Valmont Quotes

Mertuil: Valmont, you disappoint me. That's what's keeping you here. Tell me, are you really falling in love?

Valmont: Does that make you jealous?

Mertuil: Not really.

Madame de Volanges: Cecile! Martine!

Martine: Yes, Madame?

Madame de Volanges: Where is Cecile?

Martine: [nervously] Cecile? She's... she... she has...

Madame de Volanges: Where is she?

[Martine can't form an answer; Volanges, unable to find Cecile, rings for José]

Madame de Volanges: José, have you been at your post all night?

José: Yes, madame.

Madame de Volanges: Has anyone come in?

José: No, Madame.

Madame de Volanges: Martine?

Martine: [fearfully] Yes, Madame?

Madame de Volanges: Did she go and see that music teacher?

Martine: [hysterically] I don't know, Madame. She doesn't talk to me anymore. She only talks to Madame de Merteuil now. And she... she...

[Volanges turns to leave, Martine faints]

Mertuil: You're the only one who can help me.

Valmont: You want me to challenge him to a duel?

Mertuil: [chuckles] Viscomte, for I what I have in mind I need you very much alive.

Baroness: Are you hinting that I could be unfaithful to my husband?

Valmont: Not now. But if you were alone...

Madame de Tourvel: Monsier Valmont, you simply don't understand women.

Baroness: You're right. Look, if a woman wants a little adventure, she doesn't need to be alone.

[looking straight at her husband]

Baroness: She can manage it perfectly well right under her husbands nose.

Mertuil: Men are always chasing after visions, my dear. They want us to be angels.

Baroness: But in bed they want us to be demons, my dear.

Baron: Yes, indeed, it always comes as a morning surprise when you wake up in the arms of an ordinary woman.

Madame de Volanges: Did I show you the cabinet I gave Cecile? It's an exquisite piece. Well, I told her: "You can lock all your secrets in there." Do you know what she said? "Maman, you know it will never be locked." Isn't that the sweetest thing a daughter can say to her mother?

Mertuil: Oh! Yes, yes.

Madame de Volanges: Well, it's locked.

Mertuil: Oh.

Madame de Volanges: I have a duplicate key of course.

Mertuil: Of course.

Mertuil: Why do you want to be a husband, when you can be a lover?

Danceny: Keep writing.

Mertuil: Why don't you leave all the boredom of marriage to Gercourt, and keep the excitement of love for yourself?

Madame de Rosemonde: Ah, my sweet girl. If I understand what these people have been saying, you have a dilemma.

Cecile: I do?

Madame de Rosemonde: Tell me, if it were up to you, would you rather marry that Monsieur de... eh...

Mertuil: Gercourt.

Madame de Rosemonde: Exactly, Gercourt. Or the other one? The one with the harp.

Cecile: Well, I... I... I'll do whatever my Maman wants me to do.

Valmont: But that is not what my aunt is asking you. Forget Maman. If you had the choice, who would you pick? You, yourself?

Cecile: Oh! I... I... I guess I would marry Monsieur de Gercourt, and... keep Monsieur Danceny for a lover?

Valmont: I feel awful.

Mertuil: Are you surprised? You are an awful man.

Valmont: Do you think a man can change?

Mertuil: Yes, for the worse.

Valmont: I think you're as awful as I am.

Mertuil: I am.

Danceny: Sir, it would be embarrassing for me to fight you in your condition.

Valmont: So what do we do? Send for our harps?

Valmont: You must be an exceptional woman.

Madame de Tourvel: No, not exceptional. Why?

Valmont: Love a husband, and he's never there.

Madame de Tourvel: Do you married, Mr. Valmont?

Valmont: No, I'm in love.

Madame de Tourvel: You're in love?

Valmont: Yes.

Madame de Tourvel: Then why aren't you with her?

Valmont: I am with her. I'm talking to her right now.

Mertuil: It's really sweet to see Cecile so excited about her marriage.

Madame de Volanges: Oh, yes, yes. She's excited, very excited. It almost has me worried.

Mertuil: Why?

Madame de Volanges: Well, she's been at that convent since she was *eleven*. She's so innocent. So unprepared.

Mertuil: Well, as long as her husband doesn't mind.

Madame de Volanges: Oh, no! On the contrary, he seems obsessed by her purity and virginity.

Madame de Volanges: Oh, my dear. I'd love you to spend some time with Cecile. She could learn so much from you. I want her to enter this marriage as innocent as she is - and as wise as you are.

Mertuil: Oh, you flatter me.

Mertuil: That young lady is the daughter of my cousin, Madame de Volanges. She's about to get married and she's under my protection. So, you keep away from her.

Valmont: How old did you say she was?

Mertuil: Fifteen, you monster.

Cecile: Is he your lover?

Mertuil: Cecile - one doesn't ask questions like that. Certainly not of a widow.

Cecile: Widows don'e have lovers?

Mertuil: No. They don't.

Mertuil: More.

Gercourt: More?

Mertuil: I want more.

Gercourt: Well, then you might have to find yourself another lover.

Mertuil: Oh, no. I'm very happy with the one I have.

Madame de Tourvel: Sometimes my friends tell me I'm naive.

[clutches her chest]

Madame de Tourvel: But, I'm not so silly that I don't see what you want.

Valmont: Yes? What do I want?

Madame de Tourvel: If you don't stop talking that way, we can't be friends.

Mertuil: You know, little Cecile, she - she reminds me so much of myself when I was 15. She's naive, innocent, - pure.

Valmont: Yes?

Mertuil: I want you to put an end to it. I want you to take her virginity. I want Gercourt to discover on his wedding night, that he didn't get there first. I want to make him the laughingstock of Paris.

Madame de Tourvel: Monsieur de Valmont, I know some women might be weak, but, believe me, there are women who will always be true.

Baron: Nonsense! A true woman is a contradiction in terms.

Valmont: Not always. I believe that some women stay true. I find them fascinating.

Mertuil: Men usually do.

Madame de Tourvel: I've noticed that.

Valmont: What do you want to wager?

Mertuil: Anything you want.

Valmont: You. Your body.

Mertuil: And if you lose?

Valmont: Anything you want.

Mertuil: I want you to shut yourself in a monastery, anoint yourself with ashes and repent for all your sins.

Valmont: I accept.

Mertuil: Good night, my little monk. I'm afraid you'll be very lonely. Remember me in your prayers sometime.

Madame de Volanges: Do you know what I found? Letters. Love letters.

Mertuil: From?

Madame de Volanges: From her miserable music teacher.

Mertuil: That little boy?

Madame de Volanges: That little snake!

Madame de Volanges: Why are you locking your cabinet?

Cecile: Is it locked?

Madame de Volanges: Give me the key.

Cecile: I don't know where it is.

Madame de Volanges: It's hanging round your neck.

Madame de Tourvel: This letter is from a close friend of mine. "All his life, Monsieur de Valmont has been and is a consummate master of the art of seduction. Hundreds of women, and I am not exaggerating Madame, have paid for it. He has charmed his countless victims designing his every gesture, every word, every smile in a cold-blooded scheme that has only one squalid end: to destroy the woman's honor." Is this true?

Valmont: Who wrote that?

Madame de Tourvel: Is it?

[no response]

Madame de Tourvel: Monsieur de Valmont, don't waste your time on me. I am not, and I never will be, one of those women.

Valmont: I know that.

Madame de Tourvel: So, why do you keep trying?

Gercourt: I'm glad you want to join my regiment.

Danceny: I don't, sir.

Madame de Tourvel: I would never tell you what to do. But, please, go away. Please, please go away. I know I should be the one to leave. And I know it's my duty, but I haven't the strength. I can't go on like this. When I sit down, you sit next to me. When I speak, you answer. I blush in your company, and everybody sees it. But, then, when - when I am alone... oh... Please, go away. I beg you. Please. Please go.

Valmont: Is that what you want?

Madame de Tourvel: Do you want me to say - that I don't want you to leave? I can't say that. I can't!

Cecile: Monsieur de Valmont wanted me to write; so, I was writing that letter.

Mertuil: And?

Cecile: You know.

Mertuil: Monsieur de Valmont is quite a writer, isn't he?

Valmont: I'd do whatever Mama wants me to do.

Valmont: But that's not what my Aunt is asking you. Forget Mama. If you had the choice, who would you pick? You, yourself.

Cecile: I guess I would marry Monsieur de Gercourt - and keep Monsieur de Danceny for a lover?

Mertuil: Better than me?

Valmont: No one compares to you.

Mertuil: How true.

Valmont: You only have one choice, Cecile.

Cecile: What?

Valmont: We have to write Danceny another letter.

Cecile: Oh, yes. But - we will only write, won't we, sir?

Valmont: Oh, yes. Yes, we'll only write.

Valmont: I feel awful.

Mertuil: Are you surprised? You are an awful man.

Mertuil: We should never be enemies. We should always be friends. Good friends.

Valmont: More than that.