The Rise of Catherine the Great Page #2

Oh, Peter!

This is the happiest day of my life,

and you bring me these rags!

Oh! French genius!

Paris makes me mad!

They've become idiots

in these last few years.

- How many dresses have I got?

- 5,000, Your Majesty.

All of them magnificent.

- Magnificent?

- What more can Paris do?

Invent a dress...

that makes a woman

look 20 years younger.

Don't look at me

with that sour face, Bestujhev!

But why don't you say something gay?

Whatever I say in these last few weeks

seems to annoy Your Majesty.

Oh? Go to the church

and wait for me, Bestujhev.

Insupportable.

I'll send him to Siberia.

Shuvalov.

How is that, Shuvalov?

Your Majesty looks like the bride.

No, Shuvalov.

But I feel like the bride.

Who said this frock was bad?

Oh, it's charming, charming, madame.

I think this needs to be

a little shorter.

Yes, Your Majesty.

A bit longer on the side there.

How do I look?

- Perfection, Your Highness.

- Good.

Congratulations to both of you.

Comment? Both?

Hmm. Yourself and the princess.

She hooked me and landed me, and you're

dishing me up with all the trimmings.

If I may say so, Your Highness

has found a very clever wife.

Possibly.

She caught me quite by accident.

As a matter of fact,

she didn't know me from Adam.

- Perhaps she had a whisper from Eve?

- Meaning what?

Oh, as Your Highness knows,

women have a je ne sais quoi...

an instinct.

No.

No.

Did she though?

- Did she know all the time?

- Oh, mon Dieu, Your Highness!

- Such an idea never entered my head.

- No. But it entered hers!

What was it she said?

"I... I don't care about governing Russia.

All I care about is the grand duke."

Dirty little cheat.

- And you think that's clever, do you?

- No, no, no.

Yes, you do! You just said so!

I'll show you if it's clever or not.

I'll teach her to trap me.

- What will the grand duke wear?

- The uniform of his regiment.

Oh, he'll look wonderful.

So strong and slender.

I will look so little at his side.

Oh, can't you do something

to make me look a little taller?

- Perhaps this will help.

- Oh, yes, the shoes.

Of course

you can't change my face.

No dignity.

Well met.

- I've just been thinking about you.

- You fiatter me.

What are you doing here?

I just wanted to see you

happily married.

- I hear she's very clever.

- Oh, yes, very clever.

- When can I see you alone?

- What would you do if I said tonight?

I'd say 1 2:
00 at the hunting lodge.

Tonight?

You wouldn't dare.

Her Highness,

the Princess of Anhalt-Zerbst.

See you at 12:
00.

Her Imperial Majesty, Elisabeth,

Empress of all the Russias.

Do you take this woman

to be your lawful wedded wife?

Yes, I do.

Do you take this man to be

your lawful wedded husband?

Yes, I do.

Until death us do part.

Until death us do part.

Until death us do part.

Until death us do part.

Tell Sergi to have the sleigh in the courtyard

in about... hmm... 20 minutes, will you?

- Tonight, Your Highness?

- Tonight.

At what time may I expect

Your Highness to return?

Hmm.

Tomorrow probably.

I'm taking you with me.

But this is your wedding night,

Your Highness.

For a Frenchman, you have some

very old-fashioned ideas, Lecocq.

Were you ever married?

Not officially, Your Highness,

but I have, uh... I have dabbled in it.

Dabbled in it.

You order the sleigh.

I am sorry.

Her Majesty cannot see you tonight.

She has affairs to talk over

with her new aide-de-camp.

Shuvalov?

Shuvalov.

Heigh-ho.

- Shuvalov?

- Shuvalov.

It's always a mistake for a woman...

to tell a man that she loves him.

That depends on the man.

Wouldn't any man

take advantage of it?

I shouldn't.

Wouldn't you?

What is it, Katushienka?

- What's wrong with you tonight?

- With me, nothing.

But Her Highness, she...

she's crying her eyes out all alone.

Alone?

Do you mean to say he's left her?

He hasn't been with her.

The hunting lodge, I think.

But she... she's crying her eyes out

so that it hurts to listen.

The swine!

Brute!

Fool! Beast!

Catherine, my poor darling.

What's happened?

What has he done to you?

Where is he?

Oh, I've never heard of such a thing!

How dare he do

a thing like that to me?

- To you?

- I'm responsible for you.

I won't tolerate your being treated like this

just because you're young and helpless.

But that's just the way

men do treat women.

They're devils if they think

they can get away with it!

But Peter can't, and so he'll find out if I have

to drag him back by the scruff of his neck!

Oh, no, no, no, no, no.

There's only one way for a poor,

defenseless woman to treat her husband...

and that's to get the upper hand of him

in the first five minutes and to rule him.

I don't want to rule him.

And if he doesn't love me,

we can live together as friends.

Friends? Never.

Without love,

marriage is simply immoral.

The whole aim and sense of it

is to have a man here, under your thumb.

Oh, Lord!

If we could only live without men.

But we can't live without them,

the rascals...

and how difficult it is

to live with them.

Especially with yours.

He's unstable, moody, dangerous and bad.

Well, it's easy to love the good ones.

Everybody loves them.

But one must love the others

because they need our love.

Don't you see he needs it?

Oh! You love him.

Yes. I do.

That's entirely different.

It's a terribly difficult case.

Nobody can help you.

Nobody can advise you.

Then you'll have to help yourself,

my little Catherine.

Right turn!

Order arms!

Royal salute!

Present arms!

What's the show?

Anniversary

of the Battle of Poltava.

Full dress parade of the officers

for your wife's inspection.

Full dress parade of my wife's lovers...

for my inspection!

That's what it was done for.

Aren't you proud of them, Colonel?

Perhaps, on the whole.

Not quite the stuff we were made of

in my young day.

Oh, but you can't expect that.

Your record goes back

to the Battle of Poltava...

where you were the first man

through the Swedish line...

and got that...

and that...

and that.

- How do you know all this?

- This is my regiment, Colonel.

Gentlemen...

I invite you to come in and drink

the regimental toast with me.

Parade dismiss!

Thank you.

I'll put a stop

to that little mountebank!

Gentlemen, the toast is...

to the most glorious regiment

in the world.

Your regiment, my regiment...

the Ismailovsky regiment coupled

with the name of Colonel Karnilov.

- Colonel Karnilov!

- The regiment!

Now, gentlemen, whose turn is it

to be my aide-de-camp this month?

- My turn.

- Oh, now, no, no.

Not you, Narishkin. You are far too busy

with your military pursuits.

- Pursuits, Your Highness?

- Yes.

The pursuit of the girl

in the fiower shop, for instance.

Teaching her the use of arms,

I suppose...

and practicing falling in.

Oh, Peter!

What a charming surprise.

- Won't you join us?

- I want to talk to you.

Very well.

I shall be free about 4:00.

You're coming now.

Right.

When I've said good-bye

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