La reine Christine (1933)
Greta Garbo: Christina
Photos
Quotes
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Christina : I have been memorizing this room. In the future, in my memory, I shall live a great deal in this room.
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Christina : Spoils. Glory. Flags and trumpets. What is behind these high sounding words ? Death and destruction. Triumphals of crippled men. Sweden victorious in a ravaged Europe. An island in a dead sea. I tell you, I want no more of it! I want for my people, security and happiness. I want to cultivate the arts of peace. The arts of life! I want peace and peace I will have!
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Christina : One can feel nostalgia for places one has never seen.
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Christina : Snow is like a wide sea. One could go out and be lost in it, and forget the world... and oneself.
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Christina : Great love...
Antonio : Don't you believe in it's possibility?
Christina : In it's possibility - yes. But not in its existence. A great love, perfect love, is an illusion. It is the golden fable of which we all dream. But in ordinary life it doesn't happen. In ordinary life one must be content with less.
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Christina : Any lie will find believers as long as you tell it with force enough.
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Christina : Must we live for the dead?
Oxenstierna : For the great dead, yes, your Majesty.
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Christina : [on the street protests about her private life] Evidently my people, who are said to love me, do not wish me to be happy.
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Christina : This war is expensive.
Magnus : The parliament clamors for more war.
Oxenstierna : They clamor for a Swedish marriage for your majesty. They clamor for an heir of Swedish blood!
Christina : In short, Chancellor, they clamor.
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Antonio : Why did you go out of your way to make me look ridiculous? All that idiotic talk of love and beauty. You made my heart beat. You made me dream like a fool and talk like one.
Christina : I thought you'd understand, when you saw me again, what had happened. That it had been so enchanting to be a woman - not a Queen. Just a woman in a man's arms!
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Christina : I have *imagined* happiness. But happiness you *cannot* imagine. Happiness you must feel! Joy, you must feel!
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Christina : I have quite a collection of royal portraits. My suitors usually come in oil. And I've kept them - because I love a good painting.
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Christina : [in disguise] I'll tell you the truth. Well, gentlemen, I have the truth as the Queen has had 12 lovers this past year. A proud dozen!
Crowd : Long live the Queen!
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Christina : This is how the Lord must have felt when he beheld the finished world with all His creatures breathing... living.
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Archbishop : This is not a normal war for treasure or conquest. It is for our faith and for our God!
Christina : God is being invoked in many lands, these days, your grace. What about the enemy's God?
Archbishop : When the enemy invokes God - that is blasphemy, your majesty!
Christina : I wish I had your confidence, Archbishop.
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Christina : There are other things to live for than wars! I've had enough of them. We have been fighting since I was in the cradle and many years before. It is enough. I shall ask the powers to meet for a speedy and honorable *peace*. There must be an end!
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Christina : [reading a book] What a clever fellow is this, Aage.
Aage : Who?
Christina : Molière.
Aage : What is he?
Christina : Oh, he writes plays. He makes fun of pretentious ladies.
[reading]
Christina : "As for me, Uncle, all I can say is that I think marriage is an all together shocking thing. How is it possible to endure the idea of sleeping with a man in the room!"
Aage : Is that good, your Majesty?
Christina : Not bad, Aage, Not bad.
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Christina : Ebba, come in!
Aage : Now, don't dally, your majesty. You have a busy day.
Christina : [Ebba kneels and kisses Christina's hand] Good morning, Ebba.
[Ebba rises and Christina kisses Ebba on the lips]
Christina : What are you doing up so early?
Ebba : I couldn't sleep.
Christina : That means you're either happy or unhappy. Which is it?
Ebba : Happy!
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Ebba : Lets go for a sleigh ride!
Christina : I can't now.
Ebba : Oh, why not?
Christina : Ambassadors. Treaties. Councils.
Ebba : How boring!
Christina : But, we go afterwards, Ebba.
Ebba : Oh, you always say that. But, at the end of the day, you're never free to go anywhere. You're surrounded by musty old papers and musty old men and I can't get near you.
Christina : Today, I'll dispose of them by sundown. I promise you! And we'll go away, for two or three days in the country. Wouldn't you like that?
Ebba : Oh, I'd love it!
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French Ambassador : Madame, you are my despair.
Christina : Why?
French Ambassador : Because, you rebuff me, always, with such charm. That at the end of all our interviews, I find myself always in the veritable glow - of disappointment.
Christina : And I - of anticipation.
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University Representative : Your majesty, our University Uppsala is the oldest in Sweden. One of the oldest in Europe. To admit professors from Spain and Italy might corrupt the purity of of our teaching.
Christina : The danger is not so much of corruption, my lord, as of staleness. We need new wine in the old bottles.
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Oxenstierna : The sword has made Sweden great, your majesty!
Christina : Yes, but do we not exult it too much, Chancellor?
Oxenstierna : You cannot remake the world, your majesty.
Christina : Why not? Look, Chancellor, the philosophers remake it. The artists remake it. The scientists remake it. Now, why not we - we the power? The people follow blindly, the generals lead them to destruction. Will they not follow us? We'll lead them beyond themselves - where there is grace and beauty and gaiety and freedom!
Oxenstierna : Europe is an armed camp, your majesty. Not a Utopia peopled with shepherds.
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Christina : Snow again. Eternal snow.
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Christina : It is you I cannot forgive, Ebba! You needn't fear my domination any longer.
Ebba : Oh, your Majesty, please!
Christina : You pretended to be interested in me and my problems. Your sympathy. Your concern. All pretends! Underneath, which, you resented me.
Ebba : Oh, you do not understand. Your majesty!
Christina : Your difficulty is, Ebba, that I do.
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Christina : Evidently, you Spaniards make too much fuss about a simple elemental thing like love. We Swedes are more direct.
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Christina : I have grown up in a great man's shadow. All my life I've been a symbol. A symbol as eternal, changeless. An abstraction. A human being is mortal and changeable - with desires and impulses, hopes and despairs. I'm tired of being a symbol, Chancellor. I long to be a human being. This longing I cannot suppress.
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Christina : One must live for one's self. After all, Chancellor, one's own life is all one has.
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Christina : And, so, let me remember you - with love and loyalty - till memory is no more. God bless you. Farewell.
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Christina : The wind is with us.
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Christina : You are petulant, Magnus, and I have no time to soothe you... the Parliament is waiting.
