The Last Express (1997 Video Game)

Diane Aldcroft: Sophie

Quotes 

• Sophie : [In French when Cath enters the smoking salon]  Look at that handsome man who just came in.

  Rebecca : [In English]  Sophie!

  Rebecca : [In French]  Don't worry, he won't understand. He's an American. If we don't look at him, he'll never know were talking about him.

  Rebecca : [In English]  Good Lord.

  Sophie : Isn't he impressive? He seems to have just come in from outside, not at all like a European. Jacket open, hair mussed...

  Rebecca : [In English]  And he could certainly use a wash.

  Sophie : [In French]  Listen, if you are not interested in small details, you'll never become a great writer. Look at his sad eyes. He could be a model for the hero of a novel.

  Rebecca : Eww.

• Rebecca : The French are so funny. Madame Caillaux seems to become some sort of national heroine. Somehow she's been transformed from an insignificant women enslaved and overshadowed by her husband, into a passionate avenger.

  Sophie : [In French]  If the middle classes are going to start writing history, we're all in trouble.

  Rebecca : [In French]  That's just the kind of thing a little aristocrat girl would say.

  Sophie : [In French]  Stop it. You even said yourself that she was like Madame Bovary.

  Rebecca : What counts is she's acted. She's the very opposite of Madame Bovary. I'd say more Joan of Arc, really.

  Sophie : Whom the English burned at the stake.

  Rebecca : Must you always bring that up?

  Sophie : Well, it happened.

  Rebecca : What really interests me about Madame Caillaux is the way French scandals develop so differently from English ones. Like the Dreyfus affair. In England, if a Jewish army officer...

  [dialogue fades] 

• Maitre D' : [In French]  Mademoiselle, I have saved your favorite table for you. What a pleasure to see you tonight with your charming friend. Never have I seen two such beautiful young ladies in one space. You are the queens of the Orient Express.

  Sophie : Merci, Pascale.

  [Thank you, Pascale] 

  Rebecca : He does lay it on a bit thick, doesn't he?

  Sophie : Pascale? He talks like that to everybody.

  [In French] 

  Sophie : You are beautiful tonight.

  Rebecca : Sophie, you're embarrassing me.

  Sophie : [In French]  Why? It's true. You don't believe me? Turn around and ask our American if he finds you beautiful. I know he'll agree with me.

  Rebecca : Sophie!

  Sophie : I'm sorry, I forgot he's not your type. You wouldn't care if he likes you or not. So let's ask the woman in red there, behind me. She's gorgeous, isn't she? "Tall, slender, grieving, such majestic pain".

  Rebecca : Sophie! Everyone can hear you.

  Sophie : So what? What difference does that make to us? Why travel if you're going to worry about the same things as home. You're free. You just don't know it yet.

  Rebecca : You make it sound so simple. If only you knew how difficult it was for me to get on this train.

• Rebecca : These aren't new answers, Sophie. All of Russia may go into revolt.

  Sophie : [sigh]  After a month on the island you won't think about such things. Listen, why don't you write a play when you get there?

  [In French] 

  Sophie : It could be brilliant. One of your amusing little pieces like the one you did on Reginald. I'll be Ariadne, you'll be Theseus. Josephine can be the Minotaur. Although you are so stubborn, that should really be your role.

  Rebecca : Josephine?

  Sophie : Oh yes, didn't I tell you? She wrote just at the last minute and positively demanded to come. She hates to be left out of anything. Oh, don't make such a face! Of course you and I will be together. After all, we can't spend all our time just staring at the sunset.

• Rebecca : [Entering the Restaurant Car]  There's absolutely no one here.

  Sophie : But of course.

  Maitre D' : [In French]  Ah ladies. So good to see you. We have kept your table for you.

  Rebecca : Thank you.

  Maitre D' : [In French]  Do you know, I was starting to really miss your presence. Without you the Orient Express would be just an ordinary train.

  Sophie : Thank you, Pascale.

  Rebecca : I'm absolutely famished.

  Sophie : You'll have to get used to eating late, my dear Rebecca. On the island one never lunches before three o'clock. You see, during the day it is quite hot. Between twelve and three there is nothing to do but nap. There is a divine woman from the village who will do your hair. I fancy you in a looser style, with ringlets for example.

  Rebecca : [In French]  Not ringlets.

  Sophie : Ah, but my darling, our goal was to reinvent you, wasn't it? The warm breeze off the sea will transform your soul. Listen: when the day cools down, the golden afternoon light comes, turning the water a deep blue and black. We will eat olives and homemade bread. The cook makes a very nice lamb dish, if I remember right. Then we will walk along the cliffs, like Sappho and her beloved, in light gauzy gowns, and watch the sun go down.

  Rebecca : [In French]  Followed, I suppose, by Josephine, Victoria, and Francesca? Also in gauze?

  Sophie : Why not? You will see; on the island everyone becomes very close. Victoria is simply irresistible. Last summer she lolled around all day, like a big, lazy, orange cat, sleeping and waiting to be stroked.

  Rebecca : I came to be with you, Sophie. Not with Josephine and that group of parasites.

  Sophie : Of course! But Francesca has the most charming little house in Marbella. You cannot take everything so seriously, Rebecca.

  Rebecca : I'm trying.

  Sophie : [In French]  Good. Now let's change the subject. For example, your clothes.

  Rebecca : My clothes?

  Sophie : [In French]  Yes. Now that we are away from England, it's time for a new image.

  Sophie : [later after getting their orders from the waiter]  I wish we were on the island now. I hate those in-between times.

  Rebecca : Oh, I love the in-between times. It's the only time I can really think.

• Rebecca : I just can't imagine Charlotte deliberately letting herself in for that sort of life. I'm mean after the hell that Anne's been through.

  Sophie : [In French]  It's not so bad for Anne. She amuses herself, her husband amuses himself. I would say it worked out quite nicely for both of them. For Charlotte too.

  Rebecca : Don't joke about it, it's too awful.

  Sophie : [In French]  But I'm not joking. I plan to marry myself when the right opportunity presents itself. You should do the same.

  Rebecca : I shall never marry.

  Sophie : [In French]  Don't be so dramatic. I'm not saying you should do anything so complicated now - there's too much fun to be had. You'll still be young and beautiful for a good two or three years. If anything I think you'll be even more beautiful in a year or two, when you've gotten over your awkwardness and learned how to dress. But after that, what kind of fun can you have as an old maid?

• Rebecca : Who is this prince? That's what I'd like to know

  Sophie : I don't think he's a prince of anything.

  Rebecca : It all sounds very mysterious... why do you think he invited us and not Madame Boutarel?

  Sophie : It's very simple: he's a snob. He does not know me, he only knows my name, de Bretheuil. He thinks to invite the noblesse to make himself important. That's why he does not invite some petty bourgeois like the Boutarels, but he invites le Count Obelensky who he does not know.

  Rebecca : Then you don't think we should accept?

  Sophie : Why not? It'll be less boring than listening to Madame Boutarel.

  Rebecca : Did I tell you what she said to me this morning? Apparently the reason she and her husband aren't sharing a compartment is that their little boy François...

  [gets up] 

  Rebecca : Excuse me.

  Sophie : Tu va bien?

  [Are you okay?] 

  Rebecca : Yes, I won't be a minute.

  Rebecca : [later]  Was I? I'm sorry. Were you terribly bored?

  Sophie : Yes!

  Rebecca : I told Madame Boutarel about the concert and she was absolutely livid.

• Rebecca : [in their compartment]  It's easy for you to say that now. Now that I have nothing to go back to.

  Sophie : That's not my fault.

  Rebecca : You weren't talking like that in London.

  Sophie : [In French]  London is London. Here is here.

  [In English] 

  Sophie : I don't know why I feel something one day and not another, but I won't pretend I feel it when I don't.

  [In French] 

  Sophie : I'm not like you.

  Rebecca : No-one's feelings can change that fast.

  Sophie : Well, mine do.

  Rebecca : You can't treat people as if they were your toys! There are consequences, you know. I have given up a lot to come on this trip.

  Sophie : I don't care about the things you give up. For me, that's nothing. What you give to me, what you make ME feel, that's what I care about.

  Rebecca : You won't give me a chance!

  Sophie : [In French]  You're always talking about consequences, sacrifices, obligations. I don't give a damn about any of it. If I wanted all that baggage, I would have married Philippe. At least that would have had its compensations.