Rent (2005)

Anthony Rapp: Mark Cohen

Photos 

Quotes 

• [first lines] 

  Mark , Angel , Maureen , Roger , Collins , Benjamin Coffin III , Mimi : Five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes. Five hundred twenty-five thousand moments so dear. Five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes. How do you measure, measure a year? In daylights, in sunsets, in midnights, in cups of coffee. In inches, in miles, in laughter, in strife. In five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes - how do you measure a year in the life? How about love? How about love? How about love? Measure in love... seasons of love.

• [about his parents message on the answering machine] 

  Mark : There are times when we're dirt broke, hungry, and freezing, and I ask myself, why the hell am I still living here?

  [beat] 

  Mark : And then they call. And I remember.

• Roger Davis , Mark : [On answering machine]  Speeeeeeeeeeeak.

  [Beep] 

• Mark : Where'd you learn to tango?

  Joanne : With the French Ambassador's daughter in her dorm room at Miss Porter's. And you?

  Mark : With Nanette Himmelfarb, the Rabbi's daughter, at the Scarsdale Jewish Community Center.

• Collins : In honor of the death of Bohemia, an improtu salon will commence immediately following dinner. Maureen Johnson, back from her spectacular one-night engagement at the eleventh street lot, will sing Native American tribal chants backwards through her vocorder, while accompanying herself on the electric chello, which she ain't never studied.

  Roger : And Mark Cohen will preview his new documentary about his inability to hold an erection on high holy days.

  Mark : Mimi Marquez, clad only in bubble wrap, will perform her famous lawn chair-handcuff dance to the sound of iced tea being stirred. And Roger will attempt to write a bittersweet, evocative song.

  Roger : [picks up a guitar and plays] 

  Mark : That doesn't remind us of Musetta's Waltz.

  Collins : Angel Dumont Schunard will model the latest fall fashions from Paris while accomanying herself on the 10 gallon plastic pickle tub.

  Angel : And Collins will recount his exploits as an anarchist, including the tale of his successful reprogramming of the MIT virtural reality equipment to self-destruct as it broadcast the words:

  All : Actual reality! Act up! Fight AIDS!

• Mark : [sung]  The opposite of war isn't peace!

  Joanne : What is?

  Mark : It's creation!

• Roger : How do you start a fire when there's nothing to burn, and it feels like something's stuck in your flue?

  Mark : How can you generate heat when you can't feel your feet...

  Roger , Mark : And they're turning blue?

  Mark : [setting one of his old scripts alight]  You light up a mean blaze...

  Roger : [adding one of his old posters]  With posters...

  Mark : And screenplays!

  Roger , Mark : How we gonna pay, how we gonna pay, how we gonna pay... last year's rent!

• [sung] 

  Mark : To days of inspiration, playing hookey, making something out of nothing, the need to express, to communicate. To going against the grain, going insane, going mad. To loving tension, no pension, to more than one dimension, to starving for attention, hating convention, hating pretension, not to mention, of course, hating dear old Mom and Dad. To riding your bike midday past the three-piece suits. To fruits, to no absolutes, to "Absolut." To choice, to the "Village Voice," to any passing fad. To being an "Us" for once, instead of a "Them." La vie BohËme.

• Mark : [after opening song]  December 24th, 1989, 9 PM, Eastern Standard Time. From here on in, I shoot without a script. See if anything comes of it, instead of my old shit.

• Mark : [sings]  There is no future. There is no past.

  Roger : [sings]  Thank God this moment's not the last.

  Roger , Mimi : [sings]  There's only us... there's only this. Forget regret, or life is yours to miss.

• Roger : Zoom in on my empty wallet.

  Mark : Touché.

• Mark , Angel , Mimi : Bisexuals, trisexuals, homo sapiens, carcinogens, hallucinogens, men, Pee Wee Herman! German wine, turpentine, Gertrude Stein, Antoniotti, Bertolucci, Kurosawa, Carmina Burana!

• Mark : ...and then there was the time he walked up to this group of tourists and they were petrified because A they were obviously lost, and B had probably never spoken to a drag queen before in their lives... and he... she just offered to escort them out of Alphabet City... and then she let them take a picture with her and then she said she'd help 'em find the Circle Line...

• Collins , Mark , Mimi , Angel : [Sung]  I can't control

  Roger Davis : [Sung]  Control your temper

  Collins , Mark , Mimi , Angel : [Sung]  My destiny

  Roger Davis : [Sung]  She doesn't see

  Collins , Mark , Mimi , Angel : [Sung]  I trust my soul

  Roger Davis : [Sung]  Who says that there's a soul

  Collins , Mark , Mimi , Angel : [Sung]  My only goal, is just to be

  Roger Davis : Just let me be!

  Collins , Mark , Mimi , Angel : [Sung in time with Roger]  There's only now, there's only here. Give into love, or live in fear. No other path, no other way. No day but today.

  Roger Davis : [Sung]  Who do you think you are? Barging in on me and my guitar. Little girl hey, the door is that way.

  Mimi : [Sung]  No day but today.

  Roger Davis : [Sung]  The fire's dead anyway.

  Collins , Mark , Mimi , Angel : [Sung]  No day but today.

  Roger Davis : [Sung]  Take your powder, take your candle.

  Collins , Mark , Mimi , Angel : [Sung]  No day but today.

  Roger Davis : [Sung]  Take your brown eyes, your pretty smile, your silouette.

  Collins , Mark , Mimi , Angel : [Sung]  No day but today.

  Roger Davis : [Sung]  Another time, another place, another round, a warm embrace.

  Collins , Mark , Mimi , Angel : [Sung]  No day but today.

  Roger Davis : [Sung]  Another dance another way, another chance, another day

  Collins , Mark , Mimi , Angel : [Sung]  No day but today.

• All : [sung]  No other road / No other way / No day but today

  Mimi , Joanne , Maureen : [sung]  I can't control / My destiny

  Mark , Roger , Collins , Angel , Benjamin Coffin III : [sung]  Will I lose my dignity / Will someone care

  Mimi , Joanne , Maureen : [sung]  I trust my soul / My only goal / Is just to be

  Mark , Roger , Collins , Angel , Benjamin Coffin III : [sung]  Will I wake tomorrow / From this nightmare

  Mimi , Joanne , Maureen : [sung]  Without you / The hand gropes

  Mark , Roger , Collins , Angel , Benjamin Coffin III : [sung]  There's only now / There's only here

  Mimi , Joanne , Maureen : [sung]  The ear hears / The pulse beats

  Mark , Roger , Collins , Angel , Benjamin Coffin III : [sung]  Give in to love / Or live in fear

  Mimi , Joanne , Maureen : [sung]  Life goes on / But I'm gone

  Mark , Roger , Collins , Angel , Benjamin Coffin III : [sung]  No other path / No other way

  Mimi , Joanne , Maureen : [sung]  'Cause I die / Without you / I die without you

  Mark , Roger , Collins , Angel , Benjamin Coffin III : [sung]  No day but today / No day but today

  Mimi , Joanne , Maureen : [sung]  I die without you / I die without you

  Mark , Roger , Collins , Angel , Benjamin Coffin III : [sung]  No day but today / No day but today

  Mimi , Joanne , Maureen : [sung]  I die without you / I die without you

  Mark , Roger , Collins , Angel , Benjamin Coffin III : [sung]  No day but today / No day but today

  All : [sung]  NO DAY BUT TODAY!

• Angel : Today for you, tomorrow for me!

  Tom : And you should hear her beat.

  Mark : You earned this on the street?

  Angel : It was my lucky day today on Avenue A when the lady in the limousine drove my way - she said, "Darling, be a dear - haven't slept in a year! I need your help to make my neighbor's yappy dog disappear! This akita - Evita - just won't shut up! I believe if you play nonstop that pup will breathe its very last high-strung breath. I'm certain that cur will bark itself to death!"

• Mimi , Angel : [sung]  To hand crafted beers made in local breweries, to yoga, to yogurt, to rice and beans and cheese. To leather, to dildoes, to curry vindaloo. To huevos rancheros and Maya Angelou.

  Collins , Maureen : [sung]  Emotion, devotion to causing a commotion. Creation, vacation...

  Mark : [sung]  Mucho masturbation.

• Mark : [throwing music posters into the fire]  The music ignites the night with passionate fire!

  Roger Davis : [adding Mark's screenplays to the blaze]  The narration crackles and pops with incendiary wit!

• Life Cafe Manager : [Mark, Maureen, Joanne, Mimi, Angel, and Collins walk into the Life Cafe]  Oh, no. Please, no. No. Not tonight. Please leave.

  Mark : What are you talking about? Why?

  Life Cafe Manager : Because you sit here all night and you never order anything.

  Mark : That's a lie. Just last week I had a tea.

  Life Cafe Manager : You couldn't pay.

  Mark : Oh, yeah.

  Angel : Tonight we can.

  [Holding up money] 

  Angel : Ka-pow.

• Joanne : [about Maureen]  She cheated...

  Mark : She cheated.

  Joanne : Maureen cheated...

  Mark : Fucking cheated.

  Joanne : I'm defeated, I should give up right now.

  Mark : Gotta look on the bright side with all of your might...

  Joanne : I'd fall for her still, anyhow.

  Joanne , Mark : When you're dancing her dance you don't stand a chance. Her grip on romance makes you fall.

  Mark : So you think, "Might as well - "

  Joanne : Dance a tango to Hell.

  Joanne , Mark : At least I'll have tangoed at all.

• Mark : How do you document real life when real life's getting more like fiction each day? Headlines, breadlines blow my mind, and now this deadline - eviction or pay... rent!

  Roger : How do you write a song when the chords sound wrong, though they once sounded right and rare? When the notes are sour, where is the power you once had to ignite the air?

  Mark : We're hungry and frozen...

  Roger : Some life that we've chosen!

  Mark , Roger : How we gonna pay, how we gonna pay, how we gonna pay... last year's rent!

• Collins , Mark , Roger , Angel , Ali , Paul , Steve , Pam : [sung]  Will I lose my dignity? Will someone care? Will I wake tomorrow, from this nightmare?

• Mark : [sung]  We're dying in America at the end of the millennium. We're dying in America to come into our own. And when you're dying in America, at the end of the millennium, you're not alone.

• Mark : Angel... I hear you, I hear it, I see it-I see it, my film!

  Roger : [staggered with Mark]  Mimi... I see you, I see it, I hear it-I hear it, my song!

  Mark : Alexi, Mark. Call me a hypocrite, I need to finish my own film!

  Roger : [staggered with Mark]  One song glory... Mimi, your eyes!

  Mark : I quit!

  Mark , Roger : Dying in America!

• Collins , Mark , Maureen , Mimi , Joanne , Angel , Roger Davis : To people living with, living with, living with... not dying from disease. Let he among us without sin be the first to condem La Vie Boheme.

• Mark : How do you leave the past behind when it keeps finding ways to get to your heart? It reaches way down deep and tears you inside out till you're torn apart - rent!

  Mark , Tenants , Roger : How can you connect in an age where strangers, landlords, lovers, your own blood cells betray? What binds the fabric together when the raging, shifting winds of change keep ripping away?

  Benjamin Coffin III : Draw a line in the sand and then make your stand...

  Roger : Use your camera to spar!

  Mark : Use your guitar!

  Mark , Tenants , Roger : When they act tough, you call their bluff. We're not gonna pay... we're not gonna pay... We're not gonna pay... last year's rent! This year's rent! Next year's rent! Rent, rent, rent, re-ent, rent! We're not gonna pay rent! Cause everything is rent!

• Benjamin Coffin III : [about Maureen]  Still dating her?

  Mark : Last month I was dumped.

  Benjamin Coffin III : She's got a new man?

  Mark : Well, no.

  Benjamin Coffin III : What's his name?

  Mark , Roger : Joanne.

• Mark : [sung]  How do you document real life when real life's getting more like fiction each day?

• Maureen : Look, gimme that, I'm sick and tired of you always carrying that around

  [takes camera] 

  Mark : Maureen, no! Your gonna break it!

  Maureen : [while filming Mark and slightly running from him]  Hey Mark! Happy New Years, Mark!

  Mark : No! This is NOT my barmitzvah give it back to me!

• Mark : Dearly beloved, we gather here to say our goodbyes. Here she lies, no one knew her worth. The late, great daughter of Mother-Earth. On these nights, when we celebrate the birth, in that little town of Bethlehem, we raise our glass, you bet your ass to La Vie - - Boheme.

• Mark : Has she ever pouted her lips and called you Pookie?

  Joanne : Never.

  Mark : Have you ever doubted a kiss or two?

  Joanne : This is spooky.

• Mark : [sung]  Will I lose my dignity, will someone care? Will I wake tomorrow from this nightmare?

• Mark : [yelling out window]  Hey Collins! Don't get your ass kicked this time!

• Collins , Mark , Maureen , Roger , Mimi , Joanne : No day but today!

• Mark , Mimi : Why Dorothy and Toto went over the rainbow to blow off Auntie Em

  All : La vie Boheme!

• Roger : We got power.

  Mark : Oh. Merry Christmas.

• All : To faggots, lezzies, dykes, cross-dressers too!

  Maureen : To ME!

  Mark : To ME!

  All : To you, and you, and you, you, and you! To people living with, living with, living with- not dying from disease!

• Joanne : [sung]  This is weird.

  Mark : [sung]  It's weird.

  Joanne : [sung]  Very weird

  Mark : [sung]  Fucking weird.

  Joanne : [sung]  I'm so mad that I don't know what to do. Fighting with microphones, freezing down to my bones, and to top it all off, I'm with you!

  Mark : [sung]  Feel like going insane? Got a fire in your brain, and you're thinking of drinking gasoline?

  Joanne : [sung]  As a matter of fact...

  Mark : [sung]  Honey, I know this act: It's called the Tango: Maureen.

• Maureen : [in a very slinky rubber cat suit on New Year's Eve - talking to Mark's camera]  Hii-yah! Whatchu want, huh?

  Mark : [Filming her]  You can take the girl outta Hicksville, but you can't take the Hicksville outta the girl.

• Collins : Ooh, Maureen dumped you?

  Mark : Yes, she dumped me. For a lawyer named Joanne.

  [choked laughter] 

• Joanne , Collins , Mark , Angel , Mimi , Maureen , Roger , Benjamin Coffin III : All Its time now to sing out, though the story never ends. Lets celebrate remember the year of the life of friends. Remember the love.

  Joanne : You got to, you got to remember the love.

  Collins , Mark , Angel , Mimi , Maureen , Roger , Benjamin Coffin III : Remember the love.

  Joanne : You know that love us a gift from up above.

  Collins , Mark , Angel , Mimi , Maureen , Roger , Benjamin Coffin III : Remember the love.

  Joanne : Share love, give love, spread love.

• Joanne : [sung]  Did you swoon when she walked through the door?

  Mark : [sung]  Every time, so be... cautious.

  Joanne : [sung]  Did she moon over other boys?

  Mark : [sung]  More than moon.

  Joanne : [sung]  I'm getting nauseuous.

• Mark : [as they Tango]  It's hard to do this backwards.

  Joanne : You should try it in heels.

• Mark : [teasing her]  Pookie!

  Joanne : [looks at him, annoyed]  Shut up!

• Mark , Roger : [answering machine]  Speak.

• Angel : New York City.

  Mark : Uh-huh.

  Angel : Center of the universe.

  Collins : Sang it, girl!

  Angel : Times are shitty, but I'm pretty sure they can't get worse.

  Roger : I hear that.

  Angel : It's a comfort to know, when you're singing the hit-the-road blues...

  [sung] 

  Angel : That anywhere else you could possibly go after New York would be

  [whispered] 

  Angel : a pleasure cruise!

  Collins : Now you're talkin'!

• Benjamin Coffin III : Hey. Bum. Get your ass off the Range Rover.

  Mark : Hey, Benny, that attitude toward the homeless is exactly what Maureen is protesting.

  Benjamin Coffin III : Maureen is protesting losing her performance space. Not my attitude.

• Mark , Roger : I don't own emotion, I rent.

• Mark : And who are you two supposed to be?

  Collins : Bond, James Bond.

  Angel : And Pussy Galore... in person.

• Joanne : Didn't give an inch, when I gave a mile!

  Mark : Come on!

  Mimi : I gave a mile!

  Roger : Gave a mile to who?

• Mark : This is not my bar mitzvah!

• Mark : Actually... I feel great now.

  Joanne : I feel lousy.

• Mark : I just sold my soul.

  Joanne : Yeah, for $3000 a segment!

• Joanne : [sung]  She cheated!

  Mark : [sung]  She cheated!

  Joanne : [sung]  Maureen cheated!

  Mark : [sung]  Fucking cheated!

• Mark : [sung]  To love attention, no pension, to more than one dimension, to starving for attention hating convention hating pretension, not to mention of course, hating dear old Mom and Dad.

• Mark : We don't need your charity.

  [hands Ben a cheque] 

  Mark : It should cover us a little while.

  Benjamin Coffin III : Where'd you get this?

  Mark : It's my first advance.

  Benjamin Coffin III : Okay, congratulations.

• Mark : Hey look, all our shit's back.

• Mark : Pookie

• Mark : That's a lie; just last week I had a tea.

  Life Cafe Waiter : You couldn't pay.

  Mark : Oh yeah...

  Angel : Well tonight, we can. Kapow!

• Mark : Come on guys, chill!