The Shoes of the Fisherman (I) (1968)

David Janssen: George Faber

Quotes 

• George Faber : Were you permitted to practice your ministry as a priest?

  Kiril Lakota : No, I - I practiced it without permission among my fellow prisoners.

  George Faber : Do you see any hope then for the day when Christian faith, or more specifically the Roman Catholic faith, may be practiced freely in Marxist countries?

  Kiril Lakota : I have no inside information as to how the Kingdom of God is going to be established.

• George Faber : I think, Eminence, you may have caught yourself a Tartar.

  Cardinal Rinaldi : I think we may have caught a Christian.

• George Faber : It's the Russian. Kiril Lakota. They've elected a Russian Pope.

• George Faber : I don't presume to give advice to young women. They very seldom take it anyway.

  The Marchesa : You are very discreet.

  George Faber : A necessary virtue.

• George Faber : The bell tolls. The Pope is dead. Listen to the bell.

  [Crossed himself. Cut to multiple shots of mourners in the streets of Rome] 

  George Faber : This is the death knell that rings... only for the pontiff. Listen - there is a second bell. Soon they will be joined by other bells all over the city, all over every city, all over the world. The Pope is dead.

• George Faber : Were you ill treated during your confinement?

  Kiril Lakota : Oh, not for a long time now. More recently I have been working in heavy industry.

  George Faber : To that extent, then, you did submit yourself to the system.

  Kiril Lakota : In so far, Mr. Faber, as any system provides bread, work and dignity I am prepared to cooperate with it. These things are good in themselves whether they exist in Rome or in Siberia. And bread, work, and dignity do exist in Siberia.

• Dr. Ruth Faber : You don't approve of me?

  George Faber : I don't, Ruth, when you're unreasonably jealous.

  Dr. Ruth Faber : I am unreasonably jealous because jealousy makes me unreasonable.

• George Faber : Now you're the protocol expert. Tell me, how did the British do it in the old heydays when they wanted to break off relations? Don't they teach you things like that at Cambridge?

• George Faber : Just when a man is about to say goodbye to his... tiny folly... what does he look up and see but his wife's green and penetrating orbs. And just as he's figured out a way to handle that unfortunate situation, by buying buckets of champagne, some flowers, a few crown jewels and some "let's get together" cards, a telephone rings and I'm called to Paris.

• George Faber : Darling, I would at least have tried to persuade you that I was definitely calling it off with Chiara.

  Dr. Ruth Faber : It'll be alright. I mean, not just about us. I know it will.

• George Faber : Outside this small enclave of the Vatican the world is in a climate of crisis and we may soon be involved in an atomic war. But for the men in the Vatican, there is only one question: who will stand in the shoes of the fisherman? Who will preserve and proclaim the message of Christ to the men who live in this troubled and dubious 20th century?

• George Faber : Life does have it's jolly compensations, doesn't it? Just when a man is about to say goodbye to his - tiny folly. What does he look up and see, but his wife's green and penetrating orbs?