Moulin Rouge! (2001)

Jim Broadbent: Harold Zidler

Photos 

Quotes 

• Zidler : The show must go on, Satine. We're creatures of the underworld. We can't afford to love.

• Zidler : I am the evil maharajah.

  Satine : Oh Harold, no one could play him like you could.

  Zidler : No one's going to.

• The Duke : I don't like this ending...

  Zidler : Don't like the ending, my dear Duke?

  The Duke : Why should the courtesan chose the penniless sitar player over the maharajah who is offering her a lifetime of security? That's real love. Once the sitar player has satisfied his lust he will leave her with nothing. I suggest that the courtesan chose the maharajah.

  Toulouse-Lautrec : But, but tell me, that ending does not uphold the Bohemian ideals of truth, beauty, freedom, and...

  The Duke : [shouts]  I don't care about your ridiculous dogma! Why shouldn't the courtesan chose the maharajah?

  Christian : [shouts]  Because she doesn't love you!... Him... Hi-him, she doesn't love... she doesn't love him.

  The Duke : Oh, I see... Monsieur Zidler, the play will be rewritten with the courtesan choosing the maharajah and without the lovers' secret song. It will be rehearsed in the morning, ready for the opening tomorrow night...

  Zidler : But, my dear Duke, that will be quite impossible.

  Satine : Harold, the Duke is being treated appallingly. These silly writers let their imaginations run away with themselves. Why don't you and I have a little supper, and then we can tell Monsieur Zidler how we would like the story to end.

• Zidler : Send Christian away.

  Satine : He will fight for me.

  Zidler : Unless he believes that you don't love him.

  Satine : What?

  Zidler : You're a great actress, Satine. Make him believe that you don't love him.

  Satine : No!

  Zidler : Use your talent to save him! Hurt him, Satine. Hurt him to save him. There is no other way. The show must go on. We are creatures of the underworld. We can't afford to love.

• Zidler : The Duke holds the deeds to the Moulin Rouge, he's spending a fortune on you, he's giving you a beautiful new dressing room, he wants to make you a star, and YOU'RE DALLYING WITH THE WRITER!

  Satine : Harold, that's ridic...

  Zidler : I SAW YOU TOGETHER.

  Satine : It's nothing. It's just an infatuation... it's nothing.

  Zidler : The infatuation will end. Go to the boy; tell him it's over, and the Duke is expecting you in the tower at eight.

• Zidler : A magnificent, opulent, tremendous, stupendous, gargantuan, bedazzlement, a sensual ravishment. It will be: Spectacular Spectacular.

• Zidler : You know it is. The show must go on. And now my bride it is time to raise your voice to the heavens and say your wedding vows.

• Zidler : She said you make her feel "like a virgin."

  The Duke : Virgin?

  Zidler : You know, touched for the very first time.

• Zidler : [singing]  If life's an awful bore, and living's just a chore that we do caus' death's not much fun. I just have the antidote, and though I mustn't gloat at the Moulin Rouge. You'll have fun... Scratch that little niggle, have a little wiggle, you know that you can... Because we can can can.

• Satine : What's his type? Wilting flower? Bright and bubbly? Or smoldering temptress?

  Zidler : I'd say... smoldering temptress.

• Zidler : You're dying, Satine.

  Satine : [long pause]  Another trick, Harold?

  Zidler : The doctor told us.

  Satine : Marie?

  Marie : [silence] 

  Satine : [singing to self]  I was a fool to believe, a fool to believe. It all ends today, yes it all ends today.

• Zidler : Outside things may be tragic, but in here we feel its magic.

• Zidler : She is mine.

  The Duke : She is mine.

• [singing] 

  Zidler : 'Cause we can cancan. Yes we can cancan.

• Satine : [singing]  Today's the day...

  Satine , Zidler : [singing]  When dreaming ends

• Zidler : Everything's going so well.

• Zidler : Remember, a real show, in a real theater, with a real audience. And you'll be...

  Satine : A real actress.

• Christian : How could I know... in those last fatal days... that a force darker than jealousy... and stronger than love; had began to take hold of Satine...

  Zidler : Where is she?

• Zidler : [after the Argentinian collapses asleep in mid-rehearsal]  Honestly amigo, this is impossible!

• Zidler : Send Christian away. Only you can save him.

• The Duke : Conversion of the Moulin Rouge into a theatre will cost a fantastic sum of money, Zidler. So, in return, I would require a contract that, um... binds Satine to me, exclusively.

  [Zidler raises his eyebrows] 

  The Duke : Naturally, I shall require some security. I shall require the deeds to the Moulin Rouge.

  Zidler : My dear Duke, I...

  The Duke : Please! Don't think that I'm naive, Zidler. I shall hold the deeds to the Moulin Rouge. And if there are any shenanigans...

  Zidler : I...

  The Duke : My manservant, Warner, will deal with it in the only language that you underworld showfolk understand. Satine will be mine. It's not that I'm a jealous man...

  [suddenly irate] 

  The Duke : I JUST DON'T... LIKE OTHER PEOPLE TOUCHING MY THINGS!

  [calms down] 

  Zidler : I... understand completely... Duke.

• Zidler : Outside it may be raining, but in here it's entertaining.

• Zidler : ...And you're dallying with the writer.

  Satine : Oh, Harold, don't be ridicul...

  Zidler : I saw you together.

  Satine : It's nothing. It's just an infatuation. It's... it's nothing.