The Devil, Probably (1977)
Antoine Monnier: Charles
Photos
Quotes
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Charles : My illness is seeing too clearly.
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Charles : To reassure people, you only have to deny the facts.
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Charles : Charity degrades donor as much as the recipient.
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Charles : It's up to science to save us. We'll end up simply waving our limbs about and eating cakes, completely mad.
Michel : Do you want to go back to living in caves?
Charles : I ask for nothing, I lay claim for nothing.
Michel : No, you want to be an exceptional guy in an exceptional world.
Charles : What about you? What do you stand for? Well? Progress, brotherly love, love?
Michel : And you?
Charles : Me? Unbridled pleasure. Making love like a beast, a wild animal.
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Dr. Mime, Psychanalyste : Don't you get pleasure from non-action?
Charles : Yes, but the pleasure of despair, obviously.
Dr. Mime, Psychanalyste : Do you feel guilty?
Charles : Guilty?
Dr. Mime, Psychanalyste : Towards yourself?
Charles : Guilty without being so. I know I'm more intelligent than the others. I'm perfectly aware of my superiority. But if I did anything, then I'd be useful, even in some small way, in a world that disgusts me. I'd betray my ideas. It would only entrench me further. I prefer to know that there's no way out.
Dr. Mime, Psychanalyste : Isn't begging in the streets, as I've seen people like you do, a bit degrading?
Charles : Charity degrades the donor as much as the recipient.
Dr. Mime, Psychanalyste : Isn't that a good excuse for laziness?
Charles : Perhaps, but so what? If my aim was money and profit everyone would respect me.
Dr. Mime, Psychanalyste : Isn't being right compensation for being alive?
Charles : In losing my life, here's what I'd lose. Family planning, package holidays, cultural sporting, linguistic. The cultivated man's library. All sports. How to adopt a child. Parent-teacher associations. Education. Teaching 0 to 4 years, 7 to 14 years, 14 to 17 years. Preparation for marriage. Military duties. Europe. Decorations - honorary insignia. The single woman. Paid sick leave, unpaid sick leave. The successful man. Tax benefits for the elderly. Local taxes. Hire purchase. Radio and television rentals. Credit cards. Home repairs. Index-linking. VAT and consumers.
Dr. Mime, Psychanalyste : Do you believe in God?
Charles : I believe, so far as possible, in everlasting life. But if I commit suicide, I can't think I'd be condemned for not comprehending the incomprehensible.
Dr. Mime, Psychanalyste : How long have you been thinking about death for?
[the phone rings]
