Nicholas and Alexandra (1971)

Janet Suzman: Alexandra

Photos 

Quotes 

• Tsarevich Alexei : Mother, I'm bleeding...

  Tsarina Alexandra : Oh, my God...

• Tsarina Alexandra : May I say something intimate?

  Tsar Nicholas II : In public?

  Tsarina Alexandra : I'll whisper it.

  Tsar Nicholas II : Well, if you must.

  Tsarina Alexandra : Nicky, I adore you.

• [imprisoned in Ekaterinburg] 

  Tsar Nicholas II : I suddenly thought of the yacht this morning. Do you remember how the band used to play all the time?

  Tsarina Alexandra : And out of tune. Do you think they drank?

  Tsar Nicholas II : How did that waltz go? Hmm-Hmm-Hmmmm Hmm-*Hmm*-Hmm-Humm.

  Tsarina Alexandra : You're no better than the band.

  Tsar Nicholas II : [Nicholas gets off the bed and places a chair against the door and returns]  You're beautiful hands.

  Tsarina Alexandra : The girls?

  Tsar Nicholas II : They won't come in. We're alone.

  [he lies down with her] 

  Tsar Nicholas II : I still want you so much. Nothing can ever change that, Sunny. I do love you.

  [kiss] 

• Tsarina Alexandra : You're too gentle. You should slam your fist down, as your father always did.

  Tsar Nicholas II : It's no use.

  Tsarina Alexandra : Frowning helps.

• Tsarina Alexandra : You enjoy yourself at parties. I get headaches. If you sat there knowing everyone disliked you, feeling like a foreigner...

  Tsar Nicholas II : No one dislikes you.

  Tsarina Alexandra : Yes, they do. You never see unpleasant things, you drift away. I even wonder if you hear me half the time.

  Tsar Nicholas II : Just now, I find you all too audible.

  Tsarina Alexandra : Nicky, guess what?

  Tsar Nicholas II : You've got your headache.

• Tsarina Alexandra : To marry Nicky, I had to change my faith. That was a great sin, don't you think? God thinks so. He won't hear me when I pray. I've sinned, and He won't listen.

  Rasputin : All saints were sinners once. God loves sinners.

  Tsarina Alexandra : Then why is He killing my baby?

  Rasputin : We had a man in Pokrovskoe. He didn't wash or work. He lied, stole, cheated, drank, chased all the women. He was a sinner. Why, out of all men, did the Virgin come to him?

  Tsarina Alexandra : Perhaps he lied. You said he was a liar.

  Rasputin : No. She came. I saw her. I know all there is to know about sin. Pray with me, Matushka. God is here.

• Tsarina Alexandra : I still say Alexei needs a nurse.

  Tsar Nicholas II : He needs the company of men.

  Tsarina Alexandra : Does he?

  Tsar Nicholas II : He's with you all day long. You hardly ever come to meals. I never seem to see you anymore.

  Tsarina Alexandra : My place is where I'm needed most.

  Tsar Nicholas II : It must be hard to have so many people need you. I'll be patient. If I wait, my turn will come.

  Tsarina Alexandra : Oh, Nicky. What a mess I make of things. I meant to look so nice for you. I meant our last night in Livadia to be beautiful. Sometimes I wonder how you live with me.

  Tsar Nicholas II : I wonder too. Only I know I could never live without you, Sunny.

• Tsarina Alexandra : At times, I actually like it. Mending clothes and teaching classes and quiet afternoons. I doze and daydream, and I think about my life. I don't know what I did wrong. I'd feel better if I did.

• Tsarina Alexandra : This is the beginning of the glory of your reign. Our friend told me so. It will be the greatest page in Russian history, the story of these weeks and days. And when you go, don't worry over what you've left behind. I'm here. Lean on me, use me. I'm not wise or strong, but God will show me what to do.

• Tsar Nicholas II : The boy will bring us luck. We'll smash the Japanese and drive them from Korea, and I don't care what it costs. I have a son to fight for now.

  Tsarina Alexandra : We have a son.

• Tsarina Alexandra : Does he have to be Alexis? Can't we call him something else?

  Tsar Nicholas II : Alexis was a gentle czar. Perhaps the only one.

  Tsarina Alexandra : Not counting you.

• Tsarina Alexandra : If Baby dies, you murdered him.

  Tsar Nicholas II : I didn't give him hemophilia.

  Tsarina Alexandra : Murderer. I'll never forgive you.

  Tsar Nicholas II : You gave it to him! It was you!

  Tsarina Alexandra : Don't you think I know it? When I see him bleed, I think I did it, as if I'd put a knife in him. I've tried to make up for it. I've seen so many specialists and doctors and surgeons. Sometimes I did not tell you. I know most of them are quacks, but I still tried. I have spent nights on my knees praying. And Rasputin's the only one who's helped me bear my punishment. That's why I cling to this common peasant from Siberia. They laugh at me in the streets. You have turned against me. I cannot help it.

  Tsar Nicholas II : Sunny...

  Tsarina Alexandra : It's me. Whatever happens, I deserve it. It's my punishment. It's mine.

• Tsarina Alexandra : Nicholas, I want my things. I want my pictures and my scrapbooks. I want...

  Alexander Kerensky : Frau Romanov, you have kept your head. You should be grateful.

• Tsarina Alexandra : Nicky, is today your birthday?

  Tsar Nicholas II : No. That was weeks ago.

  Tsarina Alexandra : Yes, it was. And mine too. I was 46. Imagine that?

• Tsarina Alexandra : What's the day like?

  Tsar Nicholas II : I don't know now.

  Tsarina Alexandra : It doesn't matter. It goes on and on. I don't know anymore. What can God have in mind for us?

• Tsarina Alexandra : I couldn't play the piano now.

  Tsar Nicholas II : I used to hear you practicing when I was working in my office.

  Tsarina Alexandra : Did you? Schuman and Schubert.

  Tsar Nicholas II : I never thought much of your voice.

  Tsarina Alexandra : Didn't you? You never told me that before.

• [the Tsarina is devastated after learning the news of Rasputin's passing] 

  Tsarina Alexandra : [in tears]  Tell them I can't see them today.

  Sazonov : We need you to sign the decree, Petersburg is starving!

  Tsarina Alexandra : [agitated]  I can't, you're glad he's dead, I know you wanted him to die!

• [reading the dead Rasputin's will] 

  Tsarina Alexandra : [in tears]  "I feel that I shall leave life before January the first. If any of your relatives have brought my death, then none of your family, none of your children, or relatives, will remain alive. They will be killed by the Russian people. Brother will kill brother and there will be no nobles left in the country."

• Tsarina Alexandra : Russian princesses doing an English play in French for an audience of Polish nobles. I hope somebody understands it.

• Tsarina Alexandra : [in a letter to Nicholas]  My very own darling. Remember last night when we were together? I yearn for your caresses, I can never have enough of them. I kiss you, caress you, love you, long for you, can't sleep without you, bless you. Sunny.

• Dr. Botkin : The female is the carrier. The mother gives it to the son. Your mother got it from her mother, Queen Victoria, and passed it on to you.

  Tsarina Alexandra : I see.

  Dr. Botkin : It strikes some males and misses others. Of Victoria's four sons, just one had hemophilia.

  Tsarina Alexandra : And just one of mine.

• Marie : [looking at photographs]  Look at me. It's just awful!

  Anastasia : You look like a thief.

  Marie : You look like a trollop!

  Anastasia : I don't! What's a trollop?

  Tsar Nicholas II : Dear Lord, so she does.

  Tsarina Alexandra : I don't find that amusing.

  Tsar Nicholas II : Just look.

  Tsarina Alexandra : It's not amusing at all.

  [laughs]