Nicolas et Alexandra (1971)

Michael Jayston: Nicholas

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Quotes 

• Tsar Nicholas II : Taking someone's life, no man should have that power.

  Yurovsky : You had it.

  Tsar Nicholas II : Yes. And I have learned that a strong man needs no power, and a weak man is destroyed by it. He's like a child. You don't shoot children, do you? In your new world, are there penalties for innocence?

  Yurovsky : Sometimes. It takes a wise judge to know who is innocent and who is guilty. I wish I knew.

• Tsar Nicholas II : Mama's off to England in a month or so. She says the spring was late this year but very beautiful. Lord, but it's good to be alive! The world is like a field in summer, bursting with good things. One day, when all the wars are over, someone young will lead us to the harvest. As long as there are children, anything is possible.

• Tsarevich Alexei : Why did you abdicate for me? Why? You didn't even ask.

  Tsar Nicholas II : I didn't want you to pay for my mistakes.

  Tsarevich Alexei : Am I not paying for them now? Aren't all of us? I should have had a chance. The right to live my own life, make my own decisions. I could have tried to help Russia, help Mother and my sisters, and perhaps even you. I could have been a Romanov. A czar.

  Tsar Nicholas II : It all went wrong. I hardly know why or how.

  Tsarevich Alexei : Instead, I just bleed. It's my fate. I bleed.

• Tsar Nicholas II : What are our chances?

  Yakovlev : Of what?

  Tsar Nicholas II : Of living til Christmas?

  Yakovlev : I haven't thought about it.

  Tsar Nicholas II : You puzzle me. You'd be happy to see us dead, and yet you help us get away.

  Yakovlev : I haven't your taste for murder, Bloody Nicholas. I've never had a chance to get used to it. How many men have you killed? Have you the least idea? God knows how many peasants died. Nobody counted children. You only know the number of soldiers because somebody counted them for you. Seven million. Six quarts a man times seven million. It's an ocean. Have you ever seen a battle? I'm wrong. You're not Bloody Nicholas. You're a man of no imagination.

• Queen Mother Maria Fedorova : I wish your father were alive.

  Tsar Nicholas II : Don't throw him at me!

  Queen Mother Maria Fedorova : He knew how to be a czar. He'd have burned Vienna down, stomped on the Germans, and shot the strikers. Anything to give Russia peace. And he'd certainly have known how to deal with Rasputin.

• Tsar Nicholas II : I want a good life for my people.

  Count Witte : On your terms.

  Tsar Nicholas II : I know what will make them happy. They're children, and they need a czar. They need tradition, not this. They're the victims of agitators. A Duma would make them bewildered and discontented. And don't tell me about London and Berlin. God save us from the mess they're in.

  Count Witte : I see. So, they talk, pray, march, plead, petition, and what do they get? Cossacks, prison, flogging, police spies! And now, after today, they will be shot! Is this God's will? Are these His methods? So, make war on your own people. How long do you think they're going to stand and let you shoot them? You ask me who's responsible! You ask!

• Nikolasha : Here is some wonderful news. A telegram from the Kaiser. Just what we wanted. Offering to mediate between us and Austria.

  Tsar Nicholas II : I knew I could count on Willy. You see? He signed it, "Your very sincere and devoted friend and cousin, Willy."

  Count Witte : With due respect to your cousin, sire, the Kaiser is a deceitful megalomaniac. If he is offering to help, then it is time to pray.

• Tsarevich Alexei : I've never known a heart without some murder in it. I made these men. They are our Russians. I am responsible for what they are. I let them starve. I put them in prisons, and I shot them. If there's hatred in them now, I put it there. But they are filled with love. And with mercy, too. We must remember that.

  Tsar Nicholas II : They are all murderers. I'd like to kill them all.

• Tsarina Alexandra : May I say something intimate?

  Tsar Nicholas II : In public?

  Tsarina Alexandra : I'll whisper it.

  Tsar Nicholas II : Well, if you must.

  Tsarina Alexandra : Nicky, I adore you.

• [imprisoned in Ekaterinburg] 

  Tsar Nicholas II : I suddenly thought of the yacht this morning. Do you remember how the band used to play all the time?

  Tsarina Alexandra : And out of tune. Do you think they drank?

  Tsar Nicholas II : How did that waltz go? Hmm-Hmm-Hmmmm Hmm-*Hmm*-Hmm-Humm.

  Tsarina Alexandra : You're no better than the band.

  Tsar Nicholas II : [Nicholas gets off the bed and places a chair against the door and returns]  You're beautiful hands.

  Tsarina Alexandra : The girls?

  Tsar Nicholas II : They won't come in. We're alone.

  [he lies down with her] 

  Tsar Nicholas II : I still want you so much. Nothing can ever change that, Sunny. I do love you.

  [kiss] 

• Tsar Nicholas II : Tell me, Dr. Federov, if my son, as the future czar, would remain behind to be educated in Russia while I and my family went abroad, how long would he be likely to live?

  Dr. Fedorov : Deprived of your love and care and what I refer to as "customary surroundings," it's hard to say. It's a matter of luck and chance, Your Majesty. There are no real statistics. One would hope that he could live a normal span of life, but, well, twenty would be a good age.

• Tsarina Alexandra : You're too gentle. You should slam your fist down, as your father always did.

  Tsar Nicholas II : It's no use.

  Tsarina Alexandra : Frowning helps.

• Tsarina Alexandra : You enjoy yourself at parties. I get headaches. If you sat there knowing everyone disliked you, feeling like a foreigner...

  Tsar Nicholas II : No one dislikes you.

  Tsarina Alexandra : Yes, they do. You never see unpleasant things, you drift away. I even wonder if you hear me half the time.

  Tsar Nicholas II : Just now, I find you all too audible.

  Tsarina Alexandra : Nicky, guess what?

  Tsar Nicholas II : You've got your headache.

• Tsarina Alexandra : I still say Alexei needs a nurse.

  Tsar Nicholas II : He needs the company of men.

  Tsarina Alexandra : Does he?

  Tsar Nicholas II : He's with you all day long. You hardly ever come to meals. I never seem to see you anymore.

  Tsarina Alexandra : My place is where I'm needed most.

  Tsar Nicholas II : It must be hard to have so many people need you. I'll be patient. If I wait, my turn will come.

  Tsarina Alexandra : Oh, Nicky. What a mess I make of things. I meant to look so nice for you. I meant our last night in Livadia to be beautiful. Sometimes I wonder how you live with me.

  Tsar Nicholas II : I wonder too. Only I know I could never live without you, Sunny.

• Tsar Nicholas II : I didn't want to come on this tercentenary tour, Pyotr Arkadyevich. But, God help me, I do love it when they stand and wave.

• Tsar Nicholas II : He's a good man. They always kill the good men, the ones who help the most. They killed my grandfather. He freed the serfs, you know. He helped them, so they threw a bomb. Stolypin is a good man. I can't find a match.

  Vice Premier Kokovstov : They've got the man who shot him.

  Tsar Nicholas II : The man?

  Vice Premier Kokovstov : Some kind of revolutionary.

  Tsar Nicholas II : Damn them all. You help them, and they kill you for it. Give them dumas, and they give you bombs. I want them paid in kind. You understand me? I want something done.

• Tsar Nicholas II : Gentlemen, Germany has declared war on Russia. God save Russia!

  Nikolasha : God save the Tsar.

• Tsar Nicholas II : All my life, my whole life, I've done what you want. I gave Mother up. You hated her, so we don't see her anymore. I gave my friends up. Do you know I haven't a single friend? I've got my family. Four girls, one sick boy, and you. I ask before I eat, sleep, or change my clothes, "Is this what Sunny wants?" And it never is. There's always more. Sweet Jesus, how much do you want of me?

• General Alexeiev : The duma has appointed a provisional government, and all your ministers have been arrested.

  Tsar Nicholas II : Order your troops to march on Petersburg...

  General Alexeiev : At this moment, Your Majesty, if my troops knew the czar was here, there's every chance they would turn on you.

• Tsar Nicholas II : I've often thought I should like to be a country gentleman. I've always liked to watch things grow.

• Alexander Kerensky : Do you realize I'm all that stands between you and the block? No munitions. No supplies. I don't know where the army stands. The treasury is bankrupt. The students riot. Workers carry arms. The Socialists want this, the Mensheviks want that. The Radicals, the Centrists, the Kadets, the Bolsheviks. I can't arrest them even if I wanted to. We have rights and laws now. You had power and no laws. I have laws and no power.

  Tsar Nicholas II : I wish I could help you.

  Alexander Kerensky : You had your chances. I wish I had mine.

• Tsar Nicholas II : The boy will bring us luck. We'll smash the Japanese and drive them from Korea, and I don't care what it costs. I have a son to fight for now.

  Tsarina Alexandra : We have a son.

• Queen Mother Maria Fedorova : We're an 18th-century country in a 20th-century world. We need all our strength and money to look after Russia. Don't waste it on those little yellow Buddhists or pagans or whatever they are. It's a great mistake to get involved in all these strikes and wars. You only encourage them by taking them seriously. Your father always said...

  Tsar Nicholas II : Thank you for your kind advice.

  Queen Mother Maria Fedorova : I haven't finished yet, Nicky. I know I'm not as clever as I pretend to be, but I'm sure of this. Get out of Korea and forget about Japan.

  Tsar Nicholas II : I'm thirty-six. You must let me look after this war.

• Tsarina Alexandra : Does he have to be Alexis? Can't we call him something else?

  Tsar Nicholas II : Alexis was a gentle czar. Perhaps the only one.

  Tsarina Alexandra : Not counting you.

• Tsar Nicholas II : Pyotr Arkadyevich, only you could wear a briefcase with a bathing suit.

  Stolypin : I think I'd feel naked without it. Besides, I must have somewhere to put my lifeboat.

• Stolypin : Why is such a man admitted to the palace?

  Tsar Nicholas II : You know why.

  Stolypin : Your people don't.

  Tsar Nicholas II : I'll tell them, shall I? "Citizens, your czarevitch could get a bloody nose and die from it."

• Tsarina Alexandra : If Baby dies, you murdered him.

  Tsar Nicholas II : I didn't give him hemophilia.

  Tsarina Alexandra : Murderer. I'll never forgive you.

  Tsar Nicholas II : You gave it to him! It was you!

  Tsarina Alexandra : Don't you think I know it? When I see him bleed, I think I did it, as if I'd put a knife in him. I've tried to make up for it. I've seen so many specialists and doctors and surgeons. Sometimes I did not tell you. I know most of them are quacks, but I still tried. I have spent nights on my knees praying. And Rasputin's the only one who's helped me bear my punishment. That's why I cling to this common peasant from Siberia. They laugh at me in the streets. You have turned against me. I cannot help it.

  Tsar Nicholas II : Sunny...

  Tsarina Alexandra : It's me. Whatever happens, I deserve it. It's my punishment. It's mine.

• Marie : [looking at photographs]  Look at me. It's just awful!

  Anastasia : You look like a thief.

  Marie : You look like a trollop!

  Anastasia : I don't! What's a trollop?

  Tsar Nicholas II : Dear Lord, so she does.

  Tsarina Alexandra : I don't find that amusing.

  Tsar Nicholas II : Just look.

  Tsarina Alexandra : It's not amusing at all.

  [laughs] 

• Tsarina Alexandra : Nicky, is today your birthday?

  Tsar Nicholas II : No. That was weeks ago.

  Tsarina Alexandra : Yes, it was. And mine too. I was 46. Imagine that?

• Tsarina Alexandra : What's the day like?

  Tsar Nicholas II : I don't know now.

  Tsarina Alexandra : It doesn't matter. It goes on and on. I don't know anymore. What can God have in mind for us?

• Tsarina Alexandra : I couldn't play the piano now.

  Tsar Nicholas II : I used to hear you practicing when I was working in my office.

  Tsarina Alexandra : Did you? Schuman and Schubert.

  Tsar Nicholas II : I never thought much of your voice.

  Tsarina Alexandra : Didn't you? You never told me that before.

• Count Witte : Have I Your Majesty's permission to review the facts again? If Port Arthur falls...

  Tsar Nicholas II : No fact begins with "if."

  Count Witte : Port Arthur has been under siege for six months. It has cost us 30,000 dead. If it ... A student stopped me in the street the other day. "Excuse me, sir, but why are we at war?" "Because, my boy, we want Korea, but the Japanese would insist on fighting us for it." "Thank you, sir, but what does Russia need Korea for?" "Because, my boy, we have no ice-free port on the Pacific." "I see. In that case, sir, it isn't good enough." He's right, sir. It's not good enough at all. Imagine, sire. Imagine that you are a factory worker. You're really poor. Your belly is never full. You freeze eight months of the year. Your children have no school, no doctor. Your country taxes you and sends your sons a continent away to die on a piece of land on the Pacific. Now, sir, Japan is a third-rate power. If she defeats us, if Port Arthur falls, we shall be disgraced in the eyes of the world, and here at home, we shall have an insurrection on our hands.

  Tsar Nicholas II : My people love me, Sergei Yulyevich.

  Count Witte : They want a constitution and the right to vote for an elected Duma. They're angry, and they're serious.

  Tsar Nicholas II : Are you advising me to give my rights away?

  Count Witte : I'm advising you to stop a hopeless war.

  Tsar Nicholas II : Is it so hopeless, Nikolasha?

  Nikolasha : Well, Nicky, let me put it this way. Here's a bullet, a bullet made in St. Petersburg. I send it off to war. How does it get there? On a single spur of track four thousand miles long. In the middle, no track at all. Oh, God help it; it spends three days packed on sleds. And every boot, shell or pound of tea we send. Get out now, Nicky, while there's time.

  Tsar Nicholas II : The Russia my father gave me never lost a war. What shall I say to my son when the time comes? That I had no pride, that I was weak? I've always thought God meant me to rule. He put me here. He chose me. And whatever happens is His will. We shall fight on to victory.

  Count Witte : There will be no victory. Only strikes and riots. You must give your people a little of what they want, sir. Not all. Just a taste.

  Tsar Nicholas II : The English have a parliament. Our British cousins gave their rights away. The Hapsburgs and the Hohenzollerns too. The Romanovs will not. What I was given, I will give my son.

• [first lines] 

  Count Fredericks : Mon cher!

  Tsar Nicholas II : A son? I have a son?

  Count Fredericks : Eight pounds.

• Queen Mother Maria Fedorova : I came to congratulate you, Nicky.

  Tsar Nicholas II : What for?

  Queen Mother Maria Fedorova : For finding, from all Russia's countless cretins, idiots and incompetents, the men least qualified to run your government.

• [signing his abdication] 

  Tsar Nicholas II : "March 15, 1917." The ides of March.

• [as the recently abdicated Tsar arrives at his palace] 

  Russian Guard : Who's there?

  Tsar Nicholas II : Citizen Nicholas Romanov.

• Tsar Nicholas II : Things. Things one can do without. They break. They get lost. One buys and sells them. The main thing is that we are together.

• Tsarevich Alexei : Father? There's no hope, is there, father?

  Tsar Nicholas II : Nonsense.

  Tsarevich Alexei : None at all.

• Colonel Kobylinsky : Goodbye.

  Tsar Nicholas II : What will you do now?

  Colonel Kobylinsky : What can I do? Whatever side I join, I kill Russians. I don't know what to do anymore.

• Colonel Kobylinsky : God bless you.

  Tsar Nicholas II : It's too late for that. But thank you.

• Count Witte : If Russia mobilizes, there will be a war.

  Tsar Nicholas II : The Austrians are shelling Belgrade. We must be ready to defend ourselves. I'm ordering prayers for peace to be said in all the churches. But, now if you'll excuse me, I must see my ministers for armaments and recruitment.

  Count Witte : It is in our hands, not God's. He gave us minds to reason. We can talk sanity to lunatics. We can calm mad dogs. God help us if we have to start praying! We can pray when we bury the dead!

• Tsar Nicholas II : Order the mobilization.

  Count Witte : Madness. Madness.

• Tsar Nicholas II : Please! I didn't mean to! Please! I'm so ashamed! I didn't mean to do it! Please! Don't! Please! Don't! Please!

• Colonel Kobylinsky : Do you got any money?

  Tsar Nicholas II : Not much. Why?

  Colonel Kobylinsky : Has it crossed your mind that I represent a non-existent government? Who put me in this post? Who gave me the authority? Whose money pays for troops? Kerensky's gone. The money's gone. I haven't paid them in a month.

  Tsar Nicholas II : You think I should pay for them? Prisoners keep the guard. I wish I'd had you for my Finance Minister. You would have revolutionized the penal system.

• Tsar Nicholas II : Thinking back. When I think back, I can see them all so clearly now. The corners that I didn't turn.