MovieChat Forums > A Private Function (1985) Discussion > Best Film Quote Ever

Best Film Quote Ever

posted 18 years ago by kevinmcg
7 replies | jump to latest

"I think sexual intercourse is in order, Gilbert"

undeinably the most funny line ever uttered in any film. Note only does it evoke a laugh on the surface, the words, their meaning and the socieity it's being spoken in are so multi-layered.

She uses it as a power play over her husband.
She's celebrating the success she's just had by putting one over the upper class snobs in her town.
She's still staidly British by using a ver clinical term and nto something a bit more fun.
She delivers that line with the slight drawl that only Maggie Smith and no other actor/actress can deliver. just amazing.

[–] hugh1971 17 years ago

I agree, the funniest line in the film! Dame Maggie gets the lower-middle class trying to be genteel accent of that era off perfectly. Some other lines I like are:

'We don't need the wireless'
'She's 74'
'Joyce, we're sitting in a garage.' 'I have to BREATH, mother...'
'No feet at the table, Gilbert'
'Their house smells'. 'Well they haven't got as much money as us, dear'
'These are having cream cakes'
'Where did you get that cracker, mother?' 'Found it in me cardigan pocket'.
'We took wine with our meals'
'Cheek to cheek to cheek'
'My husband never felt the need to refer to it'
'Shall I draw in the stocking tops?'
'Tomorrow in Westminster Abbey a young couple of such purity and nobility that you could never imagine will be married'
'Sometimes I wonder what we fought the war for'
'Can you smell a smell, Joyce? I can smell a smell'
'No pig. No pig'
'Do you have a hat and coat?'
'I give this country three years'

[–] wolfrick-d 16 years ago

"I think sexual intercourse is in order, Gilbert"

I like that quote, and the one when the old lady is trying to convince them she is not mad
"7 Nines are 63!".

[–] radarchisels 16 years ago

Actors in Bennett's work always say they love speaking his dialogue as it is so rich, so polished and so true. And when a magnificent cast like this one is let loose on these marvellous lines, the results are amazing. Watch how Bill Paterson deadpans the line "I can't smell anything, but then I can't smell anything."
Or Maggie Smith - "I'm not having her thinking we just put rubbish in the bin."
Or Denholm Elliott in the car watching Palin and sensing the end of his power with the coming of the NHS - "Jaunty toenail-clipping little sod."

And on and on. These are great lines because they live inside the script and inside the characters.

I love this film. Overlooked? Underrated? Not round these parts.
I can eat fifty eggs

[–] chuffnobbler 15 years ago

"I'm carrying you, Gilbert".

Love it!!

[–] 15 years ago

[deleted]

[–] ms-kpitts 15 years ago

"I miss the war." farmer's wife

[–] demaios 13 years ago

I remember laughing out loud at the sexual intercourse line when the film was in theaters. But just now watching it on Netflix, I enjoyed the Doctor's line (one among many really), "Five years of war, and that's what it's come to: two turkeys in Bradford."