The Longest Week (2014)

Larry Pine: Narrator

Quotes 

• Narrator : It wasn't till years later that Conrad would realize love was just like communism - it was a great idea but never quite worked out.

• Narrator : Conrad's worst fear had come true. He was all alone.

• Narrator : Conrad was the son of a Parisian entrepreneur and a Caledonian debutante. His father, Jean-Louis Valmont, owned the Valmont Hotel as had his father and his father before him. Their country home in Great Neck was the pantheon of summer gatherings. On the eve of his 51st year, Jean-Louis took Conrad's mother to the south of France on what was to be a weekend excursion. It had since turned into a lavish escapade around the world lasting nearly three decades. Over the subsequent years, Conrad was raised by the Valmont's staff. His chauffeur Bernard had taken Conrad to a Parisian brothel for his 13th birthday as a sort of rite of passage into polite society. It was a family tradition. At present, he was working on his magnum opus - a great New York novel in the tradition of Fitzgerald and Edith Wharton. It was widely speculated as to where he was in the process of writing it. When asked, he would simply reply...

  Conrad Valmont : I'm in the gathering stages.

  Narrator : Conrad had been in the "gathering stages"for several years now. Last week Thursday, Conrad's parents had capsized and had become stranded on a small island in the Mediterranean. Having to spend numerous days together without the distractions of wealth and a transient lifestyle, they'd come to a simple realization they didn't particularly like one another. Conrad's parents were to divorce by the week's end and neither wanted to continue paying for Conrad's extravagant lifestyle. Hence, the Valmont board of trustees had requested hotel security to escort Conrad from the premises by 2 PM.

• Narrator : This is Dylan Tate. Dylan was an antisocial socialist, a closet conversationalist, a clinical neurotic. Possessing an inimitable talent for the arts, Dylan had been afforded the opportunity to travel the world and live a comfortable lifestyle at his own expense something Conrad knew nothing about. Dylan Tate was the only personage of all Conrad's acquaintances whom he admired and, to a bigger extent than he liked to admit to himself, envied.

• Narrator : As their conversation continued, the two spoke of French cinema and classic literature. He tried to be witty, to make her laugh, and for a moment she resembled a statue, a bust of an Aphrodite that he could only remember its gentle eyes but not where the statue itself had been.

• Narrator : Unfortunately, there were still two unavoidable problems Dylan, and that Conrad was broke. But most importantly that he was lying concerning both.

• Narrator : Conrad's ability to trust had been marred by years of betrayal and deceit for others had only dated or befriended him to gain access to his wealth. He had been quoted on numerous occasions as saying that no one could be trusted. What he forgot to add was that included himself.

• Narrator : Conrad had often professed that he led a "life of the mind." Unfortunately for him, his mind had been damaged by years of abandonment, philandering, Tom Collins, and a two-pack-per-day nicotine habit, not to mention an unhealthy Oedipal complex.

• Beatrice Fairbanks : Do you ever notice that the people who make fun of people for being pretentious are usually the pretentious ones? It's just Duchamp but without the wit.

  Conrad Valmont : You ever noticed how people only lash out on others because they're afraid of what they see because they see themselves?

  Beatrice Fairbanks : What if I tell you "I love you," does that mean I actually love myself?

  Conrad Valmont : Exactly.

  Beatrice Fairbanks : I love you.

  Conrad Valmont : I love you too.

  Narrator : It was at that moment Conrad and Beatrice knew that it was over. Beatrice couldn't help but feel sympathy for Conrad. Not love but sympathy. One can often get confused for the other.

• [last lines] 

  Narrator : It appeared Conrad's allergies to grass and clean air had been completely psychosomatic. He began to reflect back on his week with Beatrice and thought of the old adage, "'Tis better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all." Conrad reluctantly agreed, for he still thought of Beatrice often. At the ripe age of 42, Conrad Valmont was finally growing up.