Clouds of Sils Maria (2014)

Juliette Binoche: Maria Enders

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Quotes 

• Maria Enders : You can't get innocent twice.

• Maria Enders : [Referring once again to the play 'Maloja Snake']  I don't know why I should be helping bring it to life.

  Valentine : I bet you weren't saying stuff like this when you were playing Sigrid.

  Maria Enders : I was a kid when I was playing Sigrid. I - I wasn't asking those kind of questions.

  Valentine : Like Jo-Ann and her science fiction film?

  Maria Enders : Yeah, probably.

  Valentine : Don't you want to get that innocence back?

  Maria Enders : You can't get innocent twice.

  Valentine : You can. If you just accepted Helena the way you accepted Sigrid. Obviously it's easier to relate to strength rather than weakness. Youth is better than maturity. Cruelty is cruel; suffering sucks. She's - she's mature and she's innocent. She's innocent in her own right. That's what I like about her.

  Maria Enders : Make some coffee: want some?

  Valentine : [Repeats 'Cruelty is cruel; suffering sucks' to herself and shakes head in self-conscious regret at the unsophisticated sound of it] 

  Valentine : You didn't answer me. You have your interpretation of the play. I think mine's just confusing you. It's frustrating me. It's uncomfortable. It's not good.

  Maria Enders : Stay.

  Valentine : No, no.

  Maria Enders : Please, stay. I need you.

• Maria Enders : I don't know why you are so dead set on making this play say the opposite of what it was meant to say.

  Valentine : At 20, you saw Sigrid's ambition, and you saw her violence because you felt it in yourself.

  Maria Enders : So?

  Valentine : So, that's what I'm saying. The text is like an object. It's going to change perspective based on where you're standing.

  Maria Enders : I don't know.

  Valentine : We should go. We're going to miss the snake.

  Maria Enders : There won't be any snake.

  Valentine : Fuck it.

• Maria Enders : [Referring to Jo-Ann]  She dives headfirst into a character's ambiguities, but I don't. That's why you admire what she does.

  Valentine : Yeah. You know, I think that when you watch her in a movie like in the one we saw tonight, there is - there is no distance there.

  Maria Enders : It's normal, it's a - culture. Right?

  Valentine : Agreed.

  Maria Enders : What's wrong with my acting? What do I need to do to make you admire me? Do I think too much? Huh? I'm too classical; not liberated like Jo-Ann? You're here to talk to me, so start talking.

  Valentine : I don't know. You, you, you can't be as accomplished as you are and as well-rounded as an actress as you are and still expect to hold on to the privileges of youth. It just doesn't work that that.

  Maria Enders : Oh. So I'm allowed to not be old as long as I don't want to be young. Is that it?

  Valentine : Yeah, I don't know, I guess so. Yes, totally, well put. Fuck. I think maybe good night.

• Maria Enders : To excel and to know how to show it is to excel twice.

• Maria Enders : No, but everything is weighted to make Sigrid look good.

  Valentine : I didn't read it like that. I see her arrogance and her cruelty. And Helena's humanity. She's able to talk about her own pain. It's moving.

• Piers Roaldson : [Piers proposes new movie mutant role for Maria]  I'm trying to consider genetics from a more human point of view.

  Maria Enders : When I was reading it, I imagined someone much younger. Maybe me younger, actually, but you were seeing me in movies that were made years ago. I - I've changed.

  Piers Roaldson : She has no age. Or else, she's every age at once. Like all of us.

  Maria Enders : Can I be frank? Maybe it's because I'm working with her, but as I was reading it, I - I kept thinking about Jo-Ann.

  Piers Roaldson : Yeah, well personally, I never think about Jo-Ann Ellis.

  Maria Enders : You're wrong. She's smart. And talented. She's modern, just like your character.

  Piers Roaldson : My character isn't modern. Not in that way, anyway. She's, outside of time.

  Maria Enders : Outside of time. I don't understand. It's too abstract for me. It's all right.

  Piers Roaldson : I - I don't like this era.

  Maria Enders : You're wrong. It's yours!

  Piers Roaldson : Amen! I didn't choose it.

  Maria Enders : [laughs] 

  Piers Roaldson : And if my era is Jo-Ann Ellis and viral Internet scandals I think I'm entitled to feel unrelated, aren't I. I mean, it's nothing against her, I guess I just assumed you'd understand.

• Maria Enders : [Maria feels Sigrid's lines in the script sound phony]  Honestly, you don't find this ridiculous?

  Valentine : Why, because she speaks brutally?

  Maria Enders : No, because it's phony. I don't believe it.

  Valentine : So you don't think people can be blinded by their own emotions?

  Maria Enders : Oh, I do, but not to that extent. It's too theoretical. Even a little stupid.

  Valentine : It's theater. It's an interpretation of life. It can be truer than life itself. Sigrid puts Helena's desires into words. She says the unspoken. She formulates it.

  Maria Enders : Cruelly.

  Valentine : OK, Cruelly.

  Maria Enders : Yeah, cruelly. Because she's up to no good. You're not in the character's skin. You - I have no choice, I have to be them. I have to identify with them. When it's phony, I feel it - viscerally. Can be literary but still be true. Can feel the difference and can hear it.

• Maria Enders : I played Sigrid in 'Maloja Snake' when I was 18. For me it was more than a role, and... in some way I am still Sigrid.

  Klaus Diesterweg : That's my point, Sigrid seduces Helena...

  Maria Enders : And it has nothing to do with being a lesbian, by the way. I've always been straight.

• Maria Enders : Stay.

  Valentine : No, no.

  Maria Enders : Please stay.

• Valentine : She knows that it means her downfall, but that's the ultimate truth to desire. It's fuckin' powerful!

  Maria Enders : [laughter] 

  Valentine : Oh my God, I hate you sometimes so much!

  Maria Enders : You're making my head spin!

• Maria Enders : Look, there! Is that the snake?

  Valentine : No. No, it's just mist. A little fog, when it breaks up.

  Maria Enders : It's still pretty beautiful, though, huh? It's like its gathering and pouring out into the valley. Maybe it is the snake. We have to be patient. No, it's not the snake. Oh, yes! I think it's turning into the snake. How 'bout you? Val? What the hell are you doing? Val? Val? Val? Val? Val? Come to me. Val? Val?

• Maria Enders : I had a dream. We were already rehearsing and past and present were blending together. Confused.

  Valentine : No kidding.

  Maria Enders : I shouldn't have said yes to Klaus, but Wilhelm's death, mourning, I couldn't refuse.

  Valentine : He is a sick director. Jo-Ann is a superstar. Pay's well.

  Maria Enders : I don't need the money.

  Valentine : OK.

• Maria Enders : [Against Valentine's suggestions, Maria leads them astray in the Alps]  I think this road takes us to Maloja.

  Valentine : What'll we do when we get to Maloja?

  Maria Enders : Take the bus.

  Valentine : You know you don't have to keep me on if you find my ideas simplistic.

  Maria Enders : What makes you say that?

  Valentine : If you find my point of view - uninteresting - I - I don't really know what I'm doing here. I can run lines with you but I don't really see the point. You can find anyone to do that.

  Maria Enders : All I'm saying is that thinking about a text is different than living it. It's nothing against you.

  Valentine : You hate the play. You hate her. You don't have to take it out on me. I'm just doing my job.

• Jo-Ann Ellis : I don't think you understand how much of an honor this is for me. When I was 15 I saw um - um, forgot that movie you did - with the CIA and Harrison Ford - I'm so sorry I'm blanking...

  Maria Enders : "A Beetle on Its Back."

  Jo-Ann Ellis : "A Beetle on Its Back," with Harrison Ford. You blew my mind! You, you, you were the epitome of class. You were everything I ever wanted to be as an actress. I mean, the way you battled the politicians and the military brass men, it was, it was captivating!

• Jo-Ann Ellis : You know, it's incredibly brave of you to take on the role of Helena. It's - it's a way of dealing with time.

  Maria Enders : Well, I dunno, sometimes I - I tell myself that it's just a job, and I'll be happy to move on when it's over.

• Maria Enders : Jo-Ann?

  Jo-Ann Ellis : What's up?

  Maria Enders : I wanted to ask you. You know the scene at the beginning of Act 3 when you tell me you want to leave and I get on my knees and I beg you to stay? You're on the phone ordering pepperoncini pizza for your coworkers in accounting. You leave without looking at me. As if I didn't exist. If you could pause for a second. Helena's distress would last longer when she's left alone in her office. Well, the way you're playing it, the audience follows you out but instantly forgets about her. So...

  Jo-Ann Ellis : So? So what?

  Maria Enders : When, when I played Sigrid I held it longer. I thought it was more powerful. Erotically. I mean, it really played well.

  Jo-Ann Ellis : No one gives a fuck about Helena at that point, do they? I'm sorry, it's pretty clear to me that this woman is all washed up. I mean, your character, Maria, not you. And when Sigrid leaves Helena's office, Helena's a wreck, and we get it. You know, it's time to move on. I think they want what comes next.

  Maria Enders : If you just held it a few seconds longer.

  Jo-Ann Ellis : It doesn't really feel right for me, Maria.

  Maria Enders : You're right. Yeah. I - I - I think I'm - I'm lost in my memories. You think you've forgotten your old habits, but their all - they all come back. Have to break them.

  Jo-Ann Ellis : I guess you do!

• Klaus Diesterweg : [Talking about the paparazzi crisis swirling around Christopher Giles]  The media is going to crucify him.

  Jo-Ann Ellis : No, no. I'll take the heat. I'll be the homewrecker. I'm used to getting nasty shit written about me. I could obviously care less.

  Klaus Diesterweg : Do you want to cancel tomorrow's rehearsal? Maria, would you mind?

  Maria Enders : Of course not.

  Jo-Ann Ellis : No way. No, no, no. I'd rather work.

• Maria Enders : [On the phone]  A sequel to 'Maloja Snake'? Yes, he did mention it to me. He wanted me to play Sigrid 20 years later. But... I have no idea what he had in mind. It was very vague. He must have given up on it. Do I regret it? Of course, I regret it.

• Valentine : This is Berndt.

  Berndt : Hi. Nice to meet you.

  Maria Enders : Nice to meet you.

  Valentine : You know those really - trashy photos I showed you of Lindsay Lohan. This guy's responsible.

  Berndt : Well, I try to be more elegant today.

• Maria Enders : Spare me the gloom. I'm not the one who died.

• Maria Enders : A sea of gray hair.

  Valentine : Completely.

• Maria Enders : Sigrid is - free, beyond everything, and, most of all, she's destructive, unpredictable. And, right or wrong, I've always identified with that freedom. It's a way of, ah, protecting myself.

• Klaus Diesterweg : Sigrid revives this hidden violence in Helena.

  Maria Enders : Was it hidden or - tamed?

• Henryk Wald : Are you sure you don't want to have a last drink.

  Maria Enders : [Burst out laughing]  I'm already drunk, darling.

• Maria Enders : You promised, no ghosts.

  Rosa Melchior : There aren't any.

  Maria Enders : I was joking!

  Rosa Melchior : No, was half-joking.

• Valentine : TMZ deemed her the A-list actress that dreamt of making it to the Z-list.

  Maria Enders : You could have told me sooner!

  Valentine : You despise internet gossip.

  Maria Enders : This is not gossip. This is information.

  Valentine : It's celebrity news.

• Maria Enders : You can imagine anything you want. Are we going the right way? I mean, I don't mind waking up at the crack of dawn; but, not to get lost in the mountains and miss the snake.

  Valentine : Well, we're basically here. You happy?

  Maria Enders : What makes you think we're here?

  Valentine : I've got a map!

• London Theater Assistant : [Last lines]  Curtain in five minutes.

  Maria Enders : How's the house?

  London Theater Assistant : Full.

• Maria Enders : [Referring to the proposed role of Helena]  Time's gone by and she can't accept it. Me neither, I guess.

  Klaus Diesterweg : There is no antagonism. It's the attraction of two women with the same wound. Sigrid and Helena are one and the same person. One and the same person. That's what the play's about. And because you were Sigrid, only you can be Helena now.

  Maria Enders : How can you be so sure?

  Klaus Diesterweg : You know as well as I do that Wilhelm Melchior had been working on a sequel for years.

  Maria Enders : Yes. But it was about Sigrid at 40 years old.

  Klaus Diesterweg : No, it was about Sigrid 20 years later became Helena.

  Maria Enders : So who's going to play Sigrid?

  Klaus Diesterweg : Jo-Ann Ellis. She did a superhero movie that just opened in the States.

  Maria Enders : And besides that?

  Klaus Diesterweg : Not much. She's 19. She's a lot more interesting that her interviews and profiles. She has a theatrical background. She doesn't want to be swallowed up by Hollywood. She admires you and is willing to pull out of her other commitments.

  Maria Enders : I'll listen carefully. But to be honest, the role scares me. Helena scares me. I'm in the middle of a divorce. I feel alone, and vulnerable. Probably too vulnerable to do this.

  Klaus Diesterweg : If you refuse, I'll understand, but it will be a missed opportunity, especially for Wilhelm.

  Maria Enders : I should get going.

  Klaus Diesterweg : Excuse me, but I won't be staying for dinner. Good evening madam.

  Maria Enders : Klaus, I have another reason. Susan Rosenberg. She played Helena with me.

  Klaus Diesterweg : I remember Susan Rosenberg.

  Maria Enders : She died in a car accident a year after. It's a superstition; I've always associated her death with Helena's suicide.

  Klaus Diesterweg : She was a lousy actress who didn't understand a thing about the role. And her conventional style of acting highlighted the modernity of your performance. You should be grateful to her.