Grand Prix (1966)

Yves Montand: Jean-Pierre Sarti

Photos 

Quotes 

• Jean-Pierre Sarti : The danger? Well, of course. But you are missing a very important point. I think if any of us imagined - really imagined - what it would be like to go into a tree at 150 miles per hour we would probably never get into the cars at all, none of us. So it has always seemed to me that to do something very dangerous requires a certain absence of imagination.

• Jean-Pierre Sarti : I suppose what's wrong with me is my life. But I can't change it, or won't. So there's nothing you can do for me.

  Louise Frederickson : What's wrong with your life?

  Jean-Pierre Sarti : I've begun to see the absurdity of it. All of us, proving what? That we can go faster, and perhaps remain alive? Nino gambling his life for a trophy, then fills it with beer, and does tricks. Stoddard filling himself with drugs in order to drive, and still passing out with the pain. Don't you see how absurd it all is? Who cares?

  Louise Frederickson : I thought you cared, for yourselves. I didn't know you asked of anyone else. Nevertheless, others do care. 100,000 of them cared today.

  Jean-Pierre Sarti : And did you see them rush to see Peter burn? Did you see the looks on their faces? *I* saw. For the first time today I *really* saw those faces.

  Louise Frederickson : But not all of them, Jean-Pierre. There are some who come for that, for the accidents and the fires. But the others... the others ride with you all. You put something in their lives they can't put there themselves.

  Jean-Pierre Sarti : Are you one of those?

• Jean-Pierre Sarti : Did you see them rush to see Peter Aron burn? Did you see the looks on their faces? I saw. For the first time today, I really saw those faces.

  Louise Frederickson : But not all of them, Jean-Pierre. There are some who come for that - for the accidents and the fires. But the others... the others ride with you, maybe. You put something in their lives that they can't put there themselves.

• Louise Frederickson : I love you, Jean-Pierre.

  Jean-Pierre Sarti : And I you... We'll have to discuss the consequences of those terrible words, huh?

• Jean-Pierre Sarti : Before you leave I want to tell you something. Not about the others, but about myself. I used to go to pieces. I'd see an accident like that and be so weak inside that I wanted to quit - stop the car and walk away. I could hardly make myself go past it. But I'm older now. When I see something really horrible, I put my foot down. Hard! Because I know that everyone else is lifting his.

  Louise Frederickson : What a terrible way to win.

  Jean-Pierre Sarti : No, there is no terrible way to win. There is only winning.

• Nino Barlini : And what do you think of this man? In the middle of the race, he decides to take a swim! It cost me two seconds!

  Jean-Pierre Sarti : Pete, do you ever get tired, of the driving?

  Pete Aron : No.

  Jean-Pierre Sarti : Lately, I sometimes get very tired, you know? Very tired.

• Jean-Pierre Sarti : Well, I can see I'm not properly dressed for the occasion. I should be wearing something fashionable.

  Louise Frederickson : Well, your driver's suit isn't bad. Maybe you could start a new style.

  Jean-Pierre Sarti : Spun glass, form-fitting, waterproof, flameproof.

• Jean-Pierre Sarti : You have to grasp the mind of Sr. Manetta, my darling. If a driver can be reached by those tactics, it means he probably will fear for his place on the team. That is exactly what Manetta wants, because that driver will try all the harder to win. He will perhaps take a risk which he would ordinarily avoid. And risks are always risks.

• Agostini Manetta : The question is, Jean-Pierre, what are you doing to do about it?

  Jean-Pierre Sarti : Do? I don't understand.

  Agostini Manetta : The time for losing comes to every man, of course. I had not expected yours to come so soon.

  Jean-Pierre Sarti : There have been problems with the car!

  Agostini Manetta : Come, come, Sarti. I expect excuses like that from lesser men than you. You have been one of the best that ever lived, there is no question of that in my mind. Never a wrong move, concentration always there, 100 percent, till this woman.

  Jean-Pierre Sarti : You have been misled, Sr. Manetta. Do you take me for a trained dog, to jump at the snap of your fingers? My life belongs to no one but myself!

  Agostini Manetta : I have been thinking seriously of your retirement, Sarti.

  Jean-Pierre Sarti : [Angrily]  Then retire me now!

  [Manetta pulls Sarti away from bystanders] 

  Agostini Manetta : [Quietly]  Kindly lower your voice! Of course I will not retire you now. Tomorrow there is a race to be run, and I also well know that you want to drive it. After tomorrow, who knows, Jean-Pierre?

  Jean-Pierre Sarti : After tomorrow, Sr. Manetta, *I* will decide to retire or not.

  Agostini Manetta : Sarti, you're further gone than I'd thought. A pity, a great pity. I always considered you to be the best.

  Jean-Pierre Sarti : I'm *still* the best!

• Pete Aron : Jordan says I was blocking Stoddard. Said I didn't give him a signal to pass.

  Jean-Pierre Sarti : Did you?

  Pete Aron : Of course I did. The gear box froze coming out of the tunnel and I waved him through. Got on the brakes, locked up, and threw me in front of him. Next thing I knew, I was in the Mediterranean.

  Jean-Pierre Sarti : What are you going to do now?

  Pete Aron : I don't know. Gotta' get a ride for the rest of the season. I don't know where.

• Louise Frederickson : I work for an American fashion magazine. We're going to do an issue around racing cars.

  Jean-Pierre Sarti : Yes! Now I have it! Of course: Louise Frederickson. You once did an article about my wife, Monique Delvaux. "One of the 27 best-dressed businesswomen in the world." - or something like that.

  Louise Frederickson : Only ten. You were away at the time, as I recall.

  Jean-Pierre Sarti : [recalling the article]  Yes... "While... while her husband is off racing motor cars, this busy woman executive spends long hours in her office administering the complex affairs of the Delvaux Motor Company." I remember that part very well. It had about it the slight hint of feminine prejudice toward the footloose male.

  Louise Frederickson : It wasn't meant to sound that way.

• Monique Delvaux-Sarti : He now wonders if you're ready to be beaten.

  Jean-Pierre Sarti : No one is ever ready for that.

  Monique Delvaux-Sarti : You will never retire, Jean-Pierre.

  Jean-Pierre Sarti : What does it matter to you, Monique?

  Monique Delvaux-Sarti : To me?

  Jean-Pierre Sarti : Yes.

  Monique Delvaux-Sarti : As always, as a hero, you're a good asset to the company.

  Jean-Pierre Sarti : Well, perhaps, I'm tired of being an asset to the company. And tired, too, of this farce we perform, you and I, for public consumption.

  Monique Delvaux-Sarti : Well, it doesn't really matter that you are tired of these things, Jean-Pierre. If you should decide not to continue with, eh, the farce, as you call it, that of course is up to you. But it will make no difference. As long as you're my husband, the company will have the prestige of your name, and whether or not you ever step into one of these again. And you will always be my husband. You know that, don't you. This one may be different to you, but not to me. To me, she's just like all the others, and we will always be married, you and I.

  Jean-Pierre Sarti : Stay away from me, Monique! Let me alone, please!

  [pause] 

  Jean-Pierre Sarti : Tell me, what terrible thing have I done to you that make you want to labor me to this absurd life we have together? What terrible thing, Monique?

• Jean-Pierre Sarti : Sun, food and sex. It's hard to think of them 10 years from now. Fat and married. With five fat children.

  Louise Frederickson : Maybe. Maybe they'll avoid it.

  Jean-Pierre Sarti : The marriage or the fat?

• Pat Stoddard : Hello, Jean-Pierre.

  Jean-Pierre Sarti : You're looking very chic in my car.

• Jean-Pierre Sarti : Very bad for a woman to be too independent.

  Louise Frederickson : Very bad for whom?

• Louise Frederickson : How do you know I'm not married?

  Jean-Pierre Sarti : I have noted the unmarried woman's brave air of independence, mingled with vague longing.

  Louise Frederickson : Independence, maybe. Vague longing. I wasn't aware of that.

  Jean-Pierre Sarti : Something perhaps only a man would see.

  Louise Frederickson : Or imagine.

• Jean-Pierre Sarti : To health, wealth and happiness.

  Louise Frederickson : You are very greedy.

  Jean-Pierre Sarti : No. Hopeful.

• Jean-Pierre Sarti : You're being very foolish, you know.

  Louise Frederickson : Let me be foolish, then.

• Jean-Pierre Sarti : Pete... do you ever get tired of the driving?

  Pete Aron : No.

  Jean-Pierre Sarti : Lately, I sometimes find myself getting tired. You know what I mean? Very tired.

• Louise Frederickson : The risks you take. Aren't they ridiculous? I mean, I might understand it if you made a great deal of money, but I'm told you don't at all.

  Jean-Pierre Sarti : Some of us do. But money is not an important part of it.

  Louise Frederickson : Then what is?

  Jean-Pierre Sarti : Many things.

  Lisa : It's marvelous to go very fast.

  Louise Frederickson : Why is it so marvelous to go very fast?

  Louise Frederickson : Answer that one, Lisa?

  [Lisa shrugs her shoulders] 

• Jean-Pierre Sarti : Will you go back to America when you are finished with your click-click?

• Jean-Pierre Sarti : I suppose at my age, one moves slowly from one habit to the next.

• Jean-Pierre Sarti : I'm here to race. Understand? To race!