A Month in the Country (1987)
Colin Firth: Birkin
Photos
Quotes
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Reverend Keach : Where do you intend to stay?
Birkin : Well, I thought, um... here.
Reverend Keach : Here? Where here?
Birkin : What about the belfry?
Reverend Keach : The belfry? I can't say that appeals to me, having somebody stay in the belfry. Shouldn't you take lodgings? A room in teh Shepherd's Arms?
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Birkin : Judgements always got the plum spots where the whole parish could see the... God-awful things that would happen to them if they... if they didn't fork out their tithes and... marry the girls they got with child.
James Moon : Saint Michael weighing souls, eh? Christ in majesty, refereeing. And down below the fire that flameth evermore, eh?
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Reverend Keach : [addressing the congregation at mass] Now we hear the words of Jesus to lead us and encourage us in prayer. "Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was enhung'red and ye gave me meat, I was thirsty and ye gave me drink, I was a stranger and ye took me in, naked and ye clothed me, I was sick and ye visited me, I was in prison...
Birkin : [to himself, watching and listening from up in the belfry] Look behind you, Keach.
Reverend Keach : "... and you came unto me..."
Birkin : That's what you're praying to. He doesn't want your prayers. He wants some answers. Did you feed the hungry, hm? Did you give drink to the thirsty? Do you... clothe the naked and the needy? What about me, eh? Ever offer me bed and board? You smug Yorkshire lot. I'll have a word wtih Him about the way you're treated me. He'll get you yet.
Reverend Keach : "The King shall answer and say onto them: Verily I say unto you, in as much as ye have done it unto one of the least of these, my brethren, ye have done it unto me."
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Alice Keach : Oh, I'm sorry. Did I wake you?
Birkin : That depends on... weather I'm awake or not.
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Alice Keach : The painting, when will we be able to see all of it?
Birkin : I don't know. It's a bit like a jigsaw. A face, a shoe, here a bit, there a bit. It comes together very slowly, if it comes together at all. Of course, after... 500 years I can't be sure what I'll find.
Alice Keach : But that's the exciting part, isn't it? Not knowing what's around the corner, like, er... like opening a parcel at Christmas. So you must let me see it. I'll haunt you a little until you do.
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James Moon : So you're married too?
Birkin : Sort of. She went off with another chap. Not for the first time. Can't say I blame her really. Her name is Vinny.
James Moon : Yes, I thought it might be something like that. As for me, never really met the right woman. Luckily for her.
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Birkin : My sermon today is derived... is derived... Look here. I only came in place of Mr Ellerbeck today because he's... he's... indisposed. I can't preach. So all I can do is tell you what I'm up to in Oxgodby, in the church there. And if you want to leave or nod off, that's all right by me.
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Birkin : One dab too few, and some poor chap won't get back from five centuries ago. One dab too many and... wiped him out forever.
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Birkin : [shouting] GOD! WHAT GOD? THERE IS NO GOD!
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Birkin : I suppose hell means different things to different people.
Alice Keach : What does it mean to you?
Birkin : Hell on Earth, I think.
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Alice Keach : Were you always in the... cleaning business, Mr Birkin?
Birkin : My father traveled in... soap.
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Birkin : Look at this. Have you ever seen a detail like this in a medieval painting? Anticipates the Bruegels by 100 years. And that face... meant something to him. It's a portrait, it must be. And he was covered over years before the rest.
James Moon : It's the crescent. One could swear he was almost meant to be identifiable. Would he have dared, your painter?
