Jack Conrad quotes from Babylon (2022)

Jack Conrad

I had a good run, didn't I?

Jack Conrad

He was the first guy to say I had talent. He saved my life.

Jack Conrad

I'm not asking you to **** him, just make him feel special.

Jack Conrad

Hola, Carmelita! [Turns to his fiancée Estelle] I have no idea who that was.

Jack Conrad

Don't say a word. I'm happy for you. You deserve this. Now go and show those fat ****s how it's done!

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. **** 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

Manuel's great!

Jack Conrad

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

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

This is not a low art!

Jack Conrad

My last idea is the best.

Jack Conrad

Aw, Georgie. Who was it this time?

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

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.

Lady Fay Zhu

You okay, sweetie?

Jack Conrad

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] It's okay. 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.

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.

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 **** 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 ****s 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.

Two of those.

Jack Conrad

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] This is something else. [Sits down on a chair in front of Elinor's desk]

Elinor St. John

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] I know it hurts. No one asks to be left behind. [sits on her desk in front of Jack] 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

Thank you for that. [continues to walk away as Elinor returns to her typewriter]

Jack Conrad

Hey, you do a great job. What's the best tip you've ever received?

Fifty dollars.

Jack Conrad

Who gave you that?

You did, Mr. Conrad.

Jack Conrad

It's on you now, kid. The future's yours.

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.

Jack Conrad

Hello?

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. He shot himself. Jack?

Jack Conrad

Thank you.

Robert Roy

And that, that is when I grabbed the snake by the head.

Nellie LaRoy

The big **** man! There he is!

Robert Roy

What?

Nellie LaRoy

What's he telling you? What was he saying to you?

Robert Roy

The snake story.

Nellie LaRoy

The snake story. Dad, I have an idea. Why don't you fight a snake, a real one, right now. Come on.

Robert Roy

No problemo. Let's go fight a snake.

Nellie LaRoy

Okay! [smashes glass on ground and announces to party] **** listen up, all you big dick mister men! Who wants to see my dad fight a **** snake? [party is silent]

Jack Conrad

**** yeah! [the entire party then simultaneously outbursts in approval with raised hands]

Yeah! [Chanting] A snake's getting fought!

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

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

I like it.

Jack Conrad

Yeah. Sandwich!

Jack Conrad

Elinor, I will master the talking film on film.

Elinor St. John

Do you miss the silents?

Jack Conrad

...No. We shouldn't stand in the way of progress.

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.