Children of Paradise (1945)

Louis Salou: Édouard comte de Montray

Photos 

Quotes 

• Édouard, Count de Montray : Monsieur, you play the bloodthirsty brute so naturally.

  Frederick : You're too kind. I merely played him as Shakespeare wrote him, as naturally as possible.

  Édouard, Count de Montray : A peculiar fellow, this Monsieur Shakespeare. I hear he made his literary debut as a butcher's apprentice.

  Frederick : Why not?

  Édouard, Count de Montray : Which would explain the bestial nature of his plays and his popularity among dockers and carters.

  Frederick : And kings!

• Édouard, Count de Montray : You're much too lovely to be truly loved.

  Garance : Truth, but only from the neck up, it frustrated them.

• Pierre-François Lacenaire : Is it not absurd to ask people who they are?

  Édouard, Count de Montray : Excuse me?

  Pierre-François Lacenaire : That's why they're so evasive. They give you the easy reply: a name, a title. But who they are really, who they are deep down, they conceal with great care.

• Édouard, Count de Montray : Such savagery and lack of decorum. I can't say I like this Monsieur Shakespeare.

• Édouard, Count de Montray : How do you ply your talents these days?

  Pierre-François Lacenaire : Since you ask, I'm putting the finishing touches on something that will cause a sensation.

  Édouard, Count de Montray : A tragedy, no doubt.

  Pierre-François Lacenaire : No, a comedy, a farce. Or a tragedy, if you prefer. It's all the same. There's no difference. Or very little. For example, if a king is deceived, it's a tragedy of infidelity. He's deceived not by his wife...

  Frederick : But by Fate.

  Pierre-François Lacenaire : Yes, Fate. But if it's a poor devil like you or me, Monsieur de Montray - and I use "me" as a figure of speech - it's no longer a tragedy, but mere buffoonery, a sorry tale of cuckolds.