French Exit (2020 film)

 is a 2020 Irish-Canadian black comedy-drama film directed by Azazel Jacobs, based on the novel of the same name by Patrick deWitt. It tells the story of a Manhattan heiress (Michelle Pfeiffer) who moves to Paris with her son (Lucas Hedges) with the little money they have left.
 * Directed by . Screenplay by .

Dialogue

 * Susan: Well, it's all very moving, I'm sure.
 * Malcolm: What?
 * Susan: Your devotion to a woman who didn't hardly introduce herself to you until you were twelve years old. Your refusal to live beyond the rules she's written for her own benefit. [holds up a flower] You don't bring flowers to someone you're saying goodbye to, Malcolm. [she hands him the flower] Please leave me alone.


 * Franklin: Hey, Malcolm?
 * Malcolm: Yes, Dad?
 * Franklin: What do you think of all this?
 * Malcolm: Of all what?
 * Franklin: Your mother wants to kill your father.
 * Malcolm: Yeah.
 * Franklin: Any thoughts on it?
 * Malcolm: To be honest, Dad, I'd just as soon not get involved.
 * Franklin: Nice. That's nice. That's family for you.
 * Malcolm: [clears his throat] I guess what I really mean to say, dad, is: I don't know that it's fair for you to ask me to weigh in on something so personal as this considering the fact that I don't know who you are, have never known who you are, and not because I didn't want to but because you never so much as parted the curtain for me, never showed me the slightest preference or kindness, even as a child, when I worshipped you and all I ever wished for was for you to take me by the hand and walk me through any motherfucking park, pat me on the fucking head, for Christ’s sake was I that repellent a creature to you?


 * Malcolm: If I win, you take your bag and leave - alone.
 * [Tom beats Malcolm a arm wrestling]
 * Tom: Wait a minute. What do I win?
 * Malcolm: Nothing. Everything's exactly the same as before.


 * Malcolm: Can I ask you a very dramatic question?
 * Frances: Yes.
 * Malcolm: Why did you have me in the first place?
 * Frances: That is dramatic. [pause] It wasn't planned, of course. I thought I couldn't have children, and had never wanted one. Then, when it happened, we thought your presence could help us come together. You were a last ditch effort, in effect. But then, when he saw you, it clarified something for him, and he turned away forever, from you and me both.
 * Malcolm: But I shouldn't hate him.
 * Frances: Your father is an emotional moron, but he isn't evil.


 * Frances: Your wife of long years, who only days earlier wanted to murder you, has experienced a sudden and mysterious shift in feeling for the good. Is that not noteworthy?
 * Franklin: I guess so. But Frances?
 * Frances: Yes?
 * Franklin: I'm a cat.
 * Frances: I know that.
 * Franklin: I'm a cat living under a bench, and it's raining, and I've got worms and fleas and, you know, I'm not much concerned about anything besides the unhappy facts of my horrible -- my truly horrible, miserable fucking existence.


 * Young Malcolm: What was jail like?
 * Frances: Not really very much fun.
 * Young Malcolm: What was the food like?
 * Frances: [smiles] You're getting it.

Cast

 * Michelle Pfeiffer as Frances Price
 * Lucas Hedges as Malcolm Price
 * Valerie Mahaffey as Mme. Reynard
 * Imogen Poots as Susan
 * Susan Coyne as Joan
 * Danielle Macdonald as Madeleine the medium
 * Isaach de Bankolé as Julius
 * Daniel Di Tomasso as Tom
 * Tracy Letts as Franklin Price (voice)