Annette (2021) Best Movie Quotes

Starring: Adam Driver, Marion Cotillard, Simon Helberg, Devyn McDowell

OUR RATING: ★★☆☆☆

Story:

Musical drama directed by Leos Carax. Annette (2021) tells the story of stand-up comedian, Henry (Adam Driver), who falls in love with Ann (Marion Cotillard), a world-renowned opera singer. Together, under the spotlight, they form a happy and glamorous couple. However, after the birth of their first child, Annette, a girl with a unique gift, their lives are turned upside down.

Best Quotes

Leos Carax: Ladies and gentlemen, we now ask for your complete attention. If you want to sing, laugh, clap, cry, yawn, boo, or fart, please, do it in your head. Only in your head. You are now kindly requested to keep silent, and to hold your breath until the very end of the show. Breathing will not be tolerated during the show. So, please take a deep, last breath right now. Thank you.

Leos Carax: So, may we start?

Announcer: No one is ever ready for a mildly offensive evening with The Ape of God.

Henry McHenry: Well, of course, I’ve heard the rumors too. They say my show kills. But relax, see my contract? Save your breath. Says so here, “Mr. Henry McHenry is not allowed to make the public laugh to death.” Can’t make your alveoli pop tonight. No dislocated jaws. No belly explosions. However, asthmatics. Keep your inhalers in position!

Henry McHenry: I’ve just met someone. Someone so… It all went so fast. I just moved into her tiny hidden palace, because, yes, she’s a queen. And now, I’m engaged. I know. I know. Marrying a girl when you’re as young and green as me, it’s like swimming the Atlantic with a concrete block tied to your left testicle.

Henry McHenry: First time I fell in love, woke up next to the girl, rushed out to buy myself the biggest motorbike I could find, and escaped fast and far. But Ann the soprano has changed me. I have changed. How? I’m still not sure. Time will tell. What I see in her is obvious. What she sees in me? Mmm. It’s a little more puzzling.

Audience: [singing] Yes, why did you become a comedian? Hey, Henry?!
Henry McHenry: Why? I’ll tell you why. To disarm people. Make them laugh. It’s the only way I know to tell the truth without getting killed.

Ann Defrasnoux: How did the show go?
Henry McHenry: I killed them. Destroyed them. Murdered them.
Ann Defrasnoux: Good boy.
Henry McHenry: And your gig?
Ann Defrasnoux: I saved them.
Henry McHenry: Well, you die so magnificently. Honey, you’re always dying.

Ann, Henry: [singing] We love each other so much. So hard to explain it. So hard to explain. We love each other so much.

Henry McHenry: This is a baby. This is my baby. Tonight, while she’s singing and dying, I’m babysitting.

Six Women Member: [singing] I fear for Ann. She must be warned. McHenry is not, not what he seems.

Henry McHenry: I knew it. I should’ve cancelled the show tonight.
Audience: No, no, no!
Henry McHenry: Yes, yes, yes. You see, my house was broken into last night, and b****rds stole all my jokes.

Henry McHenry: The truth is, now that I have my own soprano, and baby, I’m not sure I have it in me anymore to make sad people laugh.

Henry McHenry: The truth is I’m sick. Being in love makes me sick.

Henry McHenry: So why did I become a comedian?
Audience: You’re not! You’re not! Not anymore!

Henry McHenry: [singing] You used to laugh. But now you sure ain’t laughing at me no more.

Ann Defrasnoux: I have a wonderful gift, and a beautiful child. People adore me, and I adore this man. But something’s wrong.

Henry McHenry: [singing] What goes up, must come down. My star’s in decline. Once profound for a clown. My star’s in decline.

Ann Defrasnoux: [singing to the puppet Annette] I will calm the sea. Baby, don’t fear. I will stop the storm. Sleep, baby, sleep. The world revolves round you, my little innocent. Sleep a perfect sleep. I’m always here. Dream a perfect dream, and never fear.

'Never cast your eyes down the abyss.' - Henry McHenry (Annette) Share on X

Henry McHenry: Let’s waltz.
Ann Defrasnoux: But I’ll kill my voice out here. Henry, a storm is rolling in.
Henry McHenry: I’m well aware of that, my dear. Let’s waltz in the storm!

Ann Defrasnoux: Henry, you’re not the man I know!

Ann Defrasnoux: [singing] What has gotten into you? With this storm and this sea I feel scared, look at me. Comfort me, hold me tight. Oh, what a terrible, terrible night.

Ann Defrasnoux: Is nothing sacred to you?!
Henry McHenry: Oh, God knows everything is to you. Always trumpeting values. The sacred values. And then dying. Dying. Dying!

Henry McHenry: [singing] We washed ashore, Annette, on some island, somewhere. Your mother’s gone, Annette. I’ll take care of you.

Henry McHenry: Now, I can hear the stars laughing at me. In the morning I’ll be free of all these hallucinations.

Ann Defrasnoux: [singing] I will haunt you, Henry. For the rest of your life. Through Annette, I’ll haunt you. Her voice will be my ghost. I am no longer love. I am now revenge.

Ann Defrasnoux: [singing] I will haunt you, Henry. I’ll die day after day after day. I will haunt you, Henry. Night after night after night.

Henry McHenry: [singing] Sure, I’ve sinned in all your eyes. But one thing you cannot deny is I’m a good father.

See more Annette Quotes

Henry McHenry: [referring to Annette singing] Unbelievable. Amazing. It’s really happening. She sings. She’s a miracle. When the light shines on her. Astounding. Unbelievable. Amazing. It’s really happening. It’s really happening to me.

The Accompanist: My love for Ann has never died. Neither has my regret that our affair was only an affair. I had been hoping for so long. Then at a time when she was in despair, we started an affair. But the very next week, she met Henry. That was the end of it, the end of me. I’ll always regret that. I deeply miss her. Her warmth, her voice. I miss Ann.

Henry McHenry: [referring to Annette singing] Can you believe it?
The Accompanist: I just can’t believe it.
Henry McHenry: [singing] Can you explain it?
The Accompanist: I can’t explain it.
Henry McHenry: [singing] Is it really happening?
The Accompanist: I don’t know what to think.
Henry McHenry: [singing] Is it really happening?
The Accompanist: I really don’t know what to think.
Henry McHenry: [singing] To us?

Henry McHenry: [singing] We would tour the world. Show her to the world. Millions would go wild. Cherishing the child.
The Accompanist: This is really exploitation.
Henry McHenry: No, not really.
The Accompanist: Sure it is. This is really exploitation.

Henry McHenry: [singing] I have the same dream every night. Every night, the same dream. Adrift. On an angry sea. And in a moment of rage, and stupidity, I kill the one I love. Ann, forgive me. Ann, I beg you. Ann, Forgive me. I have the same dream every night. Every night, the same dream. She’s here, lying by my side. An exercise in futility. Did I kill the one I love? There’s no forgiveness. Ann, I beg you. There’s no forgiveness.

Henry McHenry: [to the audience] Cynics among you may doubt that what you’re about to see is real. That it is not faked in some way. Let me assure you it is real. Annette is a miracle. Miracles do exist.

Henry McHenry: [singing] All the girls I see look so great to me. What amazes me is what they see in me.

Henry McHenry: [singing] All the girls I see look so great to me. But will I ever be lovable again?

Henry McHenry: [singing] You’d think you were her father.
The Accompanist: Maybe I am. I think I am.
Henry McHenry: [singing] This can’t be true.

The Accompanist: Henry, don’t fool around. The water must be freezing. You wouldn’t want me to drown, would you?
Henry McHenry: I don’t know.

The Accompanist: [as he’s getting drowned] Henry, I’m going down. I won’t tell a single soul. Even you can’t be this cold. So it was you, after all.

The Accompanist: If only I had gotten Ann to love me more.

Henry McHenry: Everything will be alright now. I promise, Annette.

Announcer: As you all know by now, this will be her last public appearance. So, ladies and gentlemen, darkness. Then a very sweet, soft light. And then, for all eternity, Baby Annette!

Annette: [to the audience] Daddy killed people.

Clerk: Henry McHenry, do you solemnly swear that you will tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God?
Henry McHenry: Yes. The truth is, you remind me so much of my mother.

Clerk: Henry McHenry, do you solemnly swear that you will tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God?
Henry McHenry: No. You’ll kill me if I do.

Ann Defrasnoux: Henry. She won’t be the one keeping you company in jail. I will. Day after day after day. Night after night after night.

Henry McHenry: [as Annette visits him in prison] You’ve changed so much, Annette.
Annette: [we see her in human form] Yes. Yes, I have.

Annette: You too have changed. But at least you’re safe here, yes? You can’t drink, and you can’t smoke here, can you?
Henry McHenry: No. No, I can’t.
Annette: And you can’t kill here, can you? It was a joke.
Henry McHenry: You are my daughter after all.

Henry McHenry: No. No more killing. Only time. Killing time. Have you heard that expression?
Annette: No. But now, you have nothing to love.
Henry McHenry: Can’t I love you?
Annette: No. Not really.

Annette: [singing] I’ll never sing again. Living in full darkness. I’ll never sing again. A vampire forever.
Henry McHenry: Annette! No.

Annette: [singing] Can I forgive what you have done?
Henry McHenry: [singing] I hope, that they’d ring true.
Annette: [singing] And will I ever forgive mom?
Henry McHenry: [singing] Imagination is so strong.
Annette: [singing] Her deadly poison, I became.
Henry McHenry: [singing] And reason’s song is never strong.
Annette: [singing] Merely a child to exploit.
Henry McHenry: [singing] Imagination is so strong.
Annette: [singing] Forgive you both?
Henry McHenry: [singing] And reason’s song.
Annette: [singing] Forget you both?

Annette: [singing] Why should I now forgive? Why should I now forget? I can never forgive. I can never forget Both of you were using me for your own ends. For your own ends. Not an ounce of shame. The two of you, you’re both to blame. I wish that both of you were gone.

Annette: [singing] Now you have nothing to love.
Henry McHenry: Can’t I love you, Annette?
Annette: [singing] No, not really, daddy. It’s sad, but it’s true. Now you having nothing to love.

Henry McHenry: My Annette. Never cast your eyes down the abyss. Goodbye, Annette.

Henry McHenry: [paces in his prison cell] Stop watching me.
[we then see puppet Annette lying lifeless on the floor]

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