Clean Slate (1981)
Isabelle Huppert: Rose Marcaillou
Photos
Quotes
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Lucien Cordier : I'm exhausted, Rose.
Rose : Sleep is all you do.
Lucien Cordier : It's the best thing besides eating. When you eat or sleep, you forget about the things you can't solve. Think about it. You'll see I'm right.
Rose : Thinking's not what I need.
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[Rose realizes she is wanted for murder]
Rose : You have to help me. I can't take it. What can I do?
Lucien Cordier : How the hell do I know? Any idiot can see they were shot with your gun.
Rose : But that's horrible!
Lucien Cordier : At first it is horrible. But then you start to think about starving kids, little girls sold into slavery, women whose sex is sewn up... God created murder out of pure kindness. Murder is nothing compared to those horrors.
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Rose : They say there are a hundred kinds of deaths. I hope yours will be the worst.
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Rose : There are three kinds of French: real French, shit French, and French shit. You're not even French shit.
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Rose : Having you is an honor. Killing my husband for love.
Lucien Cordier : No, I was just getting rid of trash. The trash also happened to be your husband.
Rose : There's a lot of trash around.
Lucien Cordier : There'll be less and less. Had to start somewhere.
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[Marcaillou's dog is sniffing his corpse]
Colonel Tramichel : A last adieu to his master.
Rose : He just wants to eat him. Right, Spot?
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[Rose has just killed Huguette and Nono]
Rose : You saw everything?
Lucien Cordier : Let's say I heard everything.
Rose : And you did nothing?
Lucien Cordier : Why should I have done something?
Rose : Why... to stop me.
Lucien Cordier : It wasn't up to me to stop you. It was up to you, to Huguette, Nono, Marcaillou. If I put temptation in front of you, it's not a reason to use it. I just help folks reveal their true character. It's a dirty job, Rose. And I deserve all the dirty pleasure I get out of it.
Rose : You're not ashamed?
Lucien Cordier : Part of my job is enjoying other folks' misery.
