The Agony and the Ecstasy (1965)
Rex Harrison: Pope Julius II
Photos
Quotes
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Pope Julius II : And this is how you see man? Noble, beautiful, unafraid?
Michelangelo : How else should I see him?
Pope Julius II : As he is - corrupt and evil, his hands dripping with blood, destined for damnation. Your painting's beautiful, but false.
Michelangelo : I cannot change my conception.
Pope Julius II : You've taught me not to waste my time trying to change your conception. How did you arrive at this?
Michelangelo : Well, I thought my idea for the panel was that man's evil he learned for himself, not from God.
Pope Julius II : Yes.
Michelangelo : I wanted to paint man as he was first created - innocent, still free of sin, grateful for the... the gift of life.
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Pope Julius II : What you have painted here, my son, is not a portrait of God. It's a proof of faith.
Michelangelo : I hadn't thought that faith needed proof.
Pope Julius II : Not if you're a saint, or an artist. I am merely a pope.
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Pope Julius II : You see, my son... how well we understand each other... when you don't shout?
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Pope Julius II : You dare to dicker with your pontiff?
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Pope Julius II : What runs in Michelangelo's veins is not blood. It's paint.
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Pope Julius II : You make a better priest than I do, Michelangelo. Yet I have tried to serve Him in the only way I know how.
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[last lines]
Michelangelo : It's only painted plaster, Holy Father.
Pope Julius II : No, my son - it is more than that... much more. What has it taught you, Michelangelo?
Michelangelo : That I am... not alone.
Pope Julius II : And it has taught me that the world is not alone. When I stand before the throne, I shall throw your ceiling into the balance against my sins. Perhaps it will shorten my time in purgatory.
Pope Julius II : [Michelangelo kneels and kisses the pope's ring] ... To work, my son.
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Pope Julius II : What do you think we should do here? Bramante wants to pull it down. He likes pulling things down! No, I want to do something less destructive.
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Pope Julius II : It's a terrible thing to strive for a lifetime and come to the final realization that you have failed.
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Pope Julius II : I take no credit. I was moved by another hand - as easily and skillfully as you move your brush. Strange, how He works His will. Let us share pride in having been made His instruments.