The Comfort of Strangers (1990)

Christopher Walken: Robert

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Quotes 

• Robert : Let me tell you something: My father was a very big man. And all his life he wore a black mustache. When it was no longer black, he used a small brush, such as ladies use for their eyes. Mascara.

• Colin : I'm starving.

  Mary : I think we're on the right track.

  Robert : So do I. Good evening. You need help?

• Mary : Your wife's Canadian?

  Robert : Certainly. We lived there.

  Mary : How did you meet?

  Robert : That's impossible to explain without describing my mother and sisters and that would only make sense if I described my father. In order to explain how I met my wife I would have to describe my father.

• Mary : These posters are everywhere.

  Robert : These are women who can't find a man. They want to destroy everything that's good between men and women. They don't know what they want.

• Robert : My father was a... very big man. All his life he wore a black moustache. When it turned grey, he used a little brush to keep it black, such as ladies use for their eyes - mascara. Everyone was afraid of him. My mother, my four sisters. At the dining table you could not speak unless spoken to first by my father. But he loved me. I was his... favourite. He was a diplomat all his life. We spent years in London. Knightsbridge. Every morning he got out of bed at six and went to the bathroom to shave. No one was allowed out of bed until he'd finished. My eldest sisters were 14, 15. I was 10. One weekend the house was empty for the whole afternoon. My sisters whispered together. Their names were Eva and Maria. They called me and they led me into my parents' bedroom. They told me to sit on the bed and be quiet. They went to my mother's dressing table. They painted their fingernails, they put cream and powder on their faces, they used lipstick. They pulled hairs from their eyebrows and brushed mascara on their lashes. They took off their white socks and put on my mother's silk stockings, panties. They sauntered about the room looking over their shoulders at the mirror, mmm mmm beautiful women. They laughed and kissed each other, they stroked each other, they giggled with each other. I was enchanted. They fed my enchantment. They whispered to me that it was our secret, that we would keep it in our hearts forever, never reveal it. But that night at dinner I felt my father staring at me, staring deep into me. He chewed, swallowed, he put his knife and fork down. He looked at me. My heart started to beat. To thump, not to beat. to thump. My father said: "Tell me, Robert. What have you been doing this afternoon?" He knew. I knew he knew. He was God. He was testing me. So I told him. I told him all that my sisters had done. I told him everything. My mother was silent. My sisters' faces were white. No one spoke. My father said: "Thank you, Robert." Finished his dinner. After dinner my sisters and I were called to my father's study. They were beaten with a leather belt without mercy. I watched this. A month later they took the revenge. We children were again alone in the house. Nanny was away. My youngest sisters... Grazie... Alice and Lisa came to me in the garden. They said: "Robert, Robert, come to the kitchen quickly, Eva and Maria have a treat for you." I was suspicious, but I went. I was so... innocent. On the kitchen table were two big bottles of lemonade, cream cake, two packs of cooking chocolate, big box of marshmallows, and Maria said: "Look, darling, this is all for you." But first" Eva said. "you must drink some medicine. This is very rich food and this medicine will protect your stomach. Help you to enjoy it." I was too greedy to question this. I drank the medicine. Only slightly disgusting. Then I ate the chocolate and the cake and drank a bottle of lemonade. They applauded and said that only a man could drink a second bottle of lemonade. It would be beyond my capabilities. I said: "Give it to me." I drank the second bottle and I finished the chocolate, marshmallows and cake. They said "Bravo, Bravo!", then the kitchen began to spin round me and I badly needed to go to the lavatory. Suddenly Eva and Maria held me down and tied my hands together with a long piece of rope behind my back and dragged me into... my father's study. They took the key from the inside, slammed the door and locked it. "Bye-bye, Robert" they called through the keyhole "Now you are big Papa in his study." I was locked in... my revered, my feared father's study, where he received the diplomatic corps of London, the elite of the world. And I puked and pissed and shat all over my father's carpets and walls. My father found me there. He said: "Robert... Have you been eating chocolate?" Then he nearly killed me. Then he didn't speak to me for six months. I've never forgiven my sisters... . My only solace was my mother. I grew so thirsty at night, she brought me a glass of water every night and laid her hand upon my brow. She was... so tender. When my father was away I slept in her bed. One afternoon, the wife of the Canadian ambassador was invited to tea. She brought her daughter, Caroline. When my mother showed her mother our garden we were left alone, the children. Suddenly Eva said: "Miss Caroline, do you sleep with your mother?" Caroline said: "No. Do you?" And Eva said: "He does." And all my sisters giggled, and Caroline looked at me and smiled and said: "I think that's really awfully sweet." And she became my wife... . Not at that moment, of course. We were both only... 11 years old at the time.