In the scene of the boathouse where Michael meets with Connie and her new boyfriend, Merle. Michael tells him that he wants to meet with his sister alone. To that, Merle replies that it concerns the both of them and then asks if he could stay. Michael doesn't respond and then Merle asks Michael if he can have a drink. Michael replies something like "KAY VOY" and it seems like he aims it at Kay. She then yells to Al and says, "Al, will you please get him a drink?" What does "KAY VOY" mean? I tried looking it up in an Italian translator, but it came up with gibberish. Anyone have any idea what Michael said?

Grazie!!

~~ Lollie

Michael asks "que voi" according to the transcript. It means "What do you want?"

Actually it is Che vuoi. It's the second person singular, the familiar form of What do you want? such as a brother would ask of a sister.

The line, "Al, would you get him a drink," is more significant. Merle was a gigolo, and Michael had no respect for him. When he said, "I'll see my sister alone," he was dismissing Merle as not worthy of consideration. When Connie said, "Al, would you get him a drink," she was demanding that he be treated as someone worthy of respect, a potential new member of the family.

Turnbull:

That's the sense I got. Kay was ordering Al to get Merle a drink to assert her family importance. After all, she was Michael's sister! In doing that, she bestowed a certain "importance" on Merle in a sort of round about way. In other words, as long as Kay was interested in or loved Merle, she would ensure that he was respected by other family members despite their opinion of him.

So, essentially, what was Michael saying to Kay or Merle in that "kay voi" thing? Was he speaking to Kay, Merle or Al?

Thanks!

~~ Lollie

Lollie, that is connie in the scene not Kay. *Turnbull can answer your question better than I can though* lol

Ah geesh! Got my Kay Voys and my Connie Voys mixed up!

~~ Lollie

IMO, Connie was out to spite her brother. Her bad behavior was her way of saying, "You're not the boss of me," even to the point of carrying on with and marrying men who were obviously just interested in her money. When Michael asked to speak to Connie alone, and Merle refused to leave, Michael continued to ignore him. Merle then asked for a drink. Michael again ignored him and directed the conversation directly to Connie. His addressing her in Italian (as pointed out here in an earlier post "che vuoi" means "what do you want") was done to further exclude Merle. Connie then rather stridently asks Al to bring Merle a drink, indicating that she will not continue the conversation until Merle is acknowledged. When Michael points out that she is acting in a way that disappoints him, her reply is that he's not her father.

I believe that Connie's behavior is not only to show Michael that he can't control her, but also to get some sort of revenge against him for murdering her first husband.

You can argue that Michael speaking in Italian to Kay ("Che voi?") was his way of excluding Merle from his family conversation. It might also have been a way for Michael to put Kay down by reminding her that, despite her pretentions by taking up with a WASP like Merle Johnson, she was still an Italian gal from New Yawk.

Connie*