The Night Porter 1974 - Movie Quotes

Hans I'm only here to ask you some questions on behalf of myself and the others, and to have a look at you. Look, I could have come at another time to see him too, but, I don't need to speak to him. I don't need to speak to him... in front of you. Useless. With this business of the trial, he's... become too diffident.

Lucia He's right.

Hans What do you mean?

Lucia Because then for the first time he saw you all clearly. Nothing's changed, has it?

Hans You're wrong. We've all had our trials. Now we are cured and live in peace with ourselves.

Lucia There's no cure.

Hans It is you who are ill. Otherwise, you wouldn't be with somebody who made you...

Lucia That's my affair.

Hans Very well. But nevertheless, your mind is disturbed. That's why you're here, fishing up the past.

Lucia Max is more than just the past.

[Lucia crawls under a table]

Hans Listen. Why don't you go to the police? If you want to, I'll take you. Hm?

Lucia Dr. Fogler, I remember you so well. You gave a lot of orders.

Hans Then you can't have forgotten that your Max was an obedient Sturmscharführer. Remember?

Lucia I don't remember.

Hans I certainly can't oblige you to remember if you don't want to.

[clears his throat]

Hans I'm only here to ask you to testify, to find out... if the situation in which you find yourself is of your own choice.

Lucia I'm all right here.

Hans Yes. You both want to live in peace, right? One lives in peace... when one is in harmony with one's close friends, when one respects an agreement. Tell Max that. We could have denounced him to the police for the murder of Mario. But we didn't. Max is ill. He mustn't be too far away from us! He's locked you up here. We could go to the police about that, too, no?

Lucia I'm here of my own free will. This chain is because of you, so none of you can take me away.

Hans If we wanted to carry you off, would this chain stop us? You poor fool. A chain can be cut. None of us is thinking of violence.

Lucia Hmm, I know how your, your witnesses end up. Max told me.

[Lucia crawls out from under the table, away from Hans]

Hans Max doesn't know what he's saying or doing. His mind is disordered.

Lucia [crawling into the bathroom] Get out. Go away. Go away!

[slams the door]

Hans If you change your mind, if the chain grows heavy... call me.

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Countess Stein You were always insane, and you still are.

Max Sane, insane then... hm. Who's to judge?

[referring to himself and Lucia]

Max And just you remember... we're both in the same boat.

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Max I never told anybody how - you saved your skin.

Mario Sometimes to save one's skin, there's no price too high.

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[Max and Lucia are laughing while caressing each other]

Max Ah, no, no. Too fast, too fast. Too long. Too long.

[kisses her]

Lucia Oh, Max, Max...

Max [stressful] Tell me, why'd you come? Tell me. Tell me!

Lucia [screams] I WANT YOU!

Max Tell me what to do. Tell me where to go. Tell me what to do.

Lucia No...

Max Tell me what to do!

Lucia [laughing] No!

[they continue to kiss and caress each other]

Max I love you so.

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Max [describing Lucia] My little girl...

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Max I met her again. A little girl.

Countess Stein You mean, a little girl from then?

[Max nods]

Max [clears his throat] I found her again. I found her again. And no one must touch her!

Countess Stein Who'd dream of touching her?

[Max gestures with his hands in objection]

Countess Stein Oh, Max, be careful. Before she could testify against you, you should file her away.

Max Oh. Oh, no.

Countess Stein But...

Max No. I love her.

Countess Stein [shakes her head] What a madman.

Max She was my little girl.

[close to tears]

Max She was very young.

Countess Stein And now she's not.

Max Yes. Yes, she - she's exactly the same - as she was for me.

Countess Stein Oh, Max.

Max As she was then!

Countess Stein I've never seen you so much in love.

Max [chocking up] I - I thought she was dead.

Countess Stein What a romantic story.

Max No. No, it's - not romantic.

Countess Stein No?

Max It's not romantic. It's a biblical story!

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[Max has handcuffed Lucia to a long chain attached to the bathroom]

Lucia Why?

Max So they can't take you away.

Lucia Who?

Max Klaus... Bert, Hans.

[Lucia giggles]

Max It's nothing to laugh about.

Lucia And if they come with a file?

Max Then you fight.

[Lucia continues giggling]

Max [angrily] DON'T LAUGH!

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[last lines]

Bert Well?

Klaus He doesn't answer. It's off the hook.

[lights a cigarette]

Klaus Tell me, Bert. How long have you known Max?

Bert Let's not talk about it.

Klaus You don't, er... dance for him anymore?

Bert I've lost him.

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Hans Remember. We must try to understand if we are victims of guilt complexes or not. If so, we must be *freed* of them. A guilt complex is a disturbance of the psyche, a neurosis.

Klaus Let's not delude ourselves. Memory is not made of shadows, but of eyes which can stare straight at you and fingers which point at you.

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Dobson We have to defend ourselves - the war is not over. If you want to live hidden away like a church mouse, then go ahead! But we want back the ranks we held. For we have never given up. Never given up!

Max [slamming his fists on the table] BUT I HAVEN'T GIVEN UP!

[calms]

Max I'm still here with you.

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Bert If I were rich, I'd hire you to do everything for me. Would you?

Max Yes, of course.

Bert You said that because you know I can't.

Max No.

Bert You don't really want to - you don't want to wipe anybody's arse.

[Max proceeds to wipe Bert's backside with disinfectant]

Bert Be careful.

[Max gives Bert a shot]

Bert You're very good at it. You never hurt.

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Klaus Even if it says a thousand persons on paper - ten thousand - it still makes less impression than one witness, in flesh and blood, staring at you. That is why they are so dangerous, Max. My task is to seek them out, wherever they are... and to see that they are filed away.

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Max [after spending the night with Lucia for the first time in twelve years] When all seems lost... something unexpected happens. Ghosts - take shape in the mind. How can one pull away from it? This phantom. With a voice and a body. This part of one's self.

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Bert Max, we all want the same thing - to live as peaceful citizens. Each of us has a respectable profession. Even I have some honorable duties. If you had wished, you could have had another career.

Max Look, Bert. If I choose to live like a...

[directed to Dobson]

Max Like a church mouse - I have a reason. I have a reason for working at night. It's the light.

[to the others]

Max I have a sense of shame in the light.

Klaus We are proud - of having been officers of the finest corps of the Third Reich. And if I were born again, I would do exactly what I did.

Max [does a Nazi salute] Sieg Heil!

Bert Bert, Klaus, Kurt, Dobson: [instinctively do the same] SIEG HEIL!

[Max breaks out of the salute, and ruefully notes that the others still have their arms outstretched. He walks away, shaking his head]

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Max I don't give a damn about this trial. It's a farce.

Klaus The trial is not a farce.

Max Yes, it is! It's a farce! It's a game - a game for freaks!

Klaus The freaks are you and your whore.

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[first lines]

Stumm Good evening.

Max You're early.

Stumm I want to get off early tomorrow morning. Ah, here are the flowers, the newspaper and the cigarettes that the countess asked for.

Max [puts the flowers in a vase] Thank you.

Stumm Has she called down?

Max I don't know.

Stumm You're always sending only me out to buy things for her.

Max [annoyed] You get tipped, don't you?

Stumm [sarcastic; shrugs] Oh.

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Max [to Lucia] There are no lines to Frankfurt. Why did you come here? Hm? Why did you come? WHY did you come?

[angrily kicks a table away]

Max Have you come to give me away? HAVE YOU?

[hits her]

Max Did you? Answer!

[the pair fall over]

Max Did you? Why'd you come? Why'd you come? Why? Why? WHY!

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Hans Max, our trials are held in private. They're also therapeutic, right? And the more shock value they have, the more effect they have. Only eyewitnesses can provoke this; because they go into details, they blurt out everything, they... you've seen it, haven't you? Only when confronted with *their* accusations can we discover how far we're able to defend ourselves!

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Bert Good evening, Max. I'm not too late, I hope. I still have to prepare the show. Stravinsky, "The Firebird", as we planned.

Max No show tonight, Bert. I, um, can't leave the desk.

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Max My little girl - you, you remember my little girl, don't you? My little girl is waiting for me. Bye.

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Kurt Why this unexpected meeting?

Klaus Max is hiding a dangerous witness in his apartment, and he won't conclude his trial.

Kurt It will be concluded. Max, answer me honestly - it'll simplify everything. Have you become a Communist?

Max Oh, God - the usual accusation, even for the newly born!

Dobson I know you're not a Communist; you're not a defeatist. You're one of us!

Max Which means I'm rotten and I stay rotten.

Dobson YOU BASTARD!

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Countess Stein I want to help you. What can I do?

Max Send me a box of chocolates.

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The Night Porter Movie Quotes