Queen Christina (1933)

John Gilbert: Antonio

Photos 

Quotes 

• Christina : Great love...

  Antonio : Don't you believe in it's possibility?

  Christina : In it's possibility - yes. But not in its existence. A great love, perfect love, is an illusion. It is the golden fable of which we all dream. But in ordinary life it doesn't happen. In ordinary life one must be content with less.

• Antonio : There's a mystery in you.

  Christina : Is there not in every human being?

• Antonio : It's all a question of climate. You can't serenade a woman in a snowstorm. All the graces in the arts of love - the elaborate approches that will make the game of love amusing - can only be practiced in those countries that quiver in the heat in the sun.

• Antonio : You are very pretty, Elsa. Are you also good?

  Elsa : When I do not like a man, yes.

  Christina : That's a true virtue.

  Antonio : The basis of all morality in a sentence.

• Antonio : Of course. It has to be. I felt it. I felt it! The presence. Oh, life is so gloriously improbable.

• Antonio's Companion in Coach : It is still snowing my lord.

  Antonio : Good!

• Antonio : [lying on her back at Antonio's feet, by the fireplace, Christina holds a bunch of grapes above her head and slowly lowers them down and takes a bite]  They warmed and ripened in the Spanish sun. My haciendas overrun with them. In the season of the grape harvest, the air - smells purple. Purple grapes.

  [Christina kisses the bunch of grapes] 

• Antonio : My country could have no greater tribute than your Majesty's curiosity.

  Christina : In honoring your great men, we elevate ourselves.

• Magnus : The climate here, my lord, is fit only for those that are used to it. It's not suited to foreigners. I advise you to protect yourself against it. You must be very careful.

  Antonio : Is this - is this a threat, my lord?

  Magnus : It's a warning! A friendly warning.

• Antonio : Why did you go out of your way to make me look ridiculous? All that idiotic talk of love and beauty. You made my heart beat. You made me dream like a fool and talk like one.

  Christina : I thought you'd understand, when you saw me again, what had happened. That it had been so enchanting to be a woman - not a Queen. Just a woman in a man's arms!

• Christina : Forgive me for being a Queen.

  Antonio : What do you want of me?

  Christina : What do I want? What? I want back that room in the inn. The snow that fell. The warm fire and the sweet hours. Beloved one.