Justine (2016)

Jac Avila: Monsieur Rodin

Quotes 

• Rodin : [breaking the fourth wall]  Rosalie told me this monster, her father, plans to use her in his 'grand plan divine'. Poor Rosalie is doomed.

  [Rodin and Omphale bind Rosalie topless on a rack and start to stretch her limbs] 

  Rodin : I seek truth, I seek perfection and we'll never reach the ultimate perfection unless we offer the world the cruel death of our firstborn

  Justine : [breaking the fourth wall]  His daughter is precisely what he needs. He's preparing her for a "noble fate".

  Rodin : [handing a flogger to Justine]  Here. Do to her as I did Omphale.

  Justine : I cannot.

  Rodin : Yes you can. Do it now, or she'll suffer more.

• [after Rodin concludes a lengthy session of torturing Omphale, then kisses his victim gently, Justine slowly claps her hands] 

  Justine : I applaud you, our dear lord and master. Your wisdom astonishes me... but your indifference confounds me. I thought you amorous.

  Rodin : I? I in love with the girl? Oh, my sweet, I thought you knew me better by now. I just torture you, all my creatures, when I have nothing better to do.

• [as Rodin binds his daughter to the wheel] 

  Rodin : Think of it, just think of it - one life to save millions. May one hesitate when the price is so modest?

  Justine : [breaking the fourth wall]  When Michelangelo wished to render a realistic Christ, did he make the crucification of a young man the occasion for a fit of remorse? No, he copied him in his death agonies.

• Rosalie : I am going to tell you everything.

  Justine : What?

  Rosalie : [breaking the fourth wall]  The charming girl, speaking with all the candor proper to her age, told me about Monsieur Rodin. Rodin is a scientist, a teacher and he practices medicine. He may be the most accomplished man in France at this time - but his wealth comes from none of these professions.

  [Rosalie draws back a curtain revealing a torture chamber] 

  Justine : I learned from Rosalie on Fridays he carries out punishments from which he derives great pleasure.

  [Rodin strips Omphale naked and binds her wrists] 

  Omphale : I protest to you. I did not...

  Rodin : Of course you did. I saw you.

  [Rodin tugs on the rope, causing Omphale to hang by her wrists] 

  Justine : Rosalie whispered to me these are trifles he invents as a pretext. Omphale is an angel. He only treats her thus because she sometimes resists him.