A Matter of Time (1976)

Ingrid Bergman: Contessa Sanziani

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Quotes 

• Contessa Sanziani : You're only what you wish to be. But, you must take the risk. Never turn away from either joy or suffering. Take it all. Take everything you can from life! It never gives anything back.

• Contessa Sanziani : No one is dead. No one dies unless we wish them to. It is a secret I will share with you. You see, time, you see, it doesn't exist.

• Contessa Sanziani : Now, you look as you should. You may go now.

  Nina : Oh, Contessa, thank you.

  Contessa Sanziani : Oh, don't thank me. I'm merely teaching myself to grow old in the right way. I'll wish you as much happiness, as much suffering, in your life, as I've had in mine. Go along now.

• Contessa Sanziani : Its your turn, little one, to be desired and to conquer. Tonight I choose between hating you and directing your steps. Now, be yourself - if you can. That is the important thing. And if you can't, be silent. He'll imagine what he wants to imagine. For this, of course, he has to pay a higher price. Oh, not for the money itself. Never. But, for what he thinks of you, for the value he places on you.

• Contessa Sanziani : It isn't enough to look at oneself. The mirror must be beautiful too.

  Nina : The mirror?

  Contessa Sanziani : Yes - the two. You and the mirror.

• Nina : If only I could be like you!

  Contessa Sanziani : Oh, never! Never! You must never wish to be like anyone else in this world. Unless you want to be a copy. Copies, of course, they only produce mediocrity.

• Nina : Not even a beautiful mirror can take away an ugly birthmark.

  Contessa Sanziani : You have my sacred promise. One day, there will be men, important men, who will go to their damnation for the sake of pressing their lips to it.

• Contessa Sanziani : Don't be afraid of showing yourself naked. Modesty is only a sense of imperfection - a virtue taught by ugly women. One gets rid of it directly, one knows ones beautiful. Be proud of your belly. Be proud of your breasts. Be proud of your skin. Never deny these precious gifts - its an insult to God.

• Contessa Sanziani : If you're not an original, you're nothing. The world, you see, worships the original.

• Contessa Sanziani : Yes, film. Film, yes. Something new, huh? Something American, no doubt. They're so terribly clever.

• Contessa Sanziani : People die because we let them. Because we wish to get rid of them.

• Contessa Sanziani : Oh, I thank God for Gabriele d'Orazio. He's given me strength. He's given me life! He's unveiled the sun to me. And when we make love, it's never dark, it's open - and free. To the sound of the sea and the wind.

  Count Sanziani : Really, Lucretia, how can you speak of such things?

  Contessa Sanziani : Because I'm alive. I'm alive!

• Contessa Sanziani : Of course, I knew you'd come.

  Count Sanziani : Someone told me, well, I forget who it was, that you were staying here. That you were not well or very happy. I know 40 years ago I swore never to see you again. But, now - now that we've lived so long.

  Contessa Sanziani : I was expecting you.

  Count Sanziani : Really? Well, I must say, I find that surprising. But, your reactions always surprise me.

  Contessa Sanziani : There is nothing you can say that's going to alter anything. Nothing! I will not come back to live with you.

• Contessa Sanziani : When I tell you that I am miserable - you take me to the theater. When I tell you I intend to be unfaithful - you stroke my cheek and smile. Never a moment of passion! Never - never a burst of jealousy!

  Count Sanziani : All the same, I never forgive you for betraying me with a man older than myself or walking out of our life when - is it possible - here we are still quarreling - when it's all so - unimportant any more.

• Contessa Sanziani : I'm approaching an age when one must pay for love. But, I shall never resign myself to that.

• Contessa Sanziani : The Duke of Milan! I noticed him at dinner. Oh, completely bald. Shaved it all off. Lydia tells me he shaves his entire body. Must be a striking figure. I wonder how she knows?