The Advocate (1993)

Colin Firth: Richard Courtois

Photos 

Quotes 

• Filette d'Auferre : Would you rather have a woman you knew to be a harlot that all the World thought was virtuous, or a woman you know to be pure that all the World thought was a harlot?

  Richard Courtois : ...I'm sorry a woman...?

• Richard Courtois : You'd sell yourself for a pig?

  Samira : It's money and food for the winter.

• Richard Courtois : You're a melancholy fellow, Mathieu. Get yourself smartened up and we'll go to a brothel.

  Mathieu : Brothel?

  Richard Courtois : Well, there won't be one in this piss-arse town, but there'll be one in L'Avignon.

  Mathieu : Maitre, this is the brothel.

  Richard Courtois : What?

  Mathieu : The Abville Inn is the Abville Whorehouse.

  Richard Courtois : [incredulous]  What, that skinny girl? I never gave her a sous!

  Mathieu : They put it down as the "lodging tax."

• Richard Courtois : [of the priest's privately-expressed skepticism about witchcraft]  Would you say all that in court?

  Albertius : Richard, I like it here; it's a very nice living. Having my balls burnt off in public might take some of the pleasure out of it.

• Richard Courtois : There must be priests in Hell.

  Albertius : Can't move for them.

• Albertius : ...why, I myself saw the Bishop of Rheims pronounce the act of anathema against a swarm of locusts.

  Richard Courtois : Really? How did they take it?

  Albertius : Difficult to say with locusts.

• Richard Courtois : [Awakens from a dream]  Now why did I see that face?

• Richard Courtois : So he's a spy for the Inquisition?

  Tavernkeeper : They don't know that we know.

• First Witness : It ran...

  Richard Courtois : Like a guilty thing? They say their lines well, don't they?

• Richard Courtois : He insulted her, you have to let her go!

  Seigneur Jehan d'Auferre : What was that, Courtois? I don't think anyone heard you...

• Richard Courtois : I'm looking forward to locking swords with you.

  [Pincheon just ignores him] 

• Richard Courtois : [the "Witch" is going to be hanged on a technicality]  Why didn't I know that?

  Pincheon : Custom and Practise!

• Richard Courtois : [shown a "Mark of Satan"]  That was a birthmark before you stuck your dagger in it.

• Richard Courtois : What, one law for the rich?

  Seigneur Jehan d'Auferre : Yes! Always!

• Seigneur Jehan d'Auferre : It's only a pig!

  Richard Courtois : No, not THAT pig. Not now.

• Richard Courtois : We must have a retrial. This pig has the same colour, the same markings.

  Seigneur Jehan d'Auferre : All this again?

  Richard Courtois : Well, let's clear this up. Pig, do you have a demon in you?

  [the farmer sticks it with a dagger and it squeals] 

  Seigneur Jehan d'Auferre : Such a full and frank confession cannot be ignored.

• Richard Courtois : Look how she holds herself! Country girls, Mathieu.

• Richard Courtois : My God, that dog smiled at me.

• Albertius : They knew it was only a game.

  Richard Courtois : Really? Or were one or two of them afraid you really meant it?

• Richard Courtois : [sees the Pig]  What is this?

  Prison Warden : Your Client!

• Albertius : Jeannine said "Look to the boy".

  Richard Courtois : I did that and all I found was a little heap of bones and another good citizen too scared to... Wrong...?

  Albertius : Wrong boy.

• Albertius : [looking at women in the public baths]  Ah, there are sweet beasts and smelly beasts... there's a sweet one.

  Richard Courtois : I can't stop thinking about them.

  Albertius : Well, the Good Lord sent them to try us, and by Heaven he knew what he was doing.

  [ducks underwater to cool off] 

• Richard Courtois : Did anybody see?

• Richard Courtois : Is a pig big enough to hold a devil? How about a flea? You don't really believe what you've been saying here, do you?

  Pincheon : This is monstrous!

  Albertius : Oh I believe it, Maitre, every word.

• Richard Courtois : [to the pig]  Excuse me, do you have a Devil in you?