Paris so that he can do it again, but this time, right in your face.
-
[in French]
Jean-Paul's Girl : Are you really a thief?
Luc : A thief?
Jean-Paul's Girl : Papa says you saved his life.
Inspector Jean-Paul Cardon : Yes, it's true. Look, you see this scar?
[points to his neck]
Inspector Jean-Paul Cardon : Luc stopped it from going over here.
[points to the other side]
Inspector Jean-Paul Cardon : He's no thief, that's what I keep telling him.