The English Patient (1996)

Kristin Scott Thomas: Katharine Clifton

Photos 

14 more photos

Quotes 

• Katharine Clifton : My darling. I'm waiting for you. How long is the day in the dark? Or a week? The fire is gone, and I'm horribly cold. I really should drag myself outside but then there'd be the sun. I'm afraid I waste the light on the paintings, not writing these words. We die. We die rich with lovers and tribes, tastes we have swallowed, bodies we've entered and swum up like rivers. Fears we've hidden in - like this wretched cave. I want all this marked on my body. We are the real countries. Not boundaries drawn on maps with the names of powerful men. I know you'll come carry me out to the Palace of Winds. That's what I've wanted: to walk in such a place with you. With friends, on an earth without maps. The lamp has gone out and I'm writing in the darkness.

• Katharine Clifton : You speak so many bloody languages, and you never want to talk.

• Almásy : Every night I cut out my heart. But in the morning it was full again.

  Katharine Clifton : Darling, my darling.

• Katharine Clifton : Will we be alright?

  Almásy : Yes. Yes, absolutely.

  Katharine Clifton : "Yes" is a comfort. "Absolutely" is not.

• Almásy : You're wearing the thimble.

  Katharine Clifton : Of course, you idiot. I always wear it; I've always worn it; I've always loved you.

• Katharine Clifton : I've been thinking. How does someone like you decide to come to the desert? What is it? You - you're doing whatever you're doing in your castle, or wherever it is you live, and one day you say, ''l have to get to the desert'' or what?

  Almásy : l once traveled with a guide who was taking me to Faya. He didn't speak for nine hours. At the end of it, he pointed at the horizon and said, ''Faya.'' That was a good day.

• Almásy : Katherine, I - I just want you to know: I'm - I'm not missing you yet.

  Katharine Clifton : You will. You will.

• Katharine Clifton : Promise me you'll come back for me.

  Almásy : I promise, I'll come back for you. I promise, I'll never leave you.

• Almásy : What do you love?

  Katharine Clifton : What do I love?

  Almásy : Say everything.

  Katharine Clifton : Hm, let's see... Water. Fish in it. And hedgehogs; I love hedgehogs.

  Almásy : And what else?

  Katharine Clifton : Marmite - I'm addicted. And baths. But not with other people. Islands. Your handwriting. I could go on all day.

  Almásy : Go on all day.

  Katharine Clifton : My husband.

  Almásy : What do you hate most?

  Katharine Clifton : A lie. What do you hate most?

  Almásy : Ownership. Being owned. When you leave, you should forget me.

  [she adopts a look of disgust, pushes him gently away to get out of the tub, picks up her tattered dress and leaves] 

• Katharine Clifton : This - what is this?

  Almásy : It's a folk song.

  Katharine Clifton : Arabic.

  Almásy : No, no. It's Hungarian. My daijka sang it to me when I was a child growing up in Budapest.

  Katharine Clifton : It's beautiful. What's it about?

  Almásy : Szerelem means love. And the story, well, there's this Hungarian count. He's a wanderer. He's a fool. And for years he's on some kind of a quest for... who knows what. And then one day, he falls under the spell of a mysterious English woman. A harpy, who beats him, and hits him, he becomes her slave, and he sews her clothes, and worships...

  [Katharine starts hitting him] 

  Almásy : Stop it! Stop it!

  [laughing] 

  Almásy : You're always beating me!

  Katharine Clifton : Bastard! You bastard, I believed you! You should be my slave.

• Almásy : When were you most happy?

  Katharine Clifton : Now.

  Almásy : And when were you least happy?

  Katharine Clifton : Now.

• Almásy : Dance with me.

  Katharine Clifton : No.

  Almásy : Dance with me. l want to touch you. l want the things which are mine which belong to me.

  Katharine Clifton : Do you think you're the only one who feels anything? Is that what you think?

• Katharine Clifton : Am I K in your book? I think I must be.

• Almásy : Let me tell you about winds. There is a, a whirlwind from southern Morrocco, the Aajej, against which the fellahin defend themselves with knives. And there is the - the Ghibli, from Tunis...

  Katharine Clifton : [giggling]  The "Ghibli"?

  Almásy : [smiling]  The Ghibli, which rolls and rolls and rolls and produces a - a rather strange nervous condition. And then there is the - the Harmattan, a red wind, which mariners call the sea of darkness. And red sand from this wind has flown as far as the south coast of England, apparently producing showers so dense that they were mistaken for blood.

  Katharine Clifton : Fiction! We have a house on that coast and it has never, never rained blood.

  Almásy : No, it's all true. Herodotus, your friend. He writes about it. And he writes about a - a wind, the Simoon, which a nation thought was so evil they declared war on it and marched out against it. In full battle dress. Their swords raised.

• Katharine Clifton : I wanted to meet the man who could write such a long paper with so few adjectives.

  Almásy : Well, a thing is still a thing no matter what you place in front of it. Big car, slow car chauffeur-driven car.

  Geoffrey Clifton : Broken car.

  Almásy : It's still a car.

  Geoffrey Clifton : Not much use, though.

  Katharine Clifton : Love? Romantic love plutonic love, filial love. Quite different things, surely.

  Geoffrey Clifton : Uxoriousness. That's my favourite kind of love. Excessive love of one's wife.

  Almásy : Now there you have me.

• Katharine Clifton : I'm impressed you can sew.

  Almásy : Good.

  Katharine Clifton : You sew very badly.

  Almásy : Well, you don't sew at all.

  Katharine Clifton : A woman should never learn to sew, and if she can she shouldn't admit to it.

• Katharine Clifton : [dancing]  Why did you follow me yesterday?

  Almásy : I'm sorry, what?

  Katharine Clifton : After the market, you followed me to the hotel.

  Almásy : I was concerned. A woman in that part of Cairo, a European woman, I felt obliged to.

  Katharine Clifton : [amused]  You felt obliged to?

  Almásy : As the wife of one of our party.

  Katharine Clifton : So why follow me? Escort me, by all means, but following me is predatory, isn't it?

• Katharine Clifton : D'you not come in?

  Almásy : No. I should go home.

  Katharine Clifton : Will you please come in?

  Almásy : Mrs. Clifton...

  Katharine Clifton : [scowls]  Don't.

  Almásy : I believe you still have my book.

• Katharine Clifton : And that evening, it's exactly ss the King has told him. She goes to the chair removes her clothes one by one until she's standing naked in full view of Gyges. And indeed, she was more lovely than he could have imagined. But then the Queen looked up and saw Gyges concealed in the shadows. And although she said nothing, she shuddered. And the next day she sends for, for Gyges, and challenged him. And hearing his story this is what she said.

  Geoffrey Clifton : Off with his head!

  Katharine Clifton : [smiles]  She said, ''Either you must submit to death for gazing on that which you should not or else kill my husband who has shamed me and become King in his place." So Gyges kills the King marries the Queen and becomes ruler of Lydia for years. The end. Shall I spin the bottle?

• Katharine Clifton : l can't sleep. l wake up shouting in the middle of the night. Geoffrey thinks it's the thing in the desert, the trauma.

  Almásy : l can still taste you.

• Katharine Clifton : Am I a terrible coward to ask how much water we have?

  Almásy : A little in our can, we have water in the radiator which can be drunk. And it's not at all cowardly at all, it's extremely practical. Come on, come on! There's also a plant I've never seen it but I believe you can cut a piece the size of a heart from this plant and the next day it will be filled with a delicious liquid.

  Katharine Clifton : Find that plant. Cut out its heart.

• Geoffrey Clifton : [on the phone]  Darling, it's me. Listen, l'm sorry, something's come up.

  Katharine Clifton : Oh, no.

  Geoffrey Clifton : Now don't sulk. l'll be back tomorrow evening.

  Katharine Clifton : l'm going to sulk and l'm not moving till you get back in.

  Geoffrey Clifton : Promise? That's good. Okay, my sausage, l love you.

• Katharine Clifton : Can't we really go home? l can't breathe. l am dying for green. Anything green, or rain.

• Geoffrey Clifton : Darling l just heard. You poor sausage. Are you all right?

  Katharine Clifton : l'm fine. l'm just too hot.

• Katharine Clifton : Shall we be all right?

  Almásy : Yes. Yes. Absolutely.

  Katharine Clifton : Oh, dear.

• Katharine Clifton : This is a different world is what l tell myself. A different life. And here l'm a different wife.

  Almásy : Yes. Here you are a different wife.

• Almásy : I claim this shoulder blade. No, wait. I want - turn over - I want this.

  [touches just below K's throat] 

  Almásy : This - this place. I love this place. What's it called? This is mine. I'm going to ask the King permission to call it the Almásy Bosphorus.

  Katharine Clifton : [laughs]  I thought we were against ownership?