Life Dances On (1937)

Marie Bell: Christine Surgère

Quotes 

• Christine Surgère : He died as this desk writing that letter, in mid-sentence. You may read it.

  Bremont : "I have neither the desire nor the inclination to travel. Why bother? Christine is always with me. I'm happy. I even think my life --"

  Christine Surgère : Yes, it breaks off there.

  Bremont : Who was he writing to?

  Christine Surgère : I'll never know.

  Bremont : "I even think my life --"

  Christine Surgère : Strange isn't it?

  Bremont : Dying right on that word.

• Christine Surgère : Loneliness is the same everywhere.

• Christine Surgère : My life is empty. No children, no friends. I'm alone in the world.

  Bremont : The world is full of children and friends waiting for you.

  Christine Surgère : You live in an ivory tower, yet you tell me to join the crowd. Practice what you preach.

• Bremont : Travel.

  Christine Surgère : Where would I go?

  Bremont : Pick a map at random. Choose any color.

• Christine Surgère : One must know how to live. I never learned.

  Bremont : But you're young.

  Christine Surgère : I never had any youth. It's not the same thing.

  Bremont : You're young because you've not yet really loved.

  Christine Surgère : How would you know?

• Christine Surgère : Have you ever wondered what people you once knew have made of their lives?

  Bremont : More like what life has made of them.

  Christine Surgère : Well, I'm going to seek the answer, find the young girl I was at my first ball and find the seasons I lost.

  Bremont : And some of the love you aroused?

  Christine Surgère : Oh, that.

• Christine Surgère : A dance card is like a railway timetable. It's not the stops but the scenery.

• Christine Surgère : Go over to Mr. Jo and simply tell him this: "In the deserted park, frozen and vast, two shadows just walked past."

• Pierre Verdier, dit Jo : I'll find someone for you. Something to eat?

  Christine Surgère : But, no.

  Pierre Verdier, dit Jo : It's good to call on pals when you're in trouble.

  Christine Surgère : But, Pierre.

  Pierre Verdier, dit Jo : No. No more "Pierre." Call me Jo. I'll call you Cricri. Sounds younger. You're still a looker.

  Pierre Verdier, dit Jo : Pierre.

  Christine Surgère : And they like 'em fresh-faced. Wrinkles get the customers down.

• Pierre Verdier, dit Jo : I opened this club after my - troubles.

  Christine Surgère : It must be exciting.

  Pierre Verdier, dit Jo : I reign over waiters, part-time artists, easy music, and even easier women.

• Pierre Verdier, dit Jo : To think I held you in my arms.

  Christine Surgère : I was 16.

  Pierre Verdier, dit Jo : You weren't very discerning. We'd stroll through the country.

  Christine Surgère : We'd stop by the bridge.

  Pierre Verdier, dit Jo : It's all water under the bridge now.

  Christine Surgère : We'd wait for dusk.

  Pierre Verdier, dit Jo : It never failed us.

  Christine Surgère : We didn't speak.

  Pierre Verdier, dit Jo : Our minds were on other things. I'd kiss your neck, trembling.

  Christine Surgère : I'd close my eyes and pretend I didn't see you.

  Pierre Verdier, dit Jo : We were foolish. It was charming.

  Christine Surgère : We'd make plans.

  Pierre Verdier, dit Jo : More like dreams.

• Christine Surgère : You'd call me Clara d'Ellebeuse, from a poem by Francis Jammes.

  Pierre Verdier, dit Jo : And you'd call me "Bashful Pierre," because I was so shy. How pure we'd stay if we'd think of our youth more often. We lose sight of it as we live our lives and end up taking some strange paths, Clara d'Ellebeuse.

  Christine Surgère : Bashful Pierre. You were a peculiar boy.

  Pierre Verdier, dit Jo : Yes, long ago. That all happened in another world.

• Christine Surgère : There's been a great change in my life. My husband died.

  Alain Regnault : I've seen many die.

  Christine Surgère : Of course.

  Alain Regnault : Any children?

  Christine Surgère : I'm quite alone in the world.

  Alain Regnault : So you're in deep mourning.

  Christine Surgère : No, I've always been alone. I went right from youth to solitude. People think I have everything, but my life is empty.

• Christine Surgère : What are you laughing about?

  Francois Patusset : Nothing. The day I tried to drown myself because of you.

  Christine Surgère : Are you sorry you did it?

  Francois Patusset : No, it's a lovely memory. Every young man should commit suicide at least once. A fellow who has never killed himself for a woman has never been young.

• Christine Surgère : Are you still a poet?

  Eric Irvin : I think I've finally become one, because I finally stopped writing verse.

  Christine Surgère : You wrote some fine lines.

  Eric Irvin : "Your gaze is upon me like a lake in springtime."

• Eric Irvin : Why did you come looking for me?

  Christine Surgère : I wasn't just looking for you. I set out in search of my past to find out.

  Eric Irvin : Find out what?

  Christine Surgère : Exactly what I could do with my future.

• Christine Surgère : [final lines]  One's first ball is very important. Almost as important as one's first cigarette - but no more than that.

• Pierre Verdier, dit Jo : I was trying to remember.

  Christine Surgère : What?

  Pierre Verdier, dit Jo : That poem. Funny. There's a word I haven't said in ages: poem. "In the deserted park, frozen and vast, two shadows just walked past. Their eyes are extinct, their lips sag, their words are indistinct. In the deserted park, frozen and vast, two spectators conjured up the past. Our old ecstasy, do you recall? Why remember it at all? Does my name thrill you still?"

  Christine Surgère : "Does my soul still fill your dreams?"

  Pierre Verdier, dit Jo : "No. Oh, those days of sheer pleasure, with my lips..."

  Christine Surgère : "Pressed against yours."

  Pierre Verdier, dit Jo : "I'm sure."

  Christine Surgère : "The sky was so blue, hope soared so high."

  Pierre Verdier, dit Jo : "But hope fled, beaten, into darkening skies and they wandered off through fields and oats..."