Catherine the Great (1995 TV Movie)

Catherine Zeta-Jones: Catherine

Photos 

Quotes 

• Catherine : [to Countess Bruce]  My dear, I am about to seize the throne of Russia. What on earth shall I wear?

• [to Potemkin] 

  Catherine : [in Latin, quoting Vergil]  Blessings on your courage, boy; that's the way to the stars.

• [on building an empire] 

  Pugachev : To build a house, you must first level the ground!

  Catherine : Oh no. You lay foundations.

• Catherine : [voiceover]  I'm told that in France they call me "Catherine le Grand." *Le* Grand... the masculine gender. "Catherine the Great."

• Catherine : I was just thinking of a line from our favorite poet.

  Potemkin : How like you. Which one?

  Catherine : Nunc scio quid sit amor.

  Potemkin : [smiles and translates]  Now I know what love is.

• [first lines] 

  Catherine : The 21st of August 1745... my wedding day. I was fifteen. The Grand Duke Peter was two years older, and we were both pawns in a political game.

• [Catherine refuses to come to a state dinner] 

  Peter : This is an insult to an honored guest!

  Catherine : Oh, you honor him, do you?

  Peter : Yes, I do!

  Catherine : Then why have you sent him to dinner on the arm of your whore?

• Elizabeth : But now tell me, when I'm dead, will you seek to take power?

  Catherine : Yes.

• Schwerin : By the order of His Imperial Majesty Czar Peter, you are under arrest.

  Catherine : What will you do, Count Schwerin? Shoot me? Here?

  [pause] 

  Catherine : Then shoot me.

  [Schwerin hesitates, then lowers his pistol] 

• Catherine : It may take time, but together we are going to change this country.

  Catherine : [in French]  L'homme est né libre, et partout il est dans les fers.

  Bestuzhev : [translating]  "Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains"?

  Catherine : Rousseau. Don't you read him?

  Bestuzhev : Um, he's a bit revolutionary for me, Ma'am.

  [Catherine smiles knowingly; Bestuzhev does the same but looks uncomfortable] 

• Catherine : [to Bestuzhev]  All or nothing. If I commit myself to you, you must commit yourself to me!

• Saltykov : I love you! How can you doubt it? My God, don't you remember that first night?

  Catherine : [Detached]  Oh, yes. It will always remind me that a man can practice the art of a whore as well as a woman.

• Catherine : I can only assume you don't understand the position you're refusing.

  Potemkin : Stallion-in-chief to her Imperial Highness? Emperor of the Night?

  [she slaps his face] 

• Catherine : Language. I've been corresponding with Monsieur Voltaire on the subject. And he tells a delightful story about a lady at the court of Versailles. This... grand personnage was heard to say, "That dreadful bother at the Tower of Babel, language getting all mixed up... such a pity! Otherwise, everyone would always have spoken French."