The House of Mirth (2000)

Eleanor Bron: Mrs. Julia Peniston, Lily's Aunt

Photos 

Quotes 

• Mrs. Peniston : Only someone without family could make such a vulgar remark.

  Lily Bart : Aunt Julia, you *are* my family.

• [to Grace at the opera house] 

  Mrs. Peniston : Thank you for telling me, Grace. But I must say this unwelcome information has completely ruined the Mozart for me.

• Mrs. Peniston : To grow richer, when at a time when most people's investments are shrinking strikes me as being in very bad taste.

  Grace : But society still uses such men if only obliquely.

  Lily Bart : If obliquity were a vice, we should all be tainted.

• Mrs. Peniston : Jennings, we will take tea in the upstairs sitting room. Lily, you can read me the obituaries.

  Lily Bart : Oh, Aunt Julia, Grace does it so much better than me. She can make even the most insignificant death seem interesting.

• Mrs. Peniston : Do people say he's in love with her?

  Grace : People *always* say unpleasant things.

• Mrs. Peniston : Thank you for telling me, Grace. But, I must say, this unwelcome information has completely ruined the Mozart for me.

• Mrs. Peniston : Does he mean to divorce then marry her?

  Grace : No, it's - it's a flirtation, nothing more.

  Mrs. Peniston : A flirtation? With a married man? Such things were never heard of in my day.

• Mrs. Peniston : [scornfully]  It's true, then. You play cards for money. Do you play on Sundays?

  Lily Bart : You are hard on me, Aunt Julia. I have never really cared for cards and one hates to be thought of as priggish and one *drifts* into doing what others do.

• Mrs. Peniston : I shall certainly not do anything that gives the impression that I countenance your behavior.

  Lily Bart : Aunt Julia, I will be disgraced!

  Mrs. Peniston : I consider that you *are* disgraced, Lily.