Babylon (2022)

Manny Torres: I think you want to become a star. Nellie LaRoy: Honey, you don't become a star. You either are one or you ain't. I am.

Manny Torres: Morphine, opium, ether, heroin, coke. And Louis XIV sat on that.

Jack Conrad: You know what we gotta do? We gotta redefine the form. The man who puts gasoline in your tank goes to the movies why?... Why? Why?... Because he feels less alone there. Don't we owe him more than the same old shit?

Jack Conrad: You got the guys in Europe with the twelve-tone. You got Bauhaus architecture. Fucking Bauhaus, you know? And we're still doing costume pictures? It's the dinosaurs, kid.

Jack Conrad: We've got to innovate. We've got to inspire. We got to dream beyond these pesky shells of flesh and bone. Map those dreams onto celluloid and print them into history. Turn today into tomorrow so that tomorrow's lonely man may look up at that flickering screen and say for the very first time, "Eureka! I am not alone!"

Jack Conrad: You ever been on a movie set before?
Manny Torres: No.
Jack Conrad: You'll see. It's the most magical place in the world.
Manny Torres: I've heard.

Jack Conrad: Did you see the butterfly? That was a butterfly.

Ruth Adler: I gotta ask you something. Yeah? Was it okay? It was incredible! I just-- How do you do it? Just tear up over and over like it's nothing?
Nellie LaRoy: I just think of home.

Nellie LaRoy: I hate when people put fucking toppings on ice cream. Doesn't need it. It messes up a good thing. You know what I mean? I fucking hate that.

Jack Conrad: Aw, Georgie. Who was it this time?
George Munn: Claire.
Jack Conrad: Claire. Well, Claire's a lesbian. That's an uphill battle for anyone.

George Munn: Welcome to the wonderful world of sound!
Jack Conrad: I have to do this?
George Munn: What do you mean? It's gonna be great!
Jack Conrad: Just stand there and sing?
George Munn: Exactly.
Jack Conrad: While it's raining.
George Munn: Yeah.
Jack Conrad: And that's Noah's Ark?
George Munn: Uh, I believe so, yeah.
Jack Conrad: Because it's raining so much?

Jack Conrad: It's not a low art, you know. I want you to know that. What I do means something to millions of people!

Jack Conrad: My folks didn't have the money or the education to go to the theater, so they went to the vaudeville houses, and then the nickelodeons. And you know what? There's beauty there. What happens up on that screen means something. Maybe not to you in your ivory tower. But for real people on the ground, it means something.
Estelle: Jack, I-I have no idea what you're talking about.
Jack Conrad: Of course you don't. Of course you don't! A hundred thousand people see you on Broadway, and it's the smash of the century, right? Well, here it's a flop! A fucking flop! So do me a favor, darling. Save your subtext recommendations for your pretentious Eugene O'Neill-Henrik Ibsen jerk-offs that only a handful of rich geriatrics give two fucks about, and I'll do what I do without your help!

Elinor St. John: Okay, don't forget. Your friend Manuel pulled a lot of strings to get you in here. These people choose who stays and who goes. So show them that you're a lady of sophistication and you'll be back on top. So, now what did we discuss?
Nellie LaRoy: "-ing" not "-in." "Isn't" not "ain't." And when in doubt, say somethin' French.
Elinor St. John: Perfection! Also, no drinking, and try not to eat too much.

Elinor St. John: Do you miss the silents?
Jack Conrad: No. We shouldn't stand in the way of progress.

Jack Conrad: You know, when I first moved to LA, you know what the signs on all the doors read? "No actors or dogs allowed." Yeah, I changed that. I helped build this place you call home. I've never had any illusions about us. I've never pretended we're friends. We're friendly. I scratch yours, you scratch mine. That's our work. But this? This is something else.
Elinor St. John: What do you want, Jack?
Jack Conrad: I want to know why you wrote it.
Elinor St. John: No, you want to know why they laughed. Would you like me to tell you?
Jack Conrad: Why they laughed... Sure, Elinor. Why?
Elinor St. John: There is no why. It wasn't your voice. It wasn't a conspiracy. And it certainly wasn't anything I wrote. There's nothing you could have done differently. There's nothing you can do. Your time has run out. There is no why. Stop questioning it.
Jack Conrad: I'm on a dry spell.
Elinor St. John: No. It's over. It's been over for a while. I'm sorry.

Jack Conrad: Elinor, you peddle gossip. You don't make anything. You don't know what it is to put yourself out there. You're just a cockroach. I've been counted out before. This isn't new to me.
Elinor St. John: Have you ever stopped to think why, when there's a house fire, the people die and the cockroaches all survive?

Jack Conrad: Jesus Christ.
Elinor St. John: What happened was you thought the house needed you. It doesn't. Doesn't need you any more than it needs the roaches. And the roaches, knowing this, crawl back into the dark, lay low, and make it through.
     See, but you, you held the spotlight. It's those of us in the dark, the ones who just watch, who survive. A house fire. And there'll be hundreds more like it, too. An earthquake could wipe this town off the map and wouldn't make a difference. It's the idea that sticks.
     There'll be a hundred more Jack Conrads. Hundred more me's. Hundred more conversations just like this one, over and over again, until God knows when. Because it's bigger than you...
     I know it hurts. No one asks to be left behind. But in a hundred years, when you and I are both long gone, any time someone threads a frame of yours through a sprocket, you will be alive again. You see what that means? One day, every person on every film shot this year will be dead. And one day, all those films will be pulled from the vaults, and all their ghosts will dine together, and adventure together, go to the jungle, to war together. A child born in 50 years will stumble across your image flickering on a screen and feel he knows you, like-- like a friend, though you breathed your last before he breathed his first.
     You've been given a gift. Be grateful. Your time today is through, but you'll spend eternity with angels and ghosts.
Jack Conrad: .... Thank you for that.

Irving Thalberg: So? What do you think?
Jack Conrad: Yeah. I just have one question. It's a piece of shit, isn't it?
Irving Thalberg: What?
Jack Conrad: And I'd be bailing you out, wouldn't I?
Irving Thalberg: No. No. Of course not.
Jack Conrad: Irv, let's just call it for what it is. That's all I ask. I'll do your movie. I'll bail you out. All I want in return is a little honesty. Can you do that, Irv? Can you be honest with me for ten seconds or so? I'd be bailing you out, wouldn't I?
Irving Thalberg: ... Yeah, you'd be bailing me out.
Jack Conrad: And it's a piece of shit, isn't it?
Irving Thalberg: Yeah, it's a piece of shit.
Jack Conrad: Okay, Irv. I'll see you on set.

Lady Fay Zhu: You okay, sweetie?
Jack Conrad: It was the most magical place in the world, wasn't it?
Lady Fay Zhu: It was.
Jack Conrad: Another set, another review. Another romance, another breakup... I'm tired, Fay. It's okay. It's okay. I've been the luckiest bastard in the world. I had a good run, didn't I? Hmm?
Lady Fay Zhu: You sure did.
Jack Conrad: Yeah. I enjoyed that...

Jack Conrad: It was so good to see you, Fay. You're gonna do great things in Europe. You were always one of the good ones.
Lady Fay Zhu: Thank you. Ciao, my love.
Jack Conrad: Ciao. See you in Venice. See you in Prague...

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