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Atlantic
City (1981)
In director Louis Malle's romantic crime-drama:
- the voyeuristic scene (to the sound of a cassette
tape playing Bellini's operatic Norma) during the film's
opening title credits (and one other instance) of seafood counter
(oyster bar) casino worker Sally Matthews (Susan Sarandon) (who
dreamt of being a croupier in Monte Carlo), after work in a white
tank top, rinsing her arms, throat and breasts with lemon juice
at her kitchen sink to remove the fishy smell - while being watched
in her apartment window from across the way by aging, numbers runner
and petty mobster-crook Lou Pascal (Burt Lancaster)
- during Sally's training to be a casino croupier/dealer,
the instructions given by teacher Joseph (Michel Piccoli) to focus,
concentrate, and avoid being tricked: "Everyone, listen to me.
The players are coming to the casino in teams. One sits here, one
sits there. The cards are good. The player at the first base spills
his drink. Your eye moves. The player at the third base triples his
bets. They have a million clever ways of trying to cheat you. Focus!
Concentrate! Concentrate"
- Lou's reminiscences about the old days to Sally's
estranged husband Dave Matthews (Robert Joy) during a lengthy boardwalk
stroll together: "Yes, it used to be beautiful - what with the
rackets, whoring, guns. Sometimes, things would happen. I'd have
to kill a few people. I'd feel bad for awhile but I'd jump into the
ocean, swim way out. Come back in feelin' nice and clean, start all
over again....The Atlantic Ocean was somethin' then. Yes, you should
have seen the Atlantic Ocean in those days"
- Sally's meal conversation to Lou - requesting that
he become her mentor: "Teach me stuff...What you know?" -
he asked:
"You want information or wisdom?"; she wanted "Both"
- later in the film's sexiest sequence, Lou confessed
to Sally about spying on her:
"I watch you. The place where we live, I watch you..."; he
also curiously asked her: "Why do you use lemons?" - she
answered:
"It's just to get the smell off. It's nothing weird"; he
described his voyeurism in more detail: "I
look at you. You take off your blouse, then you run the water. Then
you take a bottle of gold perfume and you put it on the sink. Then
you slice the lemons. You open a box of blue soap. You run your hands
under the water to feel the temperature. Then you take the soap in
your hands, and... " - she kneeled in front of him bra-less with
her blouse unbuttoned, as he gently caressed her hair and face and
then opened her blouse to look at and touch her breasts
- the motel room scene, outside Atlantic City, after
Lou's self-defense killing of two gangland hoods on a sidewalk who
theatened them - to protect Sally (after a sour drug deal that had
resulted in her husband Dave's death); now energized, he admitted
to her that he had even surprised himself at his prowess in saving
her: "Hey!...I never killed anybody in my life...But I did tonight.
You saw it"
- Lou's subsequent proposal to Sally to run off to Florida
with him: ("Anyone ever take care of you like I did? You feel
safe?...They got nice weather in Florida....I'll buy ya new clothes,
I'll show ya off...Just let the boys see how well I turned out");
and then he gleefully responded to more TV news story of the two
Atlantic City murders he had just committed: "Hey, that's me!...We'll
stop on the way down and buy all the newspapers. This story is going
to be big all over the country: 'Gangland Slaying Rips Apart
Atlantic City!'"; ultimately, however, he saw her take a wad
of the drug money - and allowed her to leave him for good when he
handed her the car keys and advised: "Don't forget to ditch
the car, soon!"; she turned and thanked him: "You saved
my life" before she departed
- in the final sequence after parting from Sally (knowing
she wouldn't accompany him to Florida, but preferred Monte Carlo
and France), Lou took a taxi back to Atlantic City for a final promenade
down the Boardwalk with his broken-down, invalid moll boss' widow
Grace Pinza (Kate Reid) that he had been taking care of for 40 years
- with a panning shot up to a view of a crane and wrecker's ball
smashing into an apartment during the closing credits, accompanied
by discordant jazz music
Lou's Final Promenade Down the
Atlantic City Boardwalk with Grace
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Spied-Upon Sally Bathing with Lemon Juice
Sally's Training: To Be a Casino Croupier-Dealer
Joseph: "Concentrate! Concentrate!"
Lou's Recollections to Dave of the Old Days in Atlantic
City
Sally to Lou: "Teach me stuff"
Lou to Sally: "I watch you"
Lou's Killing of Two Gangsters
Lou: "I never killed anybody in my life"
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