we must transfer you from the Legume....
I would rocket orf on my tandem with Wrigglesworth....
As i get to know this movie more and more i find all the Uncle Monty quotes along with Richard Griffiths' superb delivery the funniest.Which are your favourites and has anyone ever translated his and Withnails brief Latin conversation..?
"Oh I didnt break it...merely forced it a little"
"Get away from the car"
Every line he says really.
"Even a stopped clock gives the right time twice a day"
'It's society's crime not ours.'
'You mean, at a labour exchange?!'
'Laissez-moi respirer, longtemps longtemps l'odeur de tes cheveux. Baudelaire, Baudelaire, brings back such memories of Oxford; oh Oxford.'
There is also the unbeatable...
Uncle Monty (quizically) - "here.... hare.... here". And then as he understands the message, "here hare here!".
I see a post a couple down which has the single word title "overrated". I don't think I should enter that message. Withnail and I is easily my favourite film of all time, the script, story, characters, cast, everything is absolutely faultless as far as I'm concerned!
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Every line that comes out of Monty's mouth is pure genius, I Love him.
"Tell him if you must, I no longer care. I mean to have you even if it must be burglary"
Yeah, loved that bit myself. Subtly hilarious.
"Even a stopped clock gives the right time twice a day"
I dont think Its funny at all! Its a signature line. "You people" Who do you think you are??
"Even a stopped clock gives the right time twice a day"
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"You beastly little parasite! How dare you!!! You little thug! How dare you!!!! Oh that beast. The ungrateful little swine!!!"
"Get the damned little swine out of here!! It's trying to get itself in with you, it's trying for even more advantage! It's obsessed... it's like a bloody rugby ball..... now... It will die, it will die!!!!"
"......yet again that oaf has destroyed my day......"
His relationship with his cat is just hilarious, I'd never picked up on him calling it a "bloody rugby ball" before, that just made me burst out laughing at work :)
I also love the line during the card game as he draws the queen - "Ah, ha! There she IS!"
I always thought it was "bloody rutting bull".
"But not that tired...eh?"
has anyone ever translated his and Withnails brief Latin conversation..?
6? Do me a lemon! That's a poor IQ for a glass of water!
Monty: Come on lads, let's get home, the sky's beginning to bruise, night must fall and we shall be forced to camp.
That and
Monty:As a youth I used to weep in butchers shops.
Trot both of these out on a regular basis - I just love Monty's fruity delivery. It's a masterful and melancholic role - almost as good as getting to "play the Dane".
"Your reality is already HALF video hallucination...."
I KNOW you're not asleep, boy!
"Sir, let those laugh that win."
"So, you're a writer too?"
"Where did you school?"
"Indeed I remember my first agent. Raymond Duck- dreadful little Israelite.Four floors up on the Charing Cross Road and never a job at the top of them!"
"Get away from the car. What on earth will people think of me? You look like a couple of farm hands!"
Absolutely everything Monty says is rich and fruity. Delivered with sublime tones.
"As a youth I used to weep in butcher's shops"
I could quote his every line just like Withnail's, Marwood's and Danny's.
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"There is, you'll agree, a certain 'je ne sais quoi' ohhh, so very special about a firm, young carrot."
He sounds orgasmic when he says "ohhhhhh".
"Roses are nothing but tarts. Prostitutes for the beeeeees..."
&
"As a youth I used to weep before butcher shops."
Withnail= my all time favorite screenplay.
I'm surprised no one's mentioned his soliloquy by the fireside yet - in my heyday of watching this film about every week with flatmates we'd have to re-watch the scene at Uncle Monty's constantly and re-enact it from the opening of the front door:
"well hellooooooo! Come in!"
to the fireside speech:
"it is one of the most shattering experiences in a young man's life when he awakes one day and quite reasonably says to himself - I shall...never...play...the...Dane. When that moment comes, one's ambition ceases...don't you agree?"
- "it's a part I intend to play, Uncle."
"and you'd be marvellous. Marvellous........It's gawn! We do it wrong!..."
Love every second of that scene, the piano music in the background, the opening smalltalk about vegetables - "do you grow?", the cat - "GET THAT DAMNED LITTLE SWINE OUT OF HERE!"...the word "sherry"...
Then there's:
"oh my boys my boys...forGIVE me!"
I demand to have some booze!
Peace In, Chill Out, Carry On...
"Do you grow?" - Surely another darkly divine line?
Although I can't help but laugh every time Monty simply says the word "splendid!"
What if everyone started telling the truth?
Brilliant delivery - and this one wasn't even in the screenplay:
MONTY: ... But we have MY car, dear boy.
MARWOOD: Yes, but if it rains, we're buggered. (Pauses awkwardly.) I mean...
MONTY: STRANDED!
What does he mean by "breakfasts that set in"?
He says "set in" with such contempt, like the way my missus talks about microwave dinners. But I have no idea what it is he is actually criticising there.
There's something a bit J. Arthur Prufrock about that line, I don't really understand it but I feel it. Perhaps it's a figurative comment about a day that starts with a melancholy dullness and malaise that carries on until it's end. Or as Monty is a highly sensitive man who loves his food, maybe a poor breakfast would make him feel stolid and unfulfilled in a way that he can't shake.
It might be that it has no literal meaning but is simply included for the impression it gives. Bruce Robinson is a writer who seems to inhabit his characters in order to come up with lines that sound authentic and faithful to them. He might not understand what it means either but felt that it was the right statement for the right time.
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