Diplomacy (2014)

André Dussollier: Raoul Nordling

Photos 

Quotes 

• Général von Choltitz : Do you know what we do to men like you?

  Raoul Nordling : Give them a medal?

  Général von Choltitz : [breaking a smile]  Yes, on occasion.

  [stern again] 

  Général von Choltitz : Posthumously.

• Raoul Nordling : You'd rather not look reality in the eye?

  Général von Choltitz : Whose reality, yours or mine?

  Raoul Nordling : The reality that destroying Paris is absurd.

  Général von Choltitz : Yours then.

  Raoul Nordling : Not mine alone. The world is watching you. In the end, you, General Dietrich von Choltitz, will be held responsible. And for what? To delay the Allied attack on Germany for a few weeks? It makes no sense. I understand that you have orders and must obey them. But surely, at some point obedience ceases to be a duty. In your whole career, have you never had a doubt or even a hesitation over the legality of an order?

  Général von Choltitz : Even if that were the case, I have no right to incite uncertainty among my men through my own insubordination. A general at the front must be a model for his troops.

• Général von Choltitz : You certainly are a fine talker. Abraham... a Jew. It's an interesting analogy. I no longer believe in God, but I remember the Bible well. In fact, you're asking me to betray the oath I took to serve my country. You're asking me to betray my whole upbringing. My father was a soldier. My grandfather was also a soldier. My ancestors fought Napoleon in his Russian campaign. And I have been in two wars.

  Raoul Nordling : [opening his mouth to speak] 

  Général von Choltitz : No, no, no, no, listen to me. Let me finish. I saw everything thing in those wars. The intoxicating victory and the humiliation of defeat. I, too, want this one to end - the sooner the better. But I will never capitulate.

  Raoul Nordling : If Hitler told you to kill your little boy, you wouldn't hesitate? Like Abraham, 4,000 years ago?

• Raoul Nordling : Generals often have the power to destroy, rarely to edify.

• [last lines] 

  Le concierge : Shall we take the car?

  Raoul Nordling : On a day like this? You're kidding? Let's walk...

• Général von Choltitz : I respect my combatants, but they are Bolshevik criminals, and I will crush every last one of them.

  Raoul Nordling : Kill one and you create two more.