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Rocco Parondi: There's no hope now!
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Male Engagement Party Guest: Always at the movies! He lives on bread and movies.
Female Engagement Party Guest: Yes. Yes. He's so obsessed. Sunday I went along too, but immediately fell asleep.
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Vincenzo Parondi: My whole family arrived unexpectedly like an earthquake and then argued with my future in-laws. I had to give up my room and my fiancée, what a mess.
Armando: For you, a room and a fiancée are the same thing.
[laughs]
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Armando: So what's the big deal? Milan is full of housing. Apartment buildings are shooting up like mushrooms.
Vincenzo Parondi: What about rent?
Armando: Listen to me, do what all you southerners do. Know what I mean?
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Mrs. Maria's friend: Good morning, Mrs. Maria.
Mrs. Maria: [observing the Pardondi family moving in] Mamma Mia, did you see those hicks?
Mrs. Maria's friend: Zulus!
Mrs. Maria: Where are they from?
Mrs. Maria's friend: Lucania.
Mrs. Maria: Lucania? Odd name! Where's that? Never heard of it.
Mrs. Maria's friend: Down south.
Mrs. Maria: I see, the land of deadbeats!
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Vincenzo Parondi: As Mamma says, if a real man wants a woman he takes her without asking.
Ginetta: He what?
[slaps Vincenzo]
Vincenzo Parondi: What's wrong? He takes her without asking her or anyone.
Ginetta: With me you have to ask every time!
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Rosaria Parondi: [to Vincenzo] What were you thinking bringing her in? We don't know her, she could even be a whore.
Vincenzo Parondi: She's beautiful.
Rosaria Parondi: Beautiful? She's a bland girl with goose bumps. Learn how to look at women, use your eyes.
Rocco Parondi: She had goose bumps because she was cold.
Rosaria Parondi: No, she's got that milk-and-water northern skin!
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Morini: Purple, the color of champions and showgirls.
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Nadia: The same stupid story, you know, a girl's honor, etc. That's all they care about. What's a poor girl to do, just vanish?
Vincenzo Parondi: No.
Nadia: Just imagine if all the girls like me vanished? Can you imagine?
Vincenzo Parondi: Yeah, there'd only be us men left.
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Nadia: Burly boys like you can get anything you like if you try hard enough.
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Nadia: If I'm not mistaken, you box like I put out. No? For money.
Simone Parondi: No, I box with passion.
Nadia: With feeling? Yeah, well, I work with passion too!
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Cerri: Boxing's a serious sport, to succeed you must live a clean life.
[referring to the photos of boxers on his office wall]
Cerri: Like them. Good morals are the first requisite for an athlete. That means that women, cigarettes, drinking, and many other things are taboo. Absolutely taboo.
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Rocco's Female Boss: Are you out of your mind? Answer me! Stop laughing! You came here asking for special favors and then even had the gall to steal from us and act nonchalant about it. Thief!
Simone Parondi: I wasn't really stealing.
Rocco's Female Boss: That's hard to believe! You take advantage of people's kindness and generosity. I'm so gullible, ready to believe everyone and everything. It's a struggle for a woman who runs a company and must be careful about everything.
[Simone grabs and she slaps him back]
Rocco's Female Boss: What do you want?
[She grabs Simone and kisses him, then pushes him away]
Rocco's Female Boss: No, don't -
[Simone grabs her and kisses her back]
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Nadia: The whole world's a one-way street.
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Nadia: Recognize this?
[Rocco opens up the handkerchief and see's his boss' brooch]
Nadia: Simone says he bought it, I say he stole it. And I don't care who from. I've got enough of my own troubles, I can't take risks. Understand?
Rocco Parondi: No.
Nadia: You don't understand? Great.
Rocco Parondi: Why steal?
Nadia: To be able to sleep with me. Guess I'm worth it. You don't believe it?
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Nadia: Time flies when every day's the same. Wouldn't seem so, but it's true.
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Rocco Parondi: I'm lost in the city. I was neither born nor raised in one. Not only me, but my brothers and my friends. Some get used to city life and enjoy the city the way city folk do. Not me.
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Nadia: What can I do?
Rocco Parondi: Have faith and have no fear. Great faith.
Nadia: Faith in what?
Rocco Parondi: I don't know - in everything.
Nadia: In you?
Rocco Parondi: Yes. In me too.
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Cerri: I want real boxers, pros! Not southern hicks. The Milanese are right. Dirt-pushers! You're all worthless! I don't want anything to do with you!
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Rosaria Parondi: We finally moved into the new apartment. Everyone knows us because Simone won that fight, now they all treat me with respect.
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Nadia: You helped me to understand the life I led was horrible. I learned to love you. And now, because of the brutality of a louse, who humiliated me in front of you to bring us to his level, all of the sudden nothing is the same. What was beautiful and right has become wrong.
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Ciro Parondi: Are you okay, Rocco?
Rocco Parondi: Winning came easy, Ciro, because I wasn't fighting him, I was fighting someone who aroused hatred in me, this hatred that's been lurking inside without my knowing. It's a bad feeling. You can't imagine how bad.
Ciro Parondi: How's that possible, Rocco? There's nothing bad in you. Come on, Rocco, cheer up! You're a champ. A real champion!
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Ciro Parondi: Rest now. We'll settle everything tomorrow.
Rosaria Parondi: Tomorrow? Tomorrow? There is no tomorrow.
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Rosaria Parondi: Ciro, my dear son, tell me: is it my fault these tragedies are happening? I brought my strong, handsome sons here to better themselves and not toil a thankless land like their father who died a thousand times!
Ciro Parondi: You did well!
Rosaria Parondi: Your father couldn't bring himself to leave the land. But during the 25 years we spent together I thought of nothing but leaving, leaving, leaving, leaving. I wanted it for Vincenzo, Simone, Rocco and for you. Nothing seemed beautiful there. That world was so small. Here I feel as if I could touch the sky. People on the street called me "Signora", imagine. Me, "Signora", here in this big city. Thanks to my wonderful boys. But now, everything's gone wrong.
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Ciro Parondi: Brothers or not, we're seeds taken from the same sack meant to bear fruit. A seed gone bad must be weeded out. Just like when we cleaned lentils.
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Rocco Parondi: If only we had never left home. But it is our destiny, yours and mine and Simone's.
Ciro Parondi: Imagine all the misery had we remained there.
Rocco Parondi: But we'd still be close.
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Morini: Got the jitters? It happens when you realize that punches ruin your profile.
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Rocco Parondi: This is for you, but get out of Milan for a while.
[hands Simone 100,000 lira]
Rocco Parondi: You have no job to lose anyway. Besides, any place is the same to you. But stay out of this house!
Simone Parondi: Did the "Court of Brothers" decide that?
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Ivo: Is your brother still pining for the motorized whore? Or does he aim higher now?
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Rosaria Parondi: The day I will be truly happy is when all my five sons sit at this table, like the five fingers of my hand.
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Rocco Parondi: Well, I'd like to make a toast to the day, which is still far away, when I can go home. And if I won't be able to, I hope one of us will be able to return to our land. Maybe you, Luca.
Luca Parondi: I'd go back with you.
Rocco Parondi: Remember, Luca, ours is the land of olive trees, of moon sickness, and of rainbows. Do you remember, Vincenzo? Before starting to build, the head mason throws a brick at the shadow of the first person who happened by.
Luca Parondi: Why?
Rocco Parondi: As a token of sacrifice, so that the house may be built solidly.
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Rocco Parondi: I don't believe in earthly justice. It's not our job to judge him, but to help him. Let's help him!
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Rocco Parondi: Don't curse! It serves no purpose. We're no longer in God's grace. We're our own enemies. We've all become enemies. Why curse? We have erred and must pay for our faults.
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Luca Parondi: I was a kid when we moved here. It was Simone, not Vincenzo, who made me understand that in our hometown we were beasts of burden, confined to work in blind obedience. He said nobody should be a slave and we must never neglect our responsibilities.
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Luca Parondi: Rocco's a saint, but what can he do in this world? He won't defend himself. He's so forgiving. But one mustn't always forgive.
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Luca Parondi: If Rocco goes back to our town, I want to go with him.
Ciro Parondi: I doubt he'll see our hometown again. You might, some day. But what do you think you'll find there? Things will change there too. Even there, they realize that things must change. Many have little faith in a changed world, but I do.
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Nadia: Then it's all useless. I don't believe in anything. If you keep on like this, I'll jump. I'll kill myself!
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Nadia: I don't want to die!
Rocco and His Brothers Quotes
Extended Reading
