The Exception (2016)
Christopher Plummer: Kaiser Wilhelm II
Photos
Quotes
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Kaiser Wilhelm II : I'm ashamed to say that before and after my first marriage I, myself, fathered at least two illegitimate children: one with an Austrian countess, another with a French prostitute who was known in court circles as Madame L'Amour. Both of them, incidentally, blackmailed me for huge sums of money, the Countess and the prostitute. I expected better of the prostitute.
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Kaiser Wilhelm II : Is something wrong?
Mieke de Jong : I have to go now, forever. But first I have a message for you. From Winston Churchill.
Kaiser Wilhelm II : Of course you do. You're the secret agent. Marvelous.
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Princess Hermine : Tell us a little about yourself, Captain. Where's your family from?
Capt. Stefan Brandt : Brandenburg, Your Highness. My grandfather was an army officer, as was my father. He was killed on the Somme just before I was born.
Princess Hermine : And your mother?
Capt. Stefan Brandt : From a landowning family.
Princess Hermine : Really? Which one?
Capt. Stefan Brandt : Related to the Ludendorffs, distantly. After the war, of course, she had to clean houses. I remember helping her wheel her wages home in a barrel. Of course by the time we'd got to the bakery, it was worthless.
[an uneasy look passes between von Ilsemann and Hermine]
Capt. Stefan Brandt : She died of tuberculosis when I was twelve...
Kaiser Wilhelm II : [pounds the table with his fist] Am I to blame for every misfortune on this earth? I gave my life to the Fatherland, and this is my thanks? Nobody cares my navy betrayed me! Nobody remembers my army fell apart! Ludendorff, Bethmann, Tirpitz, where were they? Where were they? *Where were they?* After all I'd done for them, they stabbed me in the back! They lost me the war. They lost me my country.
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Kaiser Wilhelm II : Anyone might think you were spying on me, Captain.
Capt. Stefan Brandt : Forgive me, Your Highness.
Kaiser Wilhelm II : What are you doing creeping around in the woods?
Capt. Stefan Brandt : If anything happens to you, Your Highness, I'll be shot.
Kaiser Wilhelm II : Oh, it's good to know they still care.
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Kaiser Wilhelm II : These books they're writing! My God! They just dump bucketloads of filth on my head and nobody does anything! Bismarck would have had something to say on the subject. But then he had something to say on every subject, which is why I got rid of him.
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[while feeding the ducks]
Kaiser Wilhelm II : What do you think of the ducks, child? I'm very fond of them. They are beautiful creatures, and yet they ask for so little. A duck will never blame you for his troubles, or force you to abdicate your throne.
[He laughs]
Mieke de Jong : I know you miss it terribly, and yet, what a dreadful burden.
Kaiser Wilhelm II : You're right. And it was.
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Kaiser Wilhelm II : What do you think of him, our Captain Brandt?
Col. Sigurd von Ilsemann : He is a typical, cocky young officer, who thinks he can win the war on his own.
Kaiser Wilhelm II : Does he remind you of anyone, Sigurd?
Col. Sigurd von Ilsemann : Not at all.
