Babylon (I) (2022)

Brad Pitt: Jack Conrad

Photos 

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Quotes 

• [Jack finds George crying with his head in the toilet] 

  Jack Conrad : Aw, Georgie. Who was it this time?

  George Munn : [panting]  Claire.

  Jack Conrad : Claire. Well, Claire's a lesbian. That's an uphill battle for anyone.

• 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.

• Jack Conrad : I had a good run, didn't I?

• Jack Conrad : And then he says: "Frankly Scarlett, you're a cunt." Type it.

• 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 : Eso dicen.

• Jack Conrad : [News of George's suicide]  He was the first guy to say I had talent. He saved my life.

• Jack Conrad : I'm not asking you to fuck him, just make him feel special.

• Jack Conrad : Hola, Carmelita!

  [turns to his fiancée Estelle] 

  Jack Conrad : I have no idea who that was.

• Lady Fay Zhu : You okay, sweetie?

  Jack Conrad : [long pause]  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.

  [long pause] 

  Jack Conrad : It's okay.

  [clicks tongue] 

  Jack Conrad : 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.

• Nellie LaRoy : Fucking listen up, all you big-dick Mister Men! Who wants to see my dad fight a fucking snake?

  Jack Conrad : Fuck yeah!

• 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. 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!

• Jack Conrad : This table only has one bottle, and we're gonna need eight. We're also gonna need two gin rickeys, an orange blossom with brandy, three French 75s. Can you do a Corpse Reviver? Gin, lemon, triple sec and Kina Lillet with a dash of absinthe. Two of those.

  Jen : Two of those.

• Jack Conrad : [enters her room as she is typing]  Madame? Let's chat.

  Elinor St. John : I'm on a deadline, darling.

  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?

  [tosses the Photoplay magazine on Elinor's table] 

  Jack Conrad : This is something else.

  [sits down on a chair in front of Elinor's desk] 

  Elinor St. John : [places her glasses on her desk]  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.

  Jack Conrad : A house fire.

  Elinor St. John : 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.

  [gets up from her chair] 

  Elinor St. John : I know it hurts. No one asks to be left behind.

  [sits on her desk in front of Jack] 

  Elinor St. John : 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 : [sadly gets up from his chair, begins to walk away, and stops for a second to sigh]  Thank you for that.

  [continues to walk away as Elinor returns to her typewriter] 

• Jack Conrad : [approaches the bellhop]  Hey, you do a great job. What's the best tip you've ever received?

  Bellhop : Fifty dollars.

  Jack Conrad : Who gave you that?

  Bellhop : You did, Mr. Conrad.

  Jack Conrad : [gives the rest of his money to the bellhop and says his last words]  It's on you now, kid. The future's yours.

• Jack Conrad : [over the phone to Manny]  Don't say a word. I'm happy for you. You deserve this. Now go and show those fat fucks how it's done!

• Jack Conrad : Bauhaus! You know what I mean by Bauhaus, don't you?

  Writer (Jack's Tent) : Not as it relates to this, no sir.

• [phone rings] 

  Jack Conrad : Hello?

  Irving Thalberg : Jack, it's Irv. Listen, there's no good way to say this. They found George in his home this morning. Looks like he struck out with a girl he was seeing.

  [music stops] 

  Irving Thalberg : He shot himself. Jack?

  Jack Conrad : Thank you.

• Jack Conrad : Manuel's great!

• Jack Conrad : I saw Olga Putti sing to herself in Hungarian, and I think I'm in love. Send two dozen roses to her dressing room every morning this week.

  Manny Torres : You know she doesn't speak English?

  Jack Conrad : Neither does love.

• 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? 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. It's the ones who go to Beverly Hills for meatballs and mint juleps to reminisce about the old days, when they can't see there's so much more to be done! 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!" Yeah.

• Jack Conrad : [Olga has him at gunpoint]  Is this about Greta? You know she's just a friend!

• Jack Conrad : Noah's Ark, why? Because it's raining so much?

• Jack Conrad : I'm gonna play it adagio. You know, for the music and the poetry. All art aspires to music.

  Otto : I like it.

  Jack Conrad : Yeah. Sandwich!

• Jack Conrad : So, do you like warm syrup or do you let the pancakes do that?

• Jack Conrad : Did you know Michelangelo painted the entire Sistine Chapel on his back?

• Jack Conrad : Elinor, I will master the talking film on film.

  Elinor St. John : Do you miss the silents?

  Jack Conrad : [long pause]  No. We shouldn't stand in the way of progress.

• Jack Conrad : This is not a low art!

• Elinor St. John : So, Jacky boy, how do you think it turned out?

  Jack Conrad : Ah, people want the kiss, we give them the kiss.

• Jack Conrad : [serenely watching the chaos]