THE INVENTION OF MOREL
Don't be afraid!
Please, listen to me!
You won't say you've seen me, OK?
I appeal to your generosity!
They're looking for me!
I can explain everything, believe me!
I knew that my opinions didn't count for much
But I didn't want them to be ignored!
I can explain, if only they would listen to me
And if it won't alarm your friends
Please! Say something!
You're insulting me! You're implying that I would disgust them!
Go and denounce me, if you want, but for the love of God...
...don't just sit there without speaking!
Would you believe me if I told you that I could take you back to a time before that evening...?
No, I can no longer believe you
Never again!
The influence of the future on the past
Is that some kind of joke?
- Believe me, Faustine!... - No!
I know what you're searching for.
Too bad! It's a pity that you won't believe me...
...and that we cannot...agree.
- A pity? And why? - Because...we have such a brief season, three days only
And then it won't matter any more.
My word! Are you trying to frighten me? It's not as bad as that.
But no! I didn't mean to frighten you.
If I spoke too forcefully, please forgive me.
I didn't want to alarm you.
And then, we don't want to stand here discussing it for all eternity.
Morel, do you know I find you very mysterious?
There's no mystery!
Don't take what I say so seriously.
You know...sometimes a man wants to awaken curiosity in a woman to make himself more interesting.
- Don't be angry - No, Morel.
There's something that you're hiding from me.
But sooner or later, you'll have to confess.
Yes, I'll make you spit it out.
No, this is not the hour for visions. Let's go in.
- Today, no...I didn't see it. - And does that displease you?
Tomorrow there will be a new one.
- I have lost all confidence. All!
- Before you believed in me. - Now, that's no longer possible.
Would you believe me if I told you that I could take you back to a time before that evening at the Ritz?
No, I can no longer believe you.
Never again!
The influence of the future on the past.
Is that some kind of joke?
- Believe me, Faustine...- No!
I know what you're searching for.
Too bad! It's a pity you won't believe me...
...and that we cannot...agree.
- A pity. And why? - Because...we have such a brief season, three days only.
And then it won't matter any more.
My word! Are you trying to frighten me? It's not as bad as all that.
But no! I didn't mean to frighten you.
If I spoke too forcefully, please forgive me.
I didn't mean to alarm you.
And then, we don't want to stand here discussing it for all eternity.
Morel, do you know I find you very mysterious.
There's no mystery!
Don't take what I say so seriously.
You know...sometimes a man wants to awaken curiosity in a woman to make himself more interesting.
- Don't be angry - No, Morel.
There's something that you're hiding from me.
But sooner or later, you'll have to confess.
Yes, I'll make you spit it out.
Can you tell me why he chose this god-forsaken place?
I knew about it!
I don't deny it. But how did it occur to Morel?
He must have had his reasons.
What are you waiting here for?
Lunch is over. Aren't you in a hurry?
Incredible! Have you read the last piece he wrote in the Green Atlantic?
Don't forget that it's only our poor eyesight...
...that turns the manipulations of the prestigator into magic
How many times have we asked about the destiny of man...
...employing the same old formulae: "Where are we going? What are we waiting for?"
...like recorded music, we wait until we receive the command to be born?
- Oh, no! - Not again! - Not this evening, please.
Could we possibly choose some other topic of conversation?
But why? This interests me greatly.
- Morel, go on, please. - No, no, they're right.
We'll discuss it some other time, on a more propitious and opportune occasion.
Oh, well! Let's talk instead about the construction of the tennis court.
I say that a sports ground in this isolated spot makes no sense.
We're a small group. And the strongest would do nothing but repeat their victories.
But no! Tennis is played for pleasure.
It's not a competition, it's a ceremony!
It will also teach the men how to lose to the ladies.
- It teaches you how to lose. - That's educational, isn't it?
Yes, especially when it's a mixed double.
And then it improves the physique. It's an antidote to the sedentary life.
Behold the remorse of those who have overeaten!
One must think of these things before the dinner gong, my dear.
Yes, there's no better remedy than a good diet.
Is that not so, Morel?
A diet? No, that's an illusion.
The spirit deceives the body.
And the body repays the compliment by ignoring the benefits of the diet.
You musn't be impatient.
Do you see?
Hey...look!
Well played, Faustine.
And how was the voyage? Did all go well, captain?
Excellent. A calm sea and favourable winds.
Did you find it all? Could you bring everything we wanted?
- Yes, of course, everything - You'll excuse us, we'll catch up later
- Good evening - How are you?
- It's late. We must make our preparations - One moment.
I must tell you something. I didn't speak before because there were too many people.
But I must speak to you and no-one else.
- I'm listening. - No, not here.
Tonight, when everyone is asleep.
- So late? - So much the better.
The later the better!
But above all, be discreet, I don't want the women to know.
Hysteria feeds upon itself.
See you later
If I told them that they are nothing but recordings, all their gestures and all their words...
It wouldn't matter to me
Faustine...I must talk with you urgently.
- Now? Why? - You must listen to me.
- Very well. Let's go to the museum - No!
Not there. It's better here.
- I'm cold. Let's go in. - I want to take advantage of this opportunity.
Far from the museum, and the gaze of our friends.
- It can't be that urgent. - I must warn you...
...and I know I can trust you, because you're different from the others...
...and you're not the nervous type.
Very well, but I refuse to remain here, conspiring and plotting.
- I feel ridiculous - Alright, as you like.
Tonight, when the rest leave...
...do me a favour, and stay behind.
Make sure that nobody is missing. I won't begin until everyone's here.
- Who is missing? - Jane Grey.
Don't look so surprised.
Someone must go and look for her.
Now who will be able to drag her here?
She must be present.
Perhaps she's asleep.
I'm not beginning until she's here.
- I'll go and fetch her. - I'll come with you.
There's another empty place.
And when one wants an empty chair, one can never find it.
Go and search for him in the house. I saw him come in a while ago.
- We've looked everywhere - Not well enough then.
You must bring him here.
Haynes is sleeping. Nobody can rouse him.
Alright then. Let's start. So much the worse for him.
Haynes is too fat and lazy. He stayed behind to sleep.
If we have to wait for him to arrive...we'll never begin.
I owe you...an explanation.
Nothing serious, but so as not to fall into...inaccuracies...
...I've decided to read my speech.
Listen to me carefully, please.
I hope you can overlook this whole tedious, unpleasant, incident.
Let us forget it!
This...and the good week we had together, will eventually lose their importance
I had intended to say nothing.
That would have spared you a very natural anxiety.
We could have all enjoyed ourselves right up until the last minute without anybody raising an objection...
...but since you are my friends you have the right to know.
I have made use of you...
...in this way: I have photographed you without your permission
Of course it isn't the usual sort of photograph.
It is my latest invention.
We will all live in that photograph...forever.
Imagine a stage...on which we all come to play the events of our lives during the last seven days.
We are playing them even now, at this moment.
All our actions here will remain recorded.
- How shameful! - I hope it's all a joke.
This can't be tolerated.
I could have told you, when we arrived: "We will live for all eternity"...
...but then we probably would have spoiled it all, with the effort of maintaining constant gaiety.
And I thought: "Whatever sort of week we spend together...
...even if we don't choose to spend the time profitably, it will be pleasant"
Isn't that so?
And I was right. I have given you all an enjoyable eternity
The works of men are never perfect...
...and nor are mine.
Some of our friends are missing
Claude, Marlene, Leclerc... and poor Charlie naturally...
...but I have them here with me!
If any among you want to see dear Charlie again, you'll be able to do so.
It was one of my first successful test runs.
Has it never happened to you to have the absurd hope...
...of realizing in perpetuity all your dearest fantasies?
Imagine a life with a woman in which it was not necessary to dominate and conquer?
Well, that is the origin of my invention!
At first I planned to come here with her, just the two of us.
But since I haven't succeeded in being alone with her after I confessed my love...
...I would have had to abduct her...and then we would have been locked in eternal arguments.
And that's no exaggeration when I use the term "eternal"
But now I must try and explain my invention.
I'll try and put it in simple language... which can be understood by all.
You certainly know of the radio-telephone... and of the telegraph...
...or the telephone, they all correct defects in our hearing.
And that the television or cinema corrects defects in our vision.
At which point, my invention enters!
Here I want to express my gratitude to the French "Cuny" enterprise...
...and to the Swiss "Swachter" company for their help...
...whereas among my scientific colleagues I unfortunately found only indifference.
I set up my instruments to capture and transmit waves and vibrations never yet recorded.
I received without difficulty olfactory sensations...
...and with somewhat more difficulty, tactile and thermal transmissions.
I perfected the recording of images and sounds...
...thus improving the registration of the voice...and of the image.
With a person...such as our dear friend Madeleine...
...it is possible to smell the scent of the jasmine pinned to her breast...
...or to feel beneath ones hand the silky softness of her hair.
But if we now open the full complex of receivers...
...we will have in front of us the living Madeleine
Reproduced. Identical.
Her complete image registered....
...such that no witness could swear that it was not a living person.
But my machine doesn't only capture the image...it records and projects it.
Wherever in space or whenever in time, by day...or by night.
It was my initial intention to only record a few scenes of our life here...
...and to leave them here as souvenirs, an album of pleasant memories.
But I found to my surprise, as I observed from the very first experiments...
...that each simulated person possessed self-consciousness.
They were not dead images, or reproduced like inert objects...
...and nobody could distinguish them from their original moulds.
I saw there before my eyes... each person was reconstituted...
...and then disintegrated when I turned off the projector.
They lived only in those moments, and when the scene was over...
...they repeated it, like the tracks of a disk or of a film...
...which comes to an end, only to start over again from the beginning
Now...if we grant consciousness and all that distinguishes us from inert objects...
...to all those persons assembled here...
...we cannot deny the same for the simulacra created by my machine
Once all the senses are present, so is the spirit!
If a Madeleine was present who could see, hear...
taste, smell, feel as Madeleine does...
...well, that in fact is our own Madeleine. The real Madeleine.
Mustn't we accept that such a system is capable of reproducing human life?
Note well! I don't claim to have created life...
...merely to have recorded and projected it.
Do we not often feel that we and our mirror images share a common destiny?
May we not also entertain the hypothesis that such images might have souls?
My invention seems to confirm it!
Naturally, I had some failures in the beginning.
The first subjects for my experiments were employees of the Swachter company.
I didn't warn them. I turned on the machine and recorded them while they were working.
May we see those first images?
If you like, why not?
But I warn you, they are somewhat monstrous.
Very well. Show them to us. A bit of entertainment is always welcome.
I want to see them because I remember that there were several unexplained deaths at the Swachter factory.
Congratulations. You have found a believer.
Idiot, don't you know? Charlie was recorded by that machine.
After Morel went to Swachter, their employees began to die.
I've seen their photographs in magazines. I will recognize them.
There, you see? You've offended him. You must go after him.
I can't believe that you could behave in such an offensive manner
- But haven't you understood? - Morel is highly strung.
- I don't see why you had to insult him? - But why can't you understand?
He recorded Charlie with his machine, and now Charlie is dead!
He recorded the employees of the Swachter company...
...and several of them died in a mysterious manner.
- Now he says he has recorded us. - And we are not dead.
He registered himself too!
Why can't people understand... the whole thing is a joke.
Well, I've never seen him so angry.
Morel is behaving badly. He should have warned us.
- I'm going to find him. - No, stay here!
I'll go. I'll beg his pardon, and ask him to continue his speech.
He won't come. I couldn't convince him otherwise.
His speech is there on the desk. We could read it.
That would make him even more angry.
But isn't that what we want? To know!
And here...in here everything is explained. - Read, Alex!
Therefore I conceived of a better plan.
We found this island, as everybody knows.
Three factors recommended it to me.
The regularity of the lunar tides, and the frequency of the meteorological tides...
...which supplied a constant motive power, apart from occasional interruptions...
...the natural difficulty of approach, and the quality of the light...
...which permitted the capture of perfect images.
I invested my entire fortune in the acquisition the island...
...and the construction of this museum.
I leased the ship which brought us here...
...and which has now returned.
I have taken measures to ensure that Captain McGregor and his crew...
...will never have to return and take further risks here.
I called this villa a museum...
...because at one time I intended to create vast albums or a museum of images...
...both public and private.
Now this island will become our private paradise...
...perfectly protected.
Even if we leave tomorrow, we will remain here eternally...
...repeating one after the other the moments of this week...
...powerless to escape from the consciousness we had in each one of them.
At each moment of the projection we shall have no other memories than those we had at the instant of the recording...
...and the future will thus..forever.. maintain its eternal attributes.
And so...I end!
There follows the date, Caponero Island, July 1929.
- Faustine? - Yes?
You're not sorry to have followed me here, to this island?
The company is pleasant, but...the wind!
Try to understand me!
Tell me, Morel, what do you really want?
- If I told you the whole of what I want.... - Would I be insulted?
Is that what you're afraid of?
Well, heaven knows...we might understand each other!
The days pass.
Can we at least share what we have now?
Certainly.
I will have to overcome the habit.
I have to go...now.
Good night.
I'm no longer suspicious of you.
You don't love Morel, I know.
But I, I love your image.
If I returned to the world to reveal this secret...
...to tell my story, the ravings of a madman.
This same Morel would prevent it...
...if he is still alive.
If he is, he must be 50 years older.
When I was concerned about... police persecution...
...the simulacra on this island...they seemed to be moving like pieces in a chess game...
...following some grand strategy to capture me.
I must convince myself... that I do not need to escape.
The simulacra frighten me...
...but also protect me.
I will never be able to leave again!
The voyage may not be repeated...
...the boat is broken up...
...and I don't know how to build another.
No ship ever passes this island.
...except yours, Faustine...
...which does not exist.
The walls...
they are projections!
In order to pull them down... I must destroy the motors.
And if Morel had also recorded the motors?
If they, too, were projections.
Ghost motors!
I hope you can overlook this whole tedious, unpleasant, incident.
Let us forget it!
If a Madeleine was present who could see, hear...
taste, smell, feel as Madeleine does...
...well, that in fact is our own Madeleine. The real Madeleine.
Mustn't we accept that such a system is capable of reproducing human life?
Note well! I don't claim to have created life...
...merely to have registered and projected it.
Do we not often feel that we and our mirror images share a common destiny?
Might we not also entertain the hypothesis that such images may have souls?
My invention seems to confirm it!
Naturally, I had some failures in the beginning.
The first subjects for my experiments were employees of the Swachter company.
I didn't warn them. I turned on the machine and recorded them while they were working.
But why can't you understand?
He recorded Charlie with his machine, and now Charlie is dead!
He recorded the employees of the Swachter company...
...and several of them died in a mysterious manner.
Now he says he has recorded us.
Come back, Morel.
It was all nonsense. We apologize.
Stevere is an idiot!
And the others nothing less than cowards.
But you must understand them. What you said is...disturbing.
For me too, though I didn't have time to foresee all the dangers.
But what of this situation?
A beautiful group portrait, don't you think?
Perhaps my first idea was the best. Me alone with Faustine.
Faustine? Now I understand.
No, you haven't understood.
Perhaps it would have been more pleasant, but also more false.
We would have played our parts. I, the part of the enamoured suitor...
...she, the part of the desired woman, who resists out of pride.
Well, I wanted a more complete picture of ourselves.
Not a sentimental duel.
But who will see it? What good will it serve?
We ourselves, I hope.
We will return, I thought, to enjoy our happy years.
Certainly, I misused you. I manipulated your conscience.
But wasn't it worth the trouble?
We were secure, trusting, full of goodwill and joy...
...and we believed that the happiness of those years could last forever.
Instead, all comes to an end.
Out there, it's all quite different.
The immortality I've given you is the only way to prolong those days of carefree gaiety.
Come, come, say as much to the others.
No, there is nothing more I can say.
Faustine, at last.
For three days I've waited for the turn of the tide.
I began to think that the orbit of the moon must have changed.
Now I have activated the recording mechanism.
Now I will be at your side for all eternity... all this week, time and again.
Who knows what enters the blue sky of your mind?
Faustine, at last.
For three days I've waited for the turn of the tide.
I began to think that the orbit of the moon must have changed.
Now I have activated the recording mechanism.
Now I will be at your side for all eternity... all this week, time and again.
Who knows what enters the blue sky of your mind?
A diet? No, that's an illusion.
The spirit deceives the body.
And the body repays the compliment by ignoring the benefits of the diet.
And how was the voyage? Did all go well, captain?
Excellent. A calm sea and favourable winds.
Did you find it all? Could you bring everything we wanted?
Yes, of course, everything
We will return, I thought, to enjoy our happy years.
Certainly, I misused you. I manipulated your conscience.
But wasn't it worth the trouble?
We were secure, trusting, full of goodwill and joy...
...and we believed that the happiness of those years could last forever.
Instead, all comes to an end.
Out there, it's all quite different.
The immortality I've given you is the only way to prolong those days of carefree gaiety.
There follows the date: Caponero Island, July 1929
English subs: Wootle