Remember this Line?

(This week's Fun Monday continues the movie theme. Our host, IT Guy, wants us to share some memorable lines from five different movies--the character who spoke the lines and to whom they were spoken. He also wants to know to whom we could have spoken those lines. Well-l-l, I can handle the first part of the assignment, but may not be willing to do the last part. After all, I've only known you Fun Monday participants for a couple of months!)



Here's the first five quoteworthy movies that came to mind:

1. To Kill a Mockingbird --much loved for its southern roots, performance by Gregory Peck, and universal themes of justice and coming of age. Atticus Finch gives this advice to his daughter Scout, who's complaining about people such as her teacher not doing what she wants them to: "If you just learn a single trick, Scout, you'll get along a lot better with all kinds of folks. You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view. . .until you climb inside his skin and walk around in it." Good bit of advice for all of us.

2. The English Patient -- tells the story of four damaged people whose lives intersect in an Italian villa/hospital at the end of World War II. Count Almasy, aka the horribly burned English Patient, remembers this poignant exchange with his married lover, Katherine Clifton, in the Egyptian desert:
Almasy: "When were you most happy?"
Katherine: "Now."
Almasy: "When were you least happy?
Katherine: "Now."

3. The Painted Veil -- this movie was a favorite of mine in 2007 starring Edward Norton and Naomi Watts. Set in England and China in the 1920s, Kitty (Watts) marries Walter Fane, a dull civil service doctor (Norton) in a fit of spite against her mother. Kitty immediately beds a local politician. Surprisingly, when he discovers them, the shy Fane retaliates by volunteering to serve as a doctor in a remote village in China that is being leveled by infectious disease. Kitty has a choice of going with him or his divorcing her for infidelity. These lines illustrate the punishing silence and bitterness between the couple:
Kitty Fane: "It's raining cats and dogs." (silence) "I said, it's raining cats and dogs."
Walter Fane: "Yes, I heard you."
KF: "You might have answered."
WF: "I suppose I'm not used to speaking unless I've something to say."
KF: "If people only spoke when they had something to say, the human race would soon lose the power to speak."

4. Odd Couple -- there's no background required for this one. However, this exchange is just a great example of the witty, biting exchange between the roommates. Oscar's girlfriend is trying to get him to lose weight:
Oscar: "Honey, that's fun fat. Everybody has that."
Felix: "I don't"
Oscar: "You don't have any fun either."

5. Pride and Prejudice -- Mr. Darcy delivers this opener of a marriage proposal to the beautiful Miss Elizabeth Bennet: "In vain I have struggled. It will not do--you must allow me to tell you how much I ardently admire and love you. . ." If only he'd stopped there, but instead he chose to go on with a litany of reasons for trying not to marry her, insulting her and her family. Miss Bennet sent him back to the drawing board and the second time around he got it right!

I can hardly wait to hear about the memorable movie lines from other Fun Monday participants. I'm headed over to IT Guy right now to check them out.