The Fountainhead Page #8

for people...

...you must be the kind of man

who can get things done.

But to get things done,

you must love the doing, not the people.

Your own work,

not any possible object of your charity.

I'll be glad if men who need it find a

better manner of living in a house I build...

...but that's not the motive of my work,

nor my reason, nor my reward.

My reward, my purpose,

my life is the work itself.

My work done my way.

Nothing else matters to me.

I've always wanted to build

a large-scale project but l...

I never hoped to get the chance.

Now, here's what I'll offer you.

I will design Cortlandt.

You'll put your name on it.

You will keep all the fees,

but you will guarantee...

...that it will be built exactly

as I design it.

- I see.

- No changes by you or by anyone else.

That's the payment

I demand for my work.

My ideas are mine. Nobody else has a right

to them except on my terms.

Those who need them

must take them my way or not at all.

All right, Howard.

I guarantee it.

I give you my word.

Everybody would say

you're a fool.

That I'm getting everything.

You'll get everything that society can give.

You'll take the money, the fame...

...and the gratitude and I'll take that...

...which nobody can give a man except

himself.

I will have built Cortlandt.

"After two years of futile attempts

to solve the problems involved...

...the design submitted by Peter Keating

is an astonishingly skillful solution...

...that provides the best living quarters

yet devised at the lowest cost."

- What on earth are you up to?

- What do you mean?

Do you think I pick artworks

by their signatures?

Who designed that project?

Peter Keating.

Who designed this?

- Of course.

- What are you after?

- Drop it.

- All right.

I won't try to guess your motive...

...but I'd know your work anywhere.

Howard, I never expected

to feel gratitude to anyone...

...but I'm grateful to you every moment

of the day in the house you built.

I'm learning so many things

I never expected to feel.

- What?

- The wonder of ownership.

I'm a millionaire who's never

owned anything. I've been public property...

...like a city billboard.

But this is mine. Here I'm safe.

Why didn't you come here yesterday?

I missed you.

- Too much work in the office.

- You're killing yourself.

- You've worked too hard for years.

- Haven't you?

Yes. We need a rest, both of us.

My yacht's been refitted.

I'm planning a long cruise.

I've meant to for years.

Go with me.

Gail, is this an obsession?

What is Mr. Roark to you?

My youth.

- Is he what you were in your youth?

- Oh, no, much more than that.

What I thought I'd be when I was 16.

I'm sure Mr. Roark

can't go on a yacht cruise.

Why, yes, Mrs. Wynand,

I'd be glad to go.

I thought, that you'd never give up

your work for anyone.

I won't give it up.

I'll take my first vacation.

You're willing to be away for months?

I'd enjoy it.

It's incredible.

I believe you're jealous.

Wonderful!

I'm even more grateful to you

if he's made you jealous of me.

Now, don't frown. I'll fix a drink.

We'll toast the cruise.

Roark.

Roark, don't go with him.

I can't stand this much longer.

I am jealous...

...of you and of every moment you give him,

of your impossible friendship.

- I don't want you to come here or like him.

- I don't want to discuss it, Mrs. Wynand.

Howard, that's where I was born,

Hell's Kitchen.

I own most of it now.

All those blocks.

I decided when I was 16 that that's

where the Wynand building would stand...

...and that it'd be

the tallest structure of the city.

What's the matter?

Do you want to build it?

- Do you want it pretty badly?

- I think I'd almost give my life for it.

- Is that what you wanted?

- Something like that.

I won't demand your life,

but it's nice to shock you.

I'll start to build it in a few years.

Do you know how much

it means to me?

- Yes. I know what you want.

- A monument to my life, Howard.

After I'm gone, that building

will be Gail Wynand.

My last and greatest achievement

will also be your greatest.

The Wynand building by Howard Roark.

I've waited for it from the day I was born.

From the day you were born...

...you've waited for your one great chance.

There it is, on the site of Hell's Kitchen.

Yours from me.

Please, Mr. Keating,

do let us stop arguing.

We've engaged Mr. Prescott and Mr. Webb

as your associate designers.

- What for?

- Well, it's such a tremendous project.

You can afford to share the credit with two

fellow architects who need a job.

Don't be selfish.

Besides, three minds are better than one.

But you've accepted my design.

Yes, of course. It's excellent,

but we must make some improvements.

- What improvements?

- Well, the thing's too bare.

We ought to add a few balconies.

Balconies? What for?

To give it a human touch.

We got to have some kind of trimming

over the entrance.

I won't allow it. It's my building.

It's my design.

But why shouldn't we

have any say at all?

We want to express

our individuality too.

On another man's work?

What the heck?

Any man's work is public property.

I can't let you.

Don't you understand? I can't.

Well, Peter, why not?

What's the matter?

You've never fought

with your clients before.

- Is there anything different in this case?

- They're ruining the building.

- Oh, I suppose so.

- What do you care?

You made a contract with me

that Cortlandt would be built...

...exactly as I designed it, I did

it only on that condition.

- What's a contract?

- You're old-fashioned, Keating.

- But I have a contract.

- What are you going to do about it? Sue us?

Go ahead. Try it.

You'll find that you can't sue us.

But you had no right to do this!

- What are rights, Peter?

- Whose rights?

Oh, what's the use of talking?

Let's go to work.

I couldn't help it, Howard.

They started making changes

without reason.

Everybody had authority

and nobody.

I tried to fight. They pushed me

from office to office.

- I couldn't help it.

- I suppose not.

I had no way to reach you.

I was waiting for you to come back.

I was afraid.

What are you going to do?

They've got such a setup,

you can't sue them.

- No.

- Want me to confess the truth?

- To everybody?

- No.

Will you let me give you

all the money they paid me?

I'm sorry.

Howard.

What are you going to do?

You have to leave that up to me now.

Why did you come here?

Because I couldn't stand it any longer.

You've been away for months.

I had to see you again...

To see you alone.

Please go.

Roark, do I mean nothing to you?

I can't answer you now.

You stayed away from me for years.

I tried to forget you. I couldn't.

- You knew I never would.

- Yes.

I never thought it'd be Gail

who'd bring you back to me.

Don't you see why

I can't stand it now?

Living in a house you designed,

seeing you constantly as a stranger...

...having no right to look at you,

to tell you that l...

Don't say it.

Do you remember?

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