Camille (1936)

Greta Garbo: Marguerite Gautier

Photos 

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Quotes 

• Armand : Don't you believe in love, Marguerite?

  Marguerite : I don't think I know what it is.

  Armand : Oh, thank you.

  Marguerite : For what?

  Armand : For never having been in love.

• Marguerite : It's you. It's not a dream.

  Armand : No, it's not a dream. I'm here with you in my arms, at last.

  Marguerite : At last.

  Armand : You're weak.

  Marguerite : No, no. Strong. It's my heart. It's not used to being happy.

• Olympe : If you don't stop being so easy-going with your money, you'll land in the gutter before you're through or back on that farm where you came from, milking cows and cleaning out hen houses.

  Marguerite : Cows and chickens make better friends than I've ever met in Paris.

• Marguerite : When one may not have long to live, why shouldn't one have fancies?

• Marguerite : You should go away and not see me any more. But, don't go in anger. Why don't you laugh at yourself a little, as I laugh at myself and come and talk to me once in awhile in - a friendly way.

  Armand : That's too much - and not enough.

• [Marguerite & Armand flirt by way of long glances] 

  Marguerite : His eyes have made love to me all evening.

• Armand : Yes, you, well you did smile at me a moment ago, didn't you?

  Marguerite : Well, you tell me first whether you smiled at me or my friend.

  Armand : What friend?

  Marguerite : You didn't even see her?

  Armand : No.

• Armand : I know I don't mean anything to you. I don't count. But someone ought to look after you. And I could if you'd let me.

  Marguerite : Too much wine has made you sentimental.

• Marguerite : Let me love you. Let me live for you. But don't let me ask any more from Heaven than that - God might get angry.

• Madame Barjon, the Florist : [First lines]  For the lady of the camellias. And they're almost twice as large as usual.

  Marguerite : I shall have twice as many tomorrow.

  Prudence Duvernoy : Twice as many! Oh, don't listen to her, Barjon. I know what those things cost.

  Madame Barjon, the Florist : Doesn't she listen when she orders her hats and dresses from you?

  Prudence Duvernoy : They're an investment!

  Marguerite : Of course I order too many hats and too many dresses and too many everything, but I want them.

• Armand : No one has ever loved as I have loved you.

  Marguerite : That may be true; but, what can I do about it?

• Marguerite : How can one change one's entire life and build a new one on one moment of love? And yet, that's what you make me want me to close my eyes and do.

  Armand : Then close your eyes and say yes. I command it!

  Marguerite : Yes. Yes, yes, yes.

• Armand : Nanine. Nanine. Nanine! Get the doctor quickly.

  Marguerite : The doctor? If you can't make me live, how can he?

  Armand : No-no. Don't say such things, Marguerite. You'll live. You must live!

  Marguerite : Perhaps its better if I live in your heart where the world can't see me. If I'm dead, there'll be no stain on our love.

• Marguerite : Now what shall I give you to remember me by?

  Baron de Varville : You can't give me anything I'd like.

  Marguerite : What's that?

  Baron de Varville : A tear. You're not sorry enough I'm going.

  Marguerite : Oh, but I *am* sorry.

• Nichette : Marguerite, it's ideal to love, and to marry the one you love.

  Marguerite : I have no faith in ideals.

• Marguerite : The sort of company you're in tonight doesn't suit you at all.

  Armand : Nor you.

  Marguerite : No. These are the only friends I have and I'm no better than they are.

• Marguerite : It's hard to believe that there's such happiness in this world.

  Armand : Marguerite. Now you've put tears on my hand. Why?

  Marguerite : You will never love me thirty years. No one will.

  Armand : I'll love you all my life. I know that now. All my life.

  [They kiss] 

• Marguerite : I shall love Armand always. And I believe he shall love me always too.

• Monsieur Duval : Please, give him up.

  Marguerite : What shall I do?

  Monsieur Duval : Talk to him. Tell him he must leave you.

  Marguerite : I have talked.

  Monsieur Duval : Leave him.

  Marguerite : He'd follow me.

  Monsieur Duval : Tell him you don't love him.

  Marguerite : He wouldn't believe me.

• Armand : Then you do love him. Dare to tell me that you love him. You're free of me forever.

  Marguerite : [Armand grabs her]  I love him.

• Marguerite : I always look well when I'm near death.

• Monsieur Duval : How can I ever repay you for all you're doing for me?

  Marguerite : Make no mistake, monsieur - whatever I do, it's nothing for you; it's all for Armand.

• Armand : Fate must have had something to do with this. I've hoped for it so long. You don't believe me?

  Marguerite : No.

  Armand : First time I saw you was a year and a half ago. You were in an open carriage, dressed in white. I saw you get out and go into a shop in the Place de la Bourse.

  Marguerite : Yes, that might have happened. I used to go to a dressmaker at Place de la Bourse.

  Armand : You were wearing thin dress with miles of ruffles, a large straw hat, an embroidered shawl, a single bracelet in heavy gold chain, and, of course, the camellias at your waist.

• Marguerite : I'm not always sincere, one can't be in this world, you know.

• Marguerite : Time changes our minds as well as our hearts.

• Armand : I'm glad of this opportunity of returning something belonging to you.

  [Presents a white ladies handkerchief found six months earlier] 

  Armand : I found it on the floor when I came back.

  Marguerite : And you kept it with you all this time? Always with you?

  Armand : Yes. Always with me. Like an old friend - to remind me that I'm not the Baron de Varville.

  Marguerite : Hmm. Rather very romantic reasons.

  Armand : No. I kept it as a warning against romance.

  Marguerite : How sensible.

• Armand : I'll bring this little book as a birthday present. Have you read it?

  Marguerite : I never read anything. What is it?

  Armand : Manon Lescaut

  Marguerite : Who was she?

  Armand : A beautiful girl who lived for love and pleasure.

  Marguerite : [Examines the book cover]  It's a beautiful color, it should be a very good story.

  Armand : Yes it is. But, it's rather sad. She dies in the end.

  Marguerite : Well, then I'll keep it, but, I won't read it. I don't like sad thoughts. However, we all die.

• Marguerite : Now, why don't you go back and dance with one of those pretty girls.

  [laughs] 

  Marguerite : Come, I'll go with you.

  [Armand kisses Marguerite's hand] 

  Marguerite : What a child you are.

  Armand : You're hand's so hot.

  Marguerite : Is that why you put tears on it? To cool it?

• Marguerite : Why should you care for a woman like me? I'm always nervous or sick or sad or too gay.

• Baron de Varville : Who is it?

  Marguerite : I might say that there is someone at the wrong door - or the great romance of my life.

  Baron de Varville : The great romance of your life!

  [laughs] 

  Baron de Varville : Charming!

  Marguerite : That might have been.

  [laughs] 

• Marguerite : You know, once I had a little dog and he always looked sad when I was sad and I loved him so. And when your tears fell on my hand and I loved you too all at once.

• Marguerite : It costs money to go to the country.

  Armand : I have money.

  Marguerite : Yes, how much?

  Armand : Seven thousand francs a year.

  Marguerite : I spend more than that in a month and I've never been too particular.

• Marguerite : Why can't anything ever be perfect once?

• Armand : Tired?

  Marguerite : Only nicely tired. Let's go as far as the top of the hill and see what's beyond.

  Armand : Yes. I don't care what's behind, do you?

  Marguerite : No.

• Marguerite : How good the earth smells. Never need any perfume. Look, look I found a four leaf clover! My first good luck! You know, when I was little I used to hunt for them everywhere, thinking they would change everything.

• Marguerite : Are you going to spoil a day like this by being jealous?

  Armand : No, of course not. I always know he's there.

  Marguerite : But, I'm always here.

• Marguerite : A man can go back. He can always go back.

• Marguerite : Monsieur, suppose I told you I have a feeling I shan't live very long.

  Monsieur Duval : Well, then I scold you for being fanciful and a little foolish. What you probably feel is the melancholy of happiness, that mood that comes over all of us when we realize that even *love* can't remain a flood tide forever.

  Marguerite : Oh, Armand. I'm doomed.

  Monsieur Duval : With him, you're both doomed.

• Nanine : Your hands are like ice, child. Tell Nanine what you're going to do.

  Marguerite : Oh, make my love hate me. Make him hate me. Oh, God help me!

  [Sobs uncontrollably] 

• Marguerite : People say things they don't mean sometime at night. Well, life is something besides kisses and promises in the moonlight.

• Armand : I could kill you for this!

  Marguerite : I'm not worth killing, Armand. I've loved you as much as I could love. If that wasn't enough, I'm not to blame. We don't make our own hearts.

• Marguerite : We went to the theater, Prudence.

  Prudence Duvernoy : What was the play?

  Baron de Varville : Manon Lescaut.

  Armand : Oh, yes. The story of a man who loved a woman more than his honor. A woman who wanted luxury more than his love. You should have found that very entertaining.

• Marguerite : How kind. You know, I used to think you were such a gay fellow - with no other thought, but for pleasure.

• Marguerite : You were the only one that took the trouble to ring my bell.