Of Love and Beauty |
A tribute to Vincent and Catherine's Anniversary April 12th, 2015
Quotes from the B&B episodes
Series Introduction
VINCENT: This is where the wealthy and the powerful rule. It is her world. A world apart from mine. Her name is Catherine. From the moment I saw her, she captured my heart—with her beauty, her warmth, and her courage. I knew then, as I know now, she would change my life, forever.
“A Children's Story”
CATHERINE: Vincent, I’ve been all over the world, met people, done things. I’ve lived in luxury most people could never imagine. But I can’t remember a time when I felt as good or complete as I do right now. VINCENT: Hmm. I feel it in you, through you. CATHERINE: You really can. VINCENT: It’s very beautiful. CATHERINE: Sort of like a dream? VINCENT: Better.
“Siege”
ELLIOT: Can you put a price tag on magic? The true value of great art lies in its ability to influence and enhance the quality of humanity, and contrary to popular opinion, I believe New Yorkers still qualify.
ELLIOT: Incredible, isn’t it? Everything happening at the same time: passion, humor, danger. CATHERINE: A little like life.
ELLIOT: I do love the city. The thing is, you can’t walk a block without seeing somebody or something that just absolutely knocks you out, stuns you. CATHERINE: The good, the bad and the utterly absurd. ELLIOT: Yeah. Yeah, you know it’s constantly changing. It’s constantly transforming itself, reinventing itself. It’s unbelievable. It’s always expanding. CATHERINE: With a little help from you. ELLIOT: I’ve been lucky enough to realize some of my dreams.
CATHERINE: Yes, I got the flowers. They’re beautiful.
MISCHA: Look at my Sophie, she’s eighteen here, the year we were married. SOPHIE: You were so tall and handsome. No wonder I fell in love with him.
“Terrible Savior”
JASON WALKER: Stubbs, how does someone as ugly as you happen to know so many beautiful women?
“No Way Down”
PYTHON: Oooh, man, you are ugly! COZY: Nothing ugly about him. He’s just different. PATRICIA: Yeah, real different.
HOWIE: Wait. Wait, Chris. Look, I’ll trade this to you if, if you let him go. And it’s real neat. 'Cause when you shake it… inside it snows.
“Masques”
CHARLES: Have I told you how beautiful you look? Sometimes you remind me so much of your mother. CATHERINE: I miss her too. CHARLES: Someday, you’ll find someone you can love as much as I loved your mother. We were two of the lucky ones. I have my memories, and I have you. CATHERINE: You sure do.
BRIGIT: I like your mask. I wrote a story about an owl woman once. Just a little fable, for children. CATHERINE: For children of all ages. I read it just last year, and I loved it. BRIGIT: Did you now? Well, it’s not easy to find, that one. CATHERINE: It was given to me by a friend, a very special friend. You have a real gift.
BRIGIT: Extraordinary! You look as though you might have ridden with Cuchulain, or sailed with Theseus.
VINCENT: I’ve lived here all my life, and yet, it’s as though I’ve never seen this city… until tonight. CATHERINE: You’ve seen so much of the violence and hatred of my world. I wanted you to know there’s beauty, as well. VINCENT: Oh, I know that. Ever since the night I found you, Catherine.
“Nor Iron Bars a Cage”
EDWARD HUGHES: This is the best shot. Extraordinary, isn't it?
VINCENT: You look like an angel, standing there.
EDWARD HUGHES: He's a miracle. Like nothing I even dreamed of.
EDWARD HUGHES: Who is Catherine? VINCENT: She is everything. But she lives… only in my heart.
CATHERINE: Professor Hughes, I don’t know how to explain this to you. I don’t even pretend to understand it. But Vincent and I are connected. I know him, and I know that, whatever he is, he’s also the best part of what it means to be human. And if you take away his freedom, then you take away that very part that makes him most human!
CATHERINE: “But how could I forget thee? Through what power, Even for the least division of an hour, Have I been so beguiled as to be blind To my most grievous loss?—That thought's return Was the worst pang that sorrow ever bore, Save one, one only, when I stood forlorn, Knowing my heart's best treasure was no more; That neither present time, nor years unborn Could to my sight that heavenly face restore.”
“Song of Orpheus”
MARGARET: Jacob. Oh, Jacob. FATHER: You’re too beautiful. I can’t believe you’re here. MARGARET: No words. Just hold me. Hold me.
CATHERINE: It’s so sad, to have had a beginning and an end and all the time in the middle empty. VINCENT: They had seven days, Catherine. Seven days.
“An Impossible Silence”
CATHERINE: Can she speak? At all? VINCENT: She speaks: with her hands. A beautiful language.
LAURA: (Writing on a notepad to translate her signed word to Catherine) You're beautiful.
“Shades of Gray”
FATHER: One June afternoon, nearly forty years ago, I was walking along 57th Street. As I approached Fifth Avenue, I saw the loveliest woman I had ever in my life seen. She was walking toward me in a summer dress. A soft breeze was blowing. She was a vision. She wasn’t merely beautiful. Her eyes were beaming with intelligence and humor, full of life. Her gaze met mine for a moment, and left me utterly speechless. I knew then that this was the woman I’d searched all my life for.
“China Moon”
LIN: Henry. I don’t know how to tell you about him. He’s, he’s wonderful. He’s good, strong, and gentle, and he loves me.
LIN: Henry is my life. From the moment I first saw him, I knew that he was the only person who could make my life complete.
VINCENT: You looked so beautiful. For a moment, I allowed myself to dream. CATHERINE: So did I.
“The Alchemist”
JIMMY: Her name is Carmen. She’s my fiancée. CATHERINE: She’s lovely. JIMMY: She is, isn’t she? It was the best collar I ever made.
“Temptation”
DR. SANDERLE: It’s been a rough year for you. Why cling to it? CATHERINE: Because it’s been the most wonderful year of my life.
JOE: Oh, did I tell you how gorgeous you look? CATHERINE: No. JOE: Well, consider it done.
ERIKA: You know, your date is very beautiful. Is dancing with me going to make her jealous? JOE: Date? Oh, you mean Cathy? No, we just work together. She's one of our top investigators.
JOE: I met the most incredible woman last night. We left the party and we walked from the hotel all the way down to Battery Park. Just walked, talked, about everything till the sun came up. It was great. She's terrific.
VINCENT: “How should we be able to forget those ancient myths that are the beginning of all peoples? The myths about dragons that, at the last moment, turn into princesses. Perhaps all the dragons of our lives are princesses, who are only waiting to see us, once beautiful and brave. Perhaps everything terrible is, in its deepest being, something helpless that wants help from us. So, you must not be frightened if a sadness rises up before you, larger than any you have ever seen. If a restiveness like light and cloud-shadows, passes over your hands and over all you do. You must think that something is happening to you. That life has not forgotten you. That it holds you in its hand. It will not let you fall.”
MOUSE: Sparks of fire inside. Beautiful.
VINCENT: I have something for you. I wanted to give you something from my world. Something for you to carry with you. A keepsake. CATHERINE: Vincent, it's beautiful. VINCENT: It comes from our deepest chamber. It reminds me of a piece of eternity. CATHERINE: I'll cherish it.
“Promises of Someday”
DEVIN: I tell you, there's been a few dark nights where I thought I imagined the whole thing. The tunnels, the old man, you. Especially you.
FATHER: She was a good woman, older than myself. Not an educated woman, but with her own wisdom, and a kind heart.
VINCENT: The brief. How is it? CATHERINE: It’s rough in spots, and the language isn’t really turgid enough. But I think it’ll keep Ehringer in prison for a long time.
“Down to a Sunless Sea”
STEVEN: You know, I actually think scars are beautiful. They’re kinda like a map to a person’s past. Proof that even the worst wounds heal. I have scars too. You just can’t see them.
VINCENT: “In Xanadu did Kubla Khan a stately pleasure-dome decree: Where Alph, the sacred river, ran through caverns measureless to man down to a sunless sea.
“So twice five miles of fertile ground with walls and towers were girdled round: And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree: And here were forests ancient as the hills…”
“Fever”
MOUSE: It’s only gold.
FATHER: Now we, as a community, would have to decide what we will do with this extraordinary treasure. And our decision will be a great test of our good sense and our loyalty to each other.
VINCENT: Dreams can turn into nightmares. CULLEN: I know the difference between dreams and nightmares. When I was selling door to door I’d see these houses, beautiful houses with swimming pools, trees all around, and inside, all this nice furniture. And in my whole life I had one piece of nice furniture. But always, I’d say to my wife, “Betty, someday our ship will come in. Someday, we’ll have nice things, too. I’ll have time to spend on my carving, maybe sculpt in marble.” The day she died I looked around, and what did I have to show? A ten-year-old car with a bad transmission. I couldn’t even pay the hospital bill. FATHER: That was Above, Cullen. You have never wanted for anything since you have been with us.
“Everything is Everything”
VINCENT: How beautifully you read. CATHERINE: I remember the first time you read to me, how safe I felt, the comfort I found in your voice. I wanted to share that.
“To Reign in Hell”
VINCENT: What would you have me believe? That you loved, and are now capable of this? PARACELSUS: Now is the time for retribution. VINCENT: Then you never really knew love.
VINCENT: Before I left, Father told me something that I’m just now beginning to understand. He said that there is a truth beyond knowledge, beyond everything we could ever hope to know... And that truth is love.
“Ozymandias”
VINCENT: Your world and mine. She tells our stories on these walls, reminds us that we are all a part of one great city. CATHERINE: It’s lovely, Vincent. She must be an extraordinary woman, to take bare gray walls and fill them with so much color and beauty.
SARAH: The paintings are beautiful, yes, but they’re not worth her life. VINCENT: Elizabeth says they are her life. Who are we to tell her that she’s wrong?
ELLIOT: I can never get enough of this city... God, how beautiful she looks.
CATHERINE: It’s Elliot. It was so easy when I thought I was falling in love, and even easier when I was certain he was evil. But now… VINCENT: Now you see him as he truly is. Good and bad, strong and weak, capable of great deeds and great wrongs. A human being.
ELLIOT: Cathy, I’m in love with you. I’ve had other relationships, but from the very first moment that I set eyes on you, I knew you were different.
CATHERINE: It’s just a building, Elliot. People are more important than buildings, more important than dreams even. and if you pick up that phone, and stop the tower right now, then I’ll know you believe that too. and then I’ll marry you and trust you.
VINCENT: “I met a traveler from an antique land Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand, Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command Tell that its sculptor well those passions read Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things, The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed. And on the pedestal these words appear: 'My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings: Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!' Nothing beside remains. Round the decay Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare, The lone and level sands stretch far away.”
“A Happy Life”
CATHERINE: He’s overcome tremendous hardship, he’s suffered great pain, and yet he has the most beautiful spirit, the most generous heart of anyone I’ve ever known.
CATHERINE: Tonight I went to a piano recital. I was actually feeling OK, and then I sat down and he started to play the Grieg piano concerto. The one that we heard in the park that night. VINCENT: Was it beautiful? CATHERINE: Yes, it was beautiful, and I kept remembering how much you loved it, and I wanted you there with me so badly, it became unbearable to me, almost physically painful. I just had to run. I actually ran from it. Vincent, what are we going to do? We have to do something before there’s nothing left for either of us.
DREAM VINCENT: Your hair! The sunlight in your hair is so beautiful. Catherine, the colors! It’s like another world.
DREAM CATHERINE: The two of us, in the sunshine. Vincent, you are so beautiful! DREAM VINCENT: Catherine, I’m a part of you. What you see in me is the beauty in your heart.
“Remember Love”
VINCENT: “And playing, lovely and watery And fire green as grass. And nightly under the simple stars As I rode to sleep the owls were bearing the farm away...” CATHERINE: It was beautiful. Why did you stop? VINCENT: Sometimes I see it all... so clearly.
VINCENT: It was a dream, Catherine. CATHERINE: No. VINCENT: A beautiful, impossible dream. One we dare not have. CATHERINE: But for a moment, I thought it might be possible. VINCENT: So did I.
ANGEL: Knowledge and beauty are fragile things. They need protection.
“Ashes, Ashes”
DMITRI: Love. Is not for politics. I show. It’s for Anna. FATHER: Oh, yes, she’s very beautiful.
CATHERINE: She’s beautiful. VINCENT: If only you could hear the love in his voice when he speaks of her. He’s crossed half the world, risked his life, left everything and everyone behind him, all for Anna. CATHERINE: He can never go back now, can he? He’s burned his bridges home, all for a dream. VINCENT: He comes from a land of dreamers. CATHERINE: He must love her very much.
DMITRI: You are very kind, like Anna. In Kiev first we meet, long time ago. You are like her, young, beautiful. Anna and I, we marry, have family, like you maybe, beautiful children. ELLIE: I am not a child.
CATHERINE: “Sleep, my pretty one, rest now, my pretty one. Close your eyes, the day is nearly done. Rest your head, tomorrow will surely come. Sleep, my pretty one, rest now, my pretty one, Close your eyes, the day is nearly done…”
ELLIE: He said that I was beautiful.
FATHER: I failed her, Vincent. How could I let a beautiful child like that die? VINCENT: You did all you could. FATHER: It wasn’t enough. She put her life in my hands. VINCENT: Others have put their lives in your hands as well.
CATHERINE: It was a beautiful thing you did for Eric. FATHER: [He listens without speaking.] VINCENT: It was for all of us.
“Chamber Music”
CATHERINE: Ah, I love this part. VINCENT: Yes, it’s beautiful.
VINCENT: “She walks in beauty, like the night…”
YOUNG VINCENT: Rolley, where did you learn to play so beautifully? YOUNG MARY: Did someone teach you? YOUNG ROLLEY: Just know how.
YOUNG VINCENT: Rolley, we want you to stay. The music that you bring to us is very beautiful, but you are the one that we love.
MISS KENDRICK: I’m trying to turn him into a musician. Right now, he’s just a music box. YOUNG FATHER: I don’t think any “music box” ever played Schumann so beautifully.
“God Bless the Child”
SAMANTHA: Father! Father! Look what I made for Vincent! MARY: Oh, that’s beautiful! What is it? SAMANTHA: It’s a pen holder. FATHER: Of course. What else? And I happen to know, that’s exactly what he needed. SAMANTHA: I’m giving it to him right now!
CATHERINE: She’s amazing. LENA: Isn’t she? I mean yesterday, she wasn’t even here. Now suddenly, there’s this new life. CATHERINE: You have a lot to be proud of. You’re very lucky. LENA: I guess I was due for some good luck, huh? CATHERINE: You deserve it, Lena. And no one can take it away from you. LENA: I didn’t think it was possible. So much has happened so fast. Yet it feels incredible, Cathy! Like I filled up a part of me I didn’t even know was there.
CATHERINE: Tell me how it felt to hold a baby in your arms. VINCENT: There are no words.
“Dead of Winter”
CATHERINE: Vincent, it’s beautiful. Remember how I told you when I was little, I was afraid of the dark? Well, my mother gave me a candle to light at the bedside before I went to sleep. It was just a tiny little thing, a birthday candle. Somehow it made it all right. I’ve loved candles ever since. VINCENT: This is no ordinary candle. This is for Winterfest. It’s a special time for us.
PARACELSUS: “That this world, which seems To lie before us like a land of dreams, So various, so beautiful, so new Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light, Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain; And we are here as on a darkling plain Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight, Where ignorant armies clash by night.”
NARCISSA: You were so good to me today. I got everything I need. Beautiful stones, beautiful crystals. Everything I need.
SEBASTIAN: Oh, yes, yes. I love, I love the subway. And the streets. And what Broadway theater can compare with New York streets? Hmm? I see it all. Yes. The men rushing to work, the children at play, the girls in their beautiful summer dresses. And everyone wanting a little magic. And Sebastian is there... to give it to them.
VINCENT: You’re smiling. CATHERINE: Our worlds are so different. Every day I see people who work just for a paycheck, but Pascal and his pipes... VINCENT: The tapping is the sweetest music in the world for Pascal.
“A Fair and Perfect Knight”
VINCENT: The world Above has so much to offer you: gifts of the imagination, and learning... And you have the mind and the heart to cherish those gifts.
MICHAEL: You read that so beautifully.
CATHERINE: The lights are so beautiful tonight. VINCENT: Yes.
“Labyrinths”
BRIAN: You may now enter the room. There is one side door. A beautiful woman cries for help. It's Lady Catherine.
CATHERINE: They're really good! VINCENT: Mm-hm. We offered our help, but they absolutely refused. They were so determined to prove themselves to us. CATHERINE: Look at their faces. They know they've done it. VINCENT: Yes. They've succeeded in humbling their elders. CATHERINE: And besides the music, what could be sweeter?
TUNNEL MAN: My crime was that I grew old. You see, in the world Above people don't want to look at me, an old man, this unpleasant reminder of their future. I was to be cast away, hidden from the eyes of the young, who want to believe they'll live forever. In the world Above, I'd lived too long. Here, Below, I've not lived long enough. So why am I here? To make memories. So that the last moments of my life may be as full of warmth as love as were the very first moments of my life.
FATHER: Hopes and dreams created this fragile world. Pride and vigilance maintain it, and it survives only because it is separate and apart. It is a refuge where the disillusioned regain their vision, the lost become found, where each one of us can explore the best of our being, the best of what it means to be... human. And to be alive.
“Brothers”
VINCENT: It's incredible. MOUSE: Saw one up top. Figured it out. Built it. VINCENT: You've stolen the eye of the storm. MOUSE: Didn't steal! Got the stuff from Catherine. VINCENT: So this is why you wanted to visit Mouse. CATHERINE: It's a gift from both of us. We wanted to surprise you. MOUSE: Her idea. CATHERINE: So that you could always have a piece of sky. MOUSE: Even down here.
DEVIN: Remember what I told you about the secret place where I was born? It's right over there, across the bridge. It's full of music, and candles everywhere you look, and the people, they're like a family. CHARLES: I heard them laughing. They won't want a freak. An ugly freak. VINCENT: There are no freaks here.
CHARLES: You're different. VINCENT: Yes. Like you. CHARLES: No. No, your face, it's... it's good. Not like me, Vincent.
VINCENT: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” DEVIN: That pretty well describes it, doesn't it? VINCENT: Our childhood? DEVIN: My life.
VINCENT: When I walk the city streets, I wear a cloak, with a hood, to shadow my face. CHARLES: But your face is— VINCENT: A mirror, like yours. Where frightened men see the shape of their own fears. And small men see only ugliness. CHARLES: Did you forget to hide? VINCENT: I don't hide my face here. This is my home. CHARLES: My home? VINCENT: If you want it to be.
VINCENT: When I was young, I only knew these Tunnels. But I would hear the other children talk of the world Above, and all its wonders. And I wanted to see them too. So one night, Devin took me up to the park. The lights went on forever, and the night was full of sounds, smells, and music. So much so that it made me dizzy. And when I looked up... CHARLES: Was it an airplane? VINCENT: No. It was the moon. CHARLES: Oh... VINCENT: It was the most magical thing I'd ever seen. And I was afraid if I looked away, even for a second, that it would vanish, and I would never see it again. The car passed by, no further from me than you are now, but I never heard it. When I looked, I glimpsed a face pressed against the window. It was...a little girl. No older than I was. She saw me. CHARLES: Was she afraid? VINCENT: She began to cry. I didn't know why, not then, but I knew how much it hurt. CHARLES: She didn't know. Didn't mean to hurt. VINCENT: It hurt just as badly. I told Devin and Father and anyone who would listen that I would never go back again. CHARLES: But you went back. VINCENT: A month later. Devin made me. He promised that he would stay close, and he reminded me that the moon would be full again.
VINCENT: “They said of him, about the city that night, that it was the peacefullest man's face ever beheld there. Many added that he looked sublime and prophetic.”
“A Gentle Rain”
CATHERINE: It’s beautiful. It’s perfect. How could Kanin carve solid rock into something like this? VINCENT: Because he trained himself. I don’t think he knows what can’t be done.
VINCENT: Do you think Olivia will like this room? CATHERINE: Olivia will love this room.
KANIN: I also have one more present for you. OLIVIA: Kanin. Oh, it’s beautiful. KANIN: Dance with me, Livvy.
VINCENT: “What though the radiance which was once so bright Be now for ever taken from my sight, Though nothing can bring back the hour Of splendour in the grass, of glory in the flower; We will grieve not, rather find Strength in what remains behind; In the primal sympathy Which having been must ever be; In the soothing thoughts that spring Out of human suffering; In the faith that looks through death, In years that bring the philosophic mind.” CATHERINE: I’m not asleep. VINCENT: No? CATHERINE: Mm-mm. Just in that wonderful place in between. VINCENT: Where everything shimmers and floats? CATHERINE: Am I floating? VINCENT: Yes. A great burden has been lifted. CATHERINE: They both seem finally freed. Now maybe the healing can begin. VINCENT: Rest now. CATHERINE: As long as you keep reading. VINCENT: “And O, ye Fountains, Meadows, Hills, and Groves, Forebode not any severing of our loves! Yet in my heart of hearts I feel your might; I only have relinquished one delight To live beneath your more habitual sway. I love the Brooks which down their channels fret, more than when I tripped lightly as they; The innocent brightness of a new-born Day Is lovely yet; The Clouds that gather round the setting sun take a sober colouring from an eye That hath kept watch o'er man's mortality.”
“Orphans”
CATHERINE: “ 'What is real?' asked the rabbit one day when they were lying side by side. 'Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?'
'Real isn’t how you are made,' said the skin horse. 'It’s a thing that happens to you when a child loves you for a long, long time. Not just to play with, but really loves. Then you become real.'
'Does it hurt?' asked the rabbit.
'Sometimes,' said the skin horse, for he was always truthful. 'When you are real, you don’t mind being hurt.'
'Does it happen all at once, like being wound up?' the rabbit asked, 'or bit by bit?'
'It doesn’t happen all at once,' said the skin horse. 'You become. It takes a long time. That’s why it doesn’t often happen to people who break easily or have sharp edges or have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out, and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don’t matter at all, because once you are real you can’t be ugly, except to people who don’t understand. Once you are real, you can’t become unreal again. It lasts for always.' ”
VINCENT: Our world sleeps and she is near. Strange and wonderful and sad, this feeling rising in me like a tide. To have all I ever dreamed of so close and yet to know that… All I know is that she is here and that I must live for her, surround her easily, guide her out of suffering. While she is here, I must live moment by moment. For her.
CHARLES: I understand so much more about you now. What you have is a rare thing. CATHERINE: With Vincent? CHARLES: Yes.
“The Outsiders”
VINCENT: Our world sleeps. These deep tunnels and chambers and caverns, even the pipes must deal with sleep. Yet it is in these quiet moments that I truly feel the balance of this place, and remember the delicate miracle that is is. At times, even to me, our world seems half-imagined, as if suspended, kept in place only by the weight of the world Above. I know how fortunate we are, all of us, to have each other, and what my life would be without them. Sometimes in these hours, I hear Whitman's song echo gently. “I cannot define my satisfaction, yet it is so; / I cannot define my life. Yet it is so.” Is there any gift greater than this joy? Can the soul offer a prayer more perfect than this tender silence?
VINCENT: How can you even look at me? CATHERINE: Because I know you. I know who you are. VINCENT: You don't know me. CATHERINE: Vincent, there are dark places in all of us. VINCENT: But part of me feeds in that darkness. And I am lost in it.
“When the Bluebird Sings”
CATHERINE: Tennyson! First edition. Oh, this is perfect!
KRISTOPHER: I want to make you immortal. CATHERINE: Modest aren’t you?
KRISTOPHER: You didn’t have to send him away. CATHERINE: What in hell do you think you’re doing here? KRISTOPHER: God, he reads beautifully! CATHERINE: I want you to stop following me! Do you understand? KRISTOPHER: Do you think he’d sit for me? CATHERINE: Who are you talking about? KRISTOPHER: What century did he walk out of, Cathy? What story book? CATHERINE: This is outrageous! KRISTOPHER: “…And over our heads floats the blue bird singing of beautiful and impossible things, Of things that are beautiful, of things that are lovely and never happen. Of things that are not and should be!” It’s Oscar Wilde! Where are we going? CATHERINE: Home! KRISTOPHER: Okay! Does that mean you want to pose for me?
KRISTOPHER: You like it? No, no, no, no, no, no, no! Don’t tell me if you hate it. I’ll be crushed. CATHERINE: It’s very powerful. You’re talented, Kristopher. KRISTOPHER: You like it. CATHERINE: Yes. KRISTOPHER: I knew you would. So you’ll pose for me, right? CATHERINE: Oh, you never give up! KRISTOPHER: Does a moth give up when he’s seen the most beautiful flame he’s ever beheld? CATHERINE: That is a good way to get your wings singed. KRISTOPHER: Hazards of my profession Cathy. My wings are forever singed. Okay, just sit there, sip your espresso, and let me sketch you.
MR. SMYTHE: My dear young lady, you are so young and so cynical. You should not be so certain. The world devours all of our certainties, and all of our beauties as well.
CATHERINE: He had a sketch of me to work from I suppose, but he must have painted you from memory. Astonishing, isn’t it? VINCENT: You might even say: magical.
KRISTOPHER: “We shall lay our hands upon the basilisk, and see the jewel in the toad’s head. Champing his gilded oats, the hippogriff will stand in our stalls, and over our heads will float the blue bird singing of beautiful and impossible things, of things that are lovely and that never happen, of things that are not and that should be.”
“Arabesque”
LISA: And I danced in Russia, once. SAMANTHA: Russia? LISA: With the Kirov ballet. Oh, the theater was a vision. Just to set foot on that stage. I’d never seen anything so beautiful in all my life. It was like dancing in a cathedral.
CATHERINE: I saw her dance once. It was truly inspired.
YOUNG LISA: I love surprises. Is my dress all right? How do I look? YOUNG VINCENT: Lovely.
VINCENT: Catherine, there are things I must tell you about who I am, and what I am. CATHERINE: Vincent, to me you’re beautiful. VINCENT: What I have to tell you is not beautiful. It’s terrifying, and shameful, but it is the truth. CATHERINE: Then I want to hear it.
VINCENT: I would watch her dance. She would dance in the Great Hall alone, for herself, for me. There was nothing in the world as beautiful as Lisa. CATHERINE: And you desired her. There is no shame in that. VINCENT: For me there is. CATHERINE: Why? VINCENT: Because I hurt her. Because in my desire, I forgot who I was, who I am. As she moved closer, I wanted to hold her. She was dancing, and I felt a pull. It was pulling me to her and I reached out for her. Suddenly, in her eyes I saw her fear of me. I saw myself. But I couldn’t let go of her. These hands wouldn’t let go of her. And I hurt her. And I knew that these hands were not meant to give love. CATHERINE: These hands are beautiful! These are my hands! VINCENT: [He weeps.]
“A Distant Shore”
VINCENT: One of my fondest memories, when I began to read, truly read. FATHER: Voraciously, I remember. VINCENT: Every night after dinner we would read to each other something we’d found that day, a poem, a passage, something that struck us in a deep place. FATHER: Yes, I know. VINCENT: And we’d talk, sometimes into the nigh,t about what all the words meant, about everything. FATHER: Those were wonderful talks. I remember. VINCENT: No child ever had a better education. FATHER: And I promise you, Vincent, no father ever learned more from any child.
VINCENT: “I have been one acquainted with the night. I have walked out in rain—and back in rain. I have out walked the furthest city light.
I have looked down the saddest city lane. I have passed by the watchman on his beat And dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain.
I have stood still and stopped the sound of feet, When far away an interrupted cry Came over houses from another street,
But not to call me back or say good-bye; And further still at an unearthly height, One luminary clock against the sky
Proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right. I have been one acquainted with the night.”
VINCENT: The park is beautiful when it’s wet.
FATHER: What about your connection to her, your bond? VINCENT: I feel it, at a distance. She’s so far away. FATHER: But you can feel it? VINCENT: Oh, yes. FATHER: Then trust in that, Vincent. It’s remarkable thing, to feel the beat of a woman’s heart on a distant shore.
CATHERINE'S LETTER TO VINCENT: Vincent, it’s the strangest thing. We’ve never been so far apart, and yet I can feel you with me so deeply. Sometimes, it’s if I’m seeing things through your eyes. The sun is coming up now. The sky is pink. The ocean is deep purple. And I feel like a child. I wish I could just scoop it all up with a shell, run to you, and pour it into your hands. Everything! The cry of the gulls, the warm sun, the breeze and the ocean spray it carries, the taste of salt, the waves. God, it’s so quiet right now, Vincent. And the waves are so peaceful. And the feeling is so one of solitude, except you’re here too. I find myself talking to you, listening to you. This morning I think we walked for miles together. Just you and me. And it was so clear, Vincent, I didn’t think I imagined it! I think we walked for miles together. I miss you.
CATHERINE: I didn’t know Fitzgerald wrote about the best routes from the airport. TAXI DRIVER: Yes, he did. I know it by heart. “The city seen from the Queensboro Bridge is always the city seen for the first time. It’s the first wild promise of all the mystery and beauty in the world.” You can’t do any better than that, lady!
“A Kingdom By the Sea”
ELLIOT: Cathy, if we don't make it... [He kisses her.] Now at least I can die happy.
ELLIOT: There was always a breeze down here. The smell of the ocean. And the ships. They'd be bound for Zanzibar, Hong Kong, or Rio. He'd never been farther than Birmingham, but I was going to be different.
VINCENT: Elliot is a king in your world. CATHERINE: Yes. In a way. VINCENT: He can offer you so much. The power to do great good. Beauties undreamed of. He can walk beside you in the daylight. Last night, I felt your fear for him. The sorrows you shared. Your joy, when you knew he was alive. And when death was nearest... when he... CATHERINE: When he kissed me. VINCENT: Yes. I felt... that too. CATHERINE: I've never felt closer to Elliot than I did last night. I saw so much of what he's always kept hidden. The boy he once was, the man he could be. We almost died together. And when he kissed me, just for an instant, some small part of me responded. And I wished... I wished that he was... you.
VINCENT: Once, I thought I could never understand this man. Now, sometimes, I understand him all too well. He has his own kind of nobility.
“What Rough Beast”
SPIRKO: You're saying you know the killer? ELLIOT (PARACELSUS): Not exactly. But I know why he kills. SPIRKO: Why? ELLIOT (PARACELSUS): To protect someone. SPIRKO: Who? ELLIOT (PARACELSUS): A beautiful woman. A very beautiful woman. She's the key. You find her, she'll lead you to the killer. SPIRKO: What's her name. ELLIOT (PARACELSUS): She is an assistant district attorney. Her name is Catherine Chandler.
PARACELSUS: I asked you before if he was a man. Well, now you've seen for yourself. He's beyond Man. In his own right, he's a god, a warrior. But you see, he... he tries to be a man. And in that, denies his own greatness. He is a source of primal rage, and secret urging. Instinct. He's a killer. That is his greatness. That is his nature. But if he'd have killed you tonight, Mr. Spirko, as I hoped, if he'd killed an innocent man, I believe he would've finally understood, and shed the false skin of his humanity. He would have become what I always dreamed for him. He would have become my son.
“Ceremony of Innocence”
VINCENT: You and Father. You wouldn't admit the truth even if it stood right in front of you. Look at me, Catherine. Look at me! What do you see? CATHERINE: I see the man that I love. VINCENT: There are no mirrors in this chamber. But there are mirrors in the soul, and I cannot live with what I see there.
“The Rest is Silence”
CATHERINE: I wanted you to hear this. The whole evening's Vivaldi. So far, it's wonderful. Come. Sit with me. Oh, I love this music. So full of life.
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