The Royal Tenenbaums · written by Wes Anderson & Owen Wilson · 2001

Etheline tells Henry that the children know Royal is dying and that she cannot gauge how they are taking it.

Scene 41 of 143 · ≈ 1 min on screen · Act one

Henry
Etheline

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Begins 35 min into a 1:59 film

The story so farBefore scene 41

After losing his hotel room, Royal claims he has only weeks to live so he can move back in with his estranged family; as the truth unravels, he must find a way to be useful and earn a place in their lives.

Scenes 1–39
Royal is absent from the children’s adult lives, and their family remains shaped by his betrayals and abandonment.
Just before
Scene 38
Margot leaves Raleigh’s apartment with her luggage and television, saying she needs a change despite his distress.
Scene 39
Margot lets Eli emerge from her closet, and they lie in bed while he asks to have dinner with Etheline.
Scene 40
Royal tells Etheline he is dying to win time with the family, admits the lie, then confirms he really is ill.
Scene 41
This scene

41INT. HENRY’S APARTMENT/ETHELINE’S TELEPHONE ROOM. DAY.

A telephone conversation. Henry sits at a desk in his study. There are ledger books and adding machines in front of him and glass statues of birds and animals behind him. Etheline is in the telephone room on Archer Avenue.

HENRY

Have you told your children?

ETHELINE

More or less.

HENRY

And are they all right?

ETHELINE

Hard to say.