The Last Express (1997 Video Game)

Fred Adler: Monsieur Boutarel

Quotes 

• Madame Boutarel : [In French]  Francois, get ready for dinner. My God, what's that floating in my cologne?

  Francois Boutarel : [In French]  It's Eugene. I had to embalm him before we left.

  Madame Boutarel : Eugene?

  Francois Boutarel : My praying mantis. He died.

  Madame Boutarel : How horrible. You should have thrown him in the garden. Claude speak to him!

  Monsieur Boutarel : [In French]  Francois, you must not touch your mother's things or use them in your experiments. You did quite well however, to use the cologne. The alcohol does have a preservative effect.

  Francois Boutarel : My scarab whistle died too, but he didn't fit in the bottle.

  Madame Boutarel : Claude, you really must speak to him. This obsession with death, does it seem normal to you in a seven-year old boy?

  Monsieur Boutarel : Why not? It is a natural process like any other.

  Madame Boutarel : But a toy whistle, how can it die?

  Francois Boutarel : It's dead!

• Francois Boutarel : [conversation is in French]  There are pretty ladies in the first sleeping car. They gave me candy.

  Madame Boutarel : François, I forbid you to have anything to do with them. Claude, speak to him!

  Monsieur Boutarel : Why? He would do well to begin exposing himself to different cultural practices. After all, Masjid-Es-Suleiman is a Muslim town.

  Madame Boutarel : And if they kidnap him, would that be a good learning experience for him?

  Francois Boutarel : They took me into their bed, played with me and gave me candy.

  Madame Boutarel : Claude!

• George Abbot : Oh, excuse me. We seem to be sharing a compartment. No, no... please don't get up. I'll just sit here and read the paper. Don't mind me at all. It appears the train is quite full. Awful nuisance when you think you've got a compartment to yourself and then they stick a complete stranger in with you at the last minute. Happened to me any number of times. George Abbot.

  Monsieur Boutarel : Claude Boutarel.

  George Abbot : French then, are you? Are you going all the way to Constantinople?

  Monsieur Boutarel : I'm travelling to a small town on the Gulf coast of Persia. With my wife and son.

  George Abbot : Oh, lovely! Then it must be your family I saw next door.

  Monsieur Boutarel : It is most probable.

  George Abbot : By the way, I was wondering... you haven't seen a red cravat anywhere, have you? I was just unpacking and it seems to have disappeared.

  Monsieur Boutarel : I believe my son has taken it.

  George Abbot : Really. What was the name of the town you mentioned?

  Monsieur Boutarel : Masjid-e Suleiman.

  George Abbot : Of course! The new oil refinery they are building in Abadan. I say, you're not working for Anglo-Persian, are you?

  Monsieur Boutarel : Why not?

  George Abbot : Oh well, I suppose you being a Frenchman... I just assumed...

  Monsieur Boutarel : I am an engineer, monsieur. The Anglo-Persian company is doing the most innovative research in oil exploration.

  George Abbot : Yes, well... wouldn't want the Royal Navy be caught short on fuel oil, would we. Tell me, are the reserves in that little town, what's it called again, really as big as they say?

  Monsieur Boutarel : I can not offer an opinion, monsieur.

  George Abbot : No, of course you wouldn't. Quite brave of your wife to go all that way and live in the desert.

  Monsieur Boutarel : She would not wish to be without me. And it would be a good opportunity for Francois. He has a fine scientific mind.

  George Abbot : Seems like a very active little boy. I don't suppose you could ask him for my cravat?

  Monsieur Boutarel : I think... eh, I remember him using it as a kind of sieve. To test salinity in water. Most remarkable in a boy of seven, don't you agree?

  George Abbot : Quite remarkable.

  Monsieur Boutarel : It is a natural curiosity of the scientific mind, monsieur.

  George Abbot : Yes. All that trapped in the body of a little boy.

• George Abbot : Oh Good Lord! Not this silly business with Madame Caillaux again! So typical. To devote weeks on end on the front page to this preposterous murder trial. One would think nothing else was happening in the whole of Europe.

  Monsieur Boutarel : Hm?

  George Abbot : Tell me, you're a Frenchman, what's your opinion of the affair? Why do the gory details of a murder trial exert such a fascination on the public mind? Not to say it only happens in France of course. The English papers aren't much better. But still, the French do push it rather far. Six columns across the front page of Le Figaro, with complete transcripts of the trial on page 12... it is a bit much, don't you agree?

  Monsieur Boutarel : Excuse me, it is time I took my family to lunch.

  George Abbot : Is it noon already? So it is. Perhaps I'll see you in the restaurant car.

• Monsieur Boutarel : [During the hijacking, entire conversation is in French]  I want to know what is going on.

  Conductor #2 : I'm sorry, sir, but the company no longer has control of the situation. We are asking all passengers to remain in their compartments until we are able to stop the train.

  Monsieur Boutarel : Stop the train! Do you mean that the train is out of control? Oh my God, we're going to die!

  Madame Boutarel : [François starts crying]  Claude! Calm yourself! Oh, my darling, don't cry. Mama is here, everything is fine.

  Monsieur Boutarel : This is absurd! I have a wife and a small child here! Something must be done! I demand to speak to the engineer immediately!

  Conductor #2 : I will send the trainmaster to you right away, monsieur. But please, stay in the compartment. It is for your own safety.

  Madame Boutarel : Claude! Do as he says. Sit down! There's nothing you can do.

• Madame Boutarel : [at lunch, conversation is in French]  I don't see why you have to share a compartment with that Englishman. Why couldn't they have put him in somewhere else?

  Monsieur Boutarel : In my profession it is necessary to accustom oneself to difficult living conditions.

  Madame Boutarel : That is exactly why François and I are coming to Abadan... to provide you with a proper home. Searching for oil in the desert! What was so wrong about staying in Villefranche? You had a fine job; our little house was so lovely! My garden was coming into bloom. There will be a garden in Abadan?

  Monsieur Boutarel : The desert is not noted for its gardens. But there is oil.

  Madame Boutarel : And when the oil has run out? François will be as wild as a desert nomad! He is already uncontrollable. Crawling on the floor, picking up filthy objects.

  Francois Boutarel : Mama, look out the window, there's a cemetery.

  Monsieur Boutarel : The floor is a natural place to find beetles.

  Madame Boutarel : Oh! I can't talk to you.

  Madame Boutarel : [Later, about Anna Wolff]  First the dog, now the violin. It's really too much. I have a mind to say something to the conductor.

  Francois Boutarel : Is that her sitting with the fat man? I think she is beautiful.

  Madame Boutarel : François, eat your food.