Nine (2009)

Daniel Day-Lewis: Guido Contini

Photos 

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Quotes 

• Luisa Contini : Thank you.

  Guido Contini : What for?

  Luisa Contini : Thank you for reminding me I'm not special. You don't even see what you do, do you? Even the moments I think are ours, it's just you working to get what you want.

• Stephanie : I was wondering if you think there's a limit to what you can show in a movie.

  Guido Contini : What would you like to see that I haven't already shown you?

• Guido Contini : Hold on to me, Mamma. Don't let me wake from this.

• Guido Contini : [singing]  Nothing holds together, nothing makes a bit of sense now. Impossible to grasp or understand. How can I go on to watch the whole of my existence end up being nothing that I planned?

• Guido Contini : [singing]  I would like the universe to get down On it's knees And say, "Guido, whatever you please, It's okay. Even if it's impossible, we'll Arrange it." That's all that I want.

• [first lines] 

  Guido Contini : You kill your film several times, mostly by talking about it. A film is a dream. You kill it writing it down, you kill it with a camera; the film might come to life for a moment or two when your actors breathe life back into it - but then it dies again, buried in film cans. Mysteriously, sometimes, in the editing room, a miracle happens when you place one image next to another so that when, finally, an audience sits in the dark, if you're lucky - very lucky - and sometimes I've been lucky - the dream flickers back to life again.

• Guido Contini : Maestro, Maestro, Maestro. Maestro Contini. How do you begin? How do you begin this thing? Page 1. Page 1. Page 1. Page - nothing.

• Guido Contini : Am I dying, Mamma? I owe you flowers, I know. I'll come to the cemetery at the weekend. You should have let me bury you in Roma, Mamma, I could visit you every week.

• Guido Contini : I need a cigarette.

  Dante : He needs a shirt and tie, Lilli.

  Guido Contini : I need a coffee and a cigarette.

  Liliane La Fleur : Answer a question, I'll give you a coffee. Answer another question, I'll give you a cigarette. And so on.

  Guido Contini : Actually and an aspirin.

• Guido Contini : [singing]  I am lusting for more, Should I settle for less? I ask you, What's a good thing for, If not for taking it to excess?

• Guido Contini : [singing]  Guido, Guido; Guido, Guido; Me, me, ME! I want to be Proust, Or, the Marquis de Sade, I would like to be Christ, Mohammed, Buddha, But, not have to believe in God...

• Stephanie : Could you tell the fashionable women of America who your favorite designer is this year?

  Guido Contini : I'm less interested in the wrapping than what might be inside it.

• Dinardo : Might you tell the press what the film is about?

  Guido Contini : Why? I still don't know what my last film was about.

  Leopardi : That was the problem. Nobody else did.

• Cardinal : I like Charlie Chaplin.

  Guido Contini : Me too.

• Cardinal : Are you a Catholic?

  Guido Contini : Oh yes, very much so. Not as much as I would like to be, not as much as you would like me to be, I'm sure, but certainly yes, I'm trying.

  Cardinal : Try harder!

• Cardinal : You think people need to see so much sex? It's not necessary. We can all imagine.

  Guido Contini : Excuse me - but, my films are what I imagine.

  Cardinal : Then your imagination has no moral training.

  Guido Contini : How do you train the imagination?

  Cardinal : The imagination is God's garden; don't let the Devil play in it. Teach our Italian women to be wives, not whores. Don't make us look at filth and debauchery. Make us proud to be Italian.

• Guido Contini : What are you laughing about?

  Luisa Contini : Nothing. If you could see yourself. I couldn't live with it - the absurdity of being you, the effort of having to hide and lie and cheat. It's exhausting. No wonder you've got no script, you're too busy inventing your own life.

• Guido Contini : I can't believe you came.

  Luisa Contini : The jungle drums said it was an emergency.

  Guido Contini : The jungle drums exaggerated - just a tiny bit.

• Stephanie : I've seen all your movies.

  Guido Contini : Really?

  Stephanie : Like a million times. They're the only movies that tell the truth about the modern world.

  Guido Contini : And what truth is that?

  Stephanie : Death of religion. Sexual revolution.

  Guido Contini : I don't think religion is dead. And what exactly is the sexual revolution?

  Stephanie : That we can talk about later.

• Guido Contini : I can't.

  Dante : You can't. You must.

• Guido Contini : I need help.

  Dante : You've had help. You've seen the doctors, you've seen the priests, you've taken the cure.

  Guido Contini : I'm not cured.

  Dante : That's enough! The movie calls, your star has landed.

• Guido Contini : You're the muses - the incredible women who made Italy what it is today: a country run by men - who are themselves run by women.

• Guido Contini : I need more time.

  Dante : Forget the script. Claudia's here now. She'll inspire you to do what you do best, write with your camera.

• Guido Contini : You look ravishing.

  Claudia : You're not seeing me, you're seeing Lilli's wigs and makeup, I'm somewhere hidden underneath.

• Guido Contini : It's good to see you.

  Claudia : I'm assuming that's code for there's no script.

  Guido Contini : Why is everybody so suddenly obsessed with the script? Talk to the people who love you in our films, they're not interested in my script! They're interested in the way you turn your head, the way the camera looks past you to the moon, the way you smile a little as you cry, the way you really do blush for the camera. How? Who even knows, but, whatever else it is, it's not my script.

• Guido Contini : We'll just keep asking each other questions - and don't look to me for the answers, okay?

• [last lines] 

  Guido Contini : Action.