"11th January 1935" "I arrived yesterday on this island." "This notebook will serve as my testament." "I place these lines under Leonardo de Vinci's motto:" ""Ostinato rigore"" "though I am struggling to follow it." "If the Sicilian of Calcutta's prediction does not take place if I do not die on this island," "I will attack in my work the enemies of the forests." "I will expose that the world; with its amelioration of police, documents, radio, customs, its irreparable errors of justice;" "is a hell with no way out for the persecuted." "I must continue these works in prison." "But the library contains only novels and poetry." "None of the scientific tomes which I need for my eulogy to Malthus." "I have to content myself with my current experiences." "Wednesday 25th January" "Today, I did not shave." "My sweat burns unbearably." "Have the first symptoms already appeared, as described by the Sicilian of Calcutta?" "Long ago..." "My journey lasted 10 days." "There was an insufferable heat and I stayed there unconscious for 2 days in dead calm, having exhausted my water provisions." "The island was in sight though the conflicting current kept me hundreds of yards away." "Without oars, it was impossible to draw closer." "Finally, a gust of wind threw me to the shore unconscious but alive." "The Sicilian had told me:" ""For one so persecuted, for you..."" ""there is only one place to live, though no-one does live there."" ""It is an island..."" ""The white people constructed there, around 1925..."" ""a museum and a swimming pool."" ""The buildings were finished, then adandonned."" ""Neither the Chinese pirates, nor the ship painted in white..."" ""from the Rockefeller Institute go near it."" ""For she is the home to a mysterious illness..."" ""that kills the surface from within."" ""The claws, the flowing hair..."" ""The dying skin and cornea die..."" ""then the body, after 8 to 15 days."" ""The passengers of a steamer..."" ""...anchored off the island, were all skinned, bald, without fingernails..."" ""...and dead when the Japanese Namura cruiser found them"." ""The steamer was sunk by cannon fire."" "I believe the name of this island is Villings and that she is a part of the Ellice archipelago." "Anyone who wants more information, for those that will one day read this diary, need only to ask Dalmacio Ombrielli," "Hiderabad Street, in the district of Ramkrishnapur," "Calcutta." "I do not endanger him in the mentioning of his name in my diary." "Human memory will bear in mind that Ombrielli has been charitable to those unfairly persecuted." "Nothing here can serve man." "And yet, I discovered in the north of the island, a sort of miraculous oasis." "There, I came across water, and trees, and large multicoloured birds." "Not far away stands the museum." "I refer to it by the name given to it by the Sicilian." "The stolen dinghy did not resist the breaking waves." "I am a prisoner of this setting, of this island." "Is this the final stage of a trail in abrupt geometry?" "I think of my country." "I dream it differently." "So large is my helplessness." "A free land, delivered from the yoke of tyrants and cops." "The killings on the highways." "Still hunted, just until this morning." "They come in." "I shoot." "But there are too many." "Long months of solitary confinement." "They sentence me to death." "Helped by my friends, I escape." "Since then," "I've not had a moments peace." "Will these walls welcome me?" ""What use is there in writing to you,"" ""my darling,"" ""...since there is no post here."" ""Morel..."" ""Hundreds of miles from all life,"" ""...this places worries."" "What was its builder's inspiration?" "What plot was weaved so far from human life?" "Or was it that this museum is the result of an ephemeral dream?" "The exhileration of a man too rich." "This Morel, of whom the letter speaks, maybe." "It's been exactly a fortnight since I came here." "This is the deadline." "I can only wait." "I will see tomorrow how I feel." "Maybe it's my diet, maybe it's the climate." "The temperature is constantly increasing." "It feels similar to what it's like before a monsoon." "I'm sleeping badly." "Every night, I have the same nightmare, which leaves me sweating and trembling." "Without doubt, I owe these frightening dreams to the heat." "For several days," "I lay by the pool at night." "It's a little cooler there." " Do you want milk or lemon in your tea?" " Lemon." "I'm on a diet." " I will take champagne." "Who are these intruders?" "And more importantly, how did they get here?" "I heard neither a boat, a plane, nor an airship." "Are they looking for me?" "Are they going to take me back to jail?" "They're the barrier between the museum and me." "I've nothing to drink, nothing to eat." "Must I once again suffer the agonies of thirst?" "I had almost found happiness in this solitary museum." "Already the mighty lines of my opus were under way." "However, banished to this bunker, my fate is still better than what I endured all those long months in prison." "Their clothes are similar to those we wore 10 years ago." "The years after the war, the music that made us dance." "When I was living at the museum, there was no power." "That woman looks like she's come out of an abominable painting." "I don't want her being bitten by the vipers swarming on the hill." "I want to keep writing." "As a safety measure." "It's a discipline." "Tonight, I will try to reclaim the museum, and get back my knife." "The intruders sealed the stone slab in the well." "Do they want to stop me from drinking?" "I ask myself a question." "Where did they find the second slab?" "I remained in a trance-like state just until dawn." "Plagued by anxiety, but also by fascination." "I both feared and hoped for the arrival of human life." "It has been a whole month since I last saw someone." "They may well be policemen." "But they lure me in." "That is probably the trap." "They play at cat and mouse." "They wait until, dying of hunger," "I turn myself in." "I ate muscles and drank a little seawater." "Why is there that second stone slab on the well?" "Thursday 26th" "The woman is back." "Friday 27th" "She stayed for almost an hour." "She had with her a book though she did not read." "She might be beautiful." "Saturday 28th" "The woman intrigues me." "At the risk of being caught, I went up to the museum." "Faustine, I wanted to tell you..." " He is not well, Morel." "It will pass." "Faustine is very beautiful." "I learned his name." "Faustine." "Tomorrow, I'll try and get a closer look." "I am suffering due to hunger and thirst." "No-one is looking for me." "I'll hold on for as long as it takes." "If they are the police, then she is the trap, the bait." "Maybe they are afraid to venture onto the island, fearing that I know it better than they." "Faustine, you misconstrue my intentions." "I know what you're after, Morel." "You'd be suprised if you really knew." "You want to play the mystery?" "Arouse my curiosity?" "If you were mine, I'd offer you this island." "You would rule it." "But we're leaving soon, Morel." "It's a shame that it is so short, that's true." "Then, nothing else matters." "Come on." "Let's get back." " Faustine !" "Look!" "I've been careless." "I wonder how they hadn't seen me." "Or maybe, pretended not to see me." "They've become resourceful." "I left my bunker, and took refuge at the oasis." "Tuesday 31st January" "Some trees are completely moldy." "The older ones, it seems." "The others are as tough as steel." "My knife can't even cut into them." "Yesterday, I wrote nothing." "I ate a multicoloured bird." "Its meat was sickly sweet." "I also ate tree roots." "Have the intruders left?" "A week ago they ran me out of the museum." " Do you want milk or lemon in your tea?" "Lemon." "I'm on a diet." "I'll take champagne." "Thursday 2nd February" "I didn't write yesterday." "It rained all day." "This world is prone to snobbery." "Or these people belong in an asylum." "That would be too good to be true." "The show rose for me." "Destined to drive me mad." "Why would they repeat the same words from a week ago?" "All notion of time escapes me." "I think I saw four sunsets." "Today, a strange phenomenon occured." "Two suns crossed the sky that triggered a stifling heat." "They seemed to influence everything." "Are those tree roots causing me to hallucinate?" "There are Indians from my land that have dreams from those roots." "I have become smitten by this woman." "Hallucination or trap," "I cannot resist." "They have won." "Miss, please, listen to me." "Don't be scared." "Of us, it's I who's scared." "It's a terrible ordeal that you're inflicting on me." "Answer me!" "I know what you are." "I ask you..." "What contempt..." "When an execution takes place, we watch." "If she has revealed my whereabouts, they will come and they'll take me." "If she returns tomorrow, I will be there waiting for her." "Faustine came back." "She did not hand me in." "Is she feigning an amorous interest?" "Is she acting on orders from others?" "Has the game not gone on long enough?" "The woman is back." "She has come back." "Faustine came back." "She had with her a book though she did not read." "Like last week." "Faustine..." "I love you." "Faustine, you have awoken my death on this island." "Saturday 11th February 1935" "Today I decided, Faustine, that you will not leave me again." "I put in your place, as an act of submission, my knife, my only weapon." "Faustine, you misconstrue my intentions." "I know what you're after, Morel." "You'd be suprised if you really knew." "You want to play the mystery?" "Arouse my curiosity?" "If you were mine, I'd offer you this island." "You would rule it." "We're leaving soon, Morel." "It's a shame that it is so short, that's true." "Then, nothing else matters." "Come on." "Let's get back." "Call my guard!" "Tell them I surrender!" "Stop this absurd farce!" "I know that she is under their orders." "You are vile!" "Both of you!" "At night, I went up to the museum." "Northing else mattered." "I had to see Faustine again." "Ask for forgiveness." "The museum was deserted." "There was no-one." "The intruders had left." "It seemed that my screams made them leave like frightened shadows." "There was no more power." "I scoured the museum, calling after Faustine," "I found objects, things, in the same state as when I left," "17 days ago, I believe." "When did they leave?" "How?" "Sunday 12th February" "It's strange to focus on dates that could be false." "Monday 13th February" "I took up at the museum." "I had already my habits." "I went looking for water from the wells." "The second stone slab had gone." "Whilst passing by, I found a cellar window." "When I ventured into the cave yesterday," "I saw no such window." "Therefore, that cellar window must open onto a hidden room." "I wonder if there's a connection between these apparatuses and the pipes on the beach where I landed." "Perhaps the tides are captured and converted into electrical energy?" "I returned to the room that I presume is Faustine's." "It looks like her." "Monday 14th February" "Evening." "I couldn't go outside the entire afternoon." "Around 2 o'clock, the sky was overcast and the wind was blowing up a storm." "The rainstorms that followed did nothing to calm the violence of this storm." "Darling, are you ready?" "We're eating." " I listened to the news on the radio." "Women fainted." "Men screamed." "The police overwhelmed." "This crazy English son-of-a-bitch wanted that we sing "La Marseillaise"." "To console the poor French." "The French thought that they were being made fun of." "After that, it was a free-for-all." "I do have to add that we were noticeably drunk." "I thought you were in your room." "I called you 10 minutes ago." "Sorry, Morel, I went out for a bit." "The night is so tranquil." "Of course you're forgiven." "Our friend has a passion for moonlight." "Who were you dreaming of, Faustine?" " Do you know the virtues of this star?" " Your expertise would enrichen us." "Two years ago, you founded a worshippers cult." "The groom at the Carlton couldn't believe it." " Don't blame Madeleine for her inventive mind." "The perils of old age should be expected at these banquets." "Miss Duncan has far too much." " She's so extravagant!" "She married a Soviet hack." "A chronic drunk, brutal." "I speak from experience." "He threw a chair at my head!" "He was arguing with a barman so I called the management." "He threw his dollars on the table, screamed insults in Russian." "She dabbles in theatre, and Bolshevik law." "And in style..." "When we think of all the trouble they caused." "Voronov, their children lost their lives on butchers hooks." " People dying of hunger." "It strengthens hatred." "Sergei told me of such scenes..." "Excuse-me, I'm a little cold." "I'll go up and get a shawl." " Where were you during the war?" " London, at headquarters, an enjoyable post." "I was living at the Savoy and I had three mistresses." "A blonde, a redhead and a negress." "The switch is blocked." "You're right." "You've got to love those fleeting moments." "And not this sad immortality that they promised us." "Who's up for bridge?" "I am if I play with you, Morel." "I don't want to worry the sensibilities of a soul as charming as yours, only indulge you in other pleasures..." "I was told that God, already so ill... died recently." "I don't want to grieve you." "Irene, darling, I'm going to hire you at the Scala!" "You'd be divine there." "Divine!" "I'm going to fleece you all!" "Morel, I'll play with you." "Stoewer, take my place." "I'm out." "I'm going to woo Ulysse." "He's no-one!" "You're swooning over him." "It's ridiculous!" "Ulysse!" "I spoke badly of you." "Jane, I love you." "You see?" "Simple abuse." "You have exquisite skin, my dear." " I propose a toast to our friend, Jane." "I decree arbitrarily that it is her birthday!" "LONG LIVE JANE!" "Alright, we're not in a caberet." "Let's play." " What a temper!" "I imagine that I'm struck down by the great plague." "I am feverish." "People, music, Faustine, are nothing but dreams." "The ebb and flow of a dying delirium." "A second hypothesis comes to mind." "That my poor nutrition and the cove's pungent air have rendered me invisible, since the intruders had not seen me." "I reject the idea of entrapment." "These people are more brutal and more direct." "Third hypothesis:" "the intruders are visitors from another world." "Who have - out of necessity - adopted our appearance, our customs." "Their eyes could not see." "Their ears could not hear." "Or else" "I am an unwitting visitor exploring the world of the dead." "Like Dante or Swedenborg." "I have begun to think that it is I the dead." "I like this idea enormously, since it is the most plausible." "15th February" "I wandered around the museum all night." "There was a shadow with Faustine in her room." "Was it that of Morel's?" "Then, the light went out." "In the morning, a boat appeared." "How had it reached La Paz with the storm that night?" " Captain, there was no difficulty with our operation?" "No." "Your programme was respected." "I left the sailor at Rabaul." "Dying, he was blind." "The doctors were unable to do anything for him." "They spoke of a rare plague." "You know, news travels fast." "I'm happy." "Let's go and join these ladies." "They want to hear your reports." "Captain, tell me more about Morel's little secrets." "He is strange, that man." "Ah... tonight." "I wanted to say." "I would like you all after dinner." "There's something I have to say." " Captain, did you bring the saris?" "I've been dying of excitement for 8 days." "One piece of advice:" "don't speak about this sailors disease." "They worry, and their histrionics drive me crazy." "I just want that our last evening here be enjoyable." "Bring all of that." "You'll serve refreshments later, when I tell you." "That's proof of their bad intentions." "It's an European issue." " Take a seat." "Please." "We only keep the head." "It controls the machine." "Morel, what extravagance have you prepared?" "Take a seat." "I'll only begin once everyone's here." "Friends, please!" "Morel, you're no fun at all." "Friends, please allow me to set the scene which will seem boring at first then horrifying" "We'll forget it." "I thought first of telling you nothing." "I would have used you." "Without rebellion." "Just until the last moment of our stay on this island." "But you are my friends." "You have the right to know." "My confession is that I have recorded and documented all of you without permission." "It's not a recording like any other." "On this recording, we will live forever." "Imagine a film that represents our lives during this week." "The decor would be the sea, the sky, the island, the museum, the swimming pool." "The actors: ourselves." "In this film, we live forever." "That's outrageous, Morel!" "Is this a joke?" "It's pure exploitation!" "Please, please..." "I could've told you that we'd live this week eternally." "We surely would've wasted it." "Striving for joy, simulating a continual cheeriness." "Before this infinite mirror, which acts would have been alive?" "Which expressions warm?" "I thought that if we were not obliged to use the best of our time, regardless of the week we'd spend together, life would be enjoyable." "Is that not so?" "I'd have given you an enjoyable eternity." "So..." "It wouldn't all be perfect, of course." "Friends wouldn't be able to come." "Claude is working on a large oeuvre dealing in the disagreement between God and the individual." "Gloria rests at home from her accident at Gstaad." "Too tired to join us." "Luis Carbon is in Africa." "On a long hunt." "They apologise for their absence." "Poor Charlie, of course." "But I kept them." "If someone wants to see, I can show them." " Horrifying!" "Morel, you're horrible!" " Charlie?" "I'm now going to explain my invention to you." "Or at least explain the principles that governed the construction of my machines." "The list of known scientific means that address absence could be as follows." "Concerning eyesight, photography, cinema, television." "Concerning hearing, the radio, the telephone, the phonograph." "These inventions, as advanced as they are today, only fill in the absence for two of our senses." "And only then, in a limited and imperfect way." "I will perfect existing machines." "I will get - with the aid of complicated optical, electrical machines - spatial representation of image and sound." "In 3D." "My projections do without screens." "They are catered for by entire space!" "Day and night." "I thought then that now one must invent devices to play similar roles for the other senses:" "taste, touch, smell." "So I put myself to work." "How was I to capture the waves of unknown vibrations?" "After endless experiments, and fruitless attempts," "I managed to determine the quality of these waves and create machines that could record them." "But each sense required separate machines." "Much like the difference in what a phonograph is used for what a cinemaprojector is used for." "During the last stages of my research," "I managed to synchronise the various sensors." "I had sight, hearing, touch, smell, taste..." "I had life." "This life I hadn't created." "Just the satisfaction in being able to copy it perfectly." "Beings and things behaving as wave transmitters that my machines could capture, amplify, retain and project in to a space-time continuum." "Recreating so completely the being or the captured entity." "No-one would know the difference." "If I were to project our own images right now, it would be easier to believe that I had hired a troupe of amazing actors than to believe that these were merely images of us." "Yesterday, about to eat, to play, to read, to sleep..." "Today, about to listen." "Following my research," "I was surprised to notice that the beings and the entities only lived in those recorded moments." "And as soon as those moments passed, they repeated the same scene." "Since the beginning." "And hereon indefinitely." "Except for a voluntary stop of the machine." "It's barely believable!" "You're difficult to understand." "I have evidence." "If you'd like, I will show you my attempts." "But they're somewhat monstrous." "I have not managed to synchronise the machines." "I would very much like to see these attempts." " All this scares me." "You attempted all this at Schwachter's?" " Yes." " And strange things happened." "Serious, even, in this factory." " These insinuations!" " They're not insinuations..." " I dare you to show me!" " Stoewer!" "It's unprecedented!" "I won't stand this!" "It's obnoxious!" "Threatened in my own home!" " Joe's crazy." " Attacking Morel in that way..." " You spoke out of line, Stoewer." "Go and and get Morel." "Go on, go and apologise." "For heaven's sake, all of you, just open your eyes!" "You've not realised a thing." "Morel said that he's recorded us..." "All our thoughts, and acts are captured..." "That he's made us into images..." "And that's all this does to you?" "What about Schwachter's factory?" "That doesn't tell you anything?" "All those deaths whilst Morel was there..." "I've seen the photos." "You forget that Morel recorded himself as well." "He's not dead, as far as I know." "He made a few unfortunate errors, but that was just coincidence..." "He's maybe not as mad as that." "He's not coming back." "He's so touchy." "OK, we'll drink without him." "To the island and to his invention." "And to our final evening." "I'll drink to Morel's invention." "And because it is every week and for all eternity, that I make this toast." "I drink to today, 25th November 1925, and to the 25th November '45, and to '65, and to '85 and 2005, and so on and so forth." "And when I'm an old hag," "I'll come back to this island and relect on my alter-ego." "My young, intact alter-ego." "Old Morel..." "He almost managed to scare me." "Me too, I'm scared." "I remember Charlie's death." "Drink, Stoewer, and you'll see how much this Dom Perignon stinks of sulphur." " My dear friends, since Morel has built you such a beautiful machine," "I suggest a dignified pose, to capture it all." "In place, for the family portrait." "The smaller in front, the taller at the back." "Wait a minute, Faustine." "Couldn't we get dressed up?" "Much solemnity is required." "Don't you find?" "Wondrous, I'll put on my feathers!" "You're going to see that!" " Wonderful." "Come along, Madeleine." "If the baron saw that, he'd go crazy with excitement." "Shadows." "Only the shadows." "I no longer have to hide." "They only see what they saw 10 years ago." "They only hear what they heard 10 years ago." "Faustine." "A shadow." "I live on an island populated by shadows who cannot see." "An island populated by stupid shadows." " Wait !" "Someone's missing." "Who, Charlie?" "That's in very bad taste." "It's Morel." "He has to pose too!" "Morel!" "MOREL!" "MOREL!" "MOREL!" "MOREL!" "MOREL!" "MOREL!" "MOREL!" "MOREL!" "MOREL!" "MOREL!" "MOREL!" "MOREL!" "Was Morel's invention a failure?" "Have they stopped working completely?" "A sudden accident?" "A temporary glitch?" "Is the museum still prey to the curse?" "Everything works as it did." "The past has stopped feasting on the present." "I read a book although I'd paid it no attention." "It discusses tides in the southern hemisphere." "It was reassuring." "I took the papers that Morel had thrown into the basin." "I saw there that he had made a minute error in his calculations." "He'd over-estimated the strength of certain tides." "These machines employ more energy than water can provide." "The sea creates shadows at her own will." "The next high tide will bring Faustine back to me." "As far as I understand; much like the rest of the island, people and objects;" "the wall was recorded by Morel's sensors." "It is the machine's projection, like Morel, Faustine." "For as long as the motors run, and the tide supplies the energy, nothing in the world can free me from this place." "The museum, the island itself, the earth;" "they would come to disappear." "As long as this energy fuels the motors," "Morel's week will tirelessly repeat itself." "I cannot count on the tide." "It is a cycle of vast waters." "In 10 days, I will be either be mad, or dead from starvation." "I only have one hope." "Understand from reading these papers how to operate the motors, and how to stop them." "I slept badly." "I start suffering from thirst." "The air has become thick and stifling." "If I do not find a solution," "I will suffocate like the submarine captain whose story I read whilst in Calcutta." "I scanned the pages prepared by Morel for his lecture." "Last night, he hadn't told us everything." " "I built these motors, this museum, for a woman." "The word "museum" that I use for this house dates back to a time when I still did not know what I would do with my invention." "I wanted to store here images in the pages of an album, or consider them as works of art." "Because I believed myself superior," "I thought it would be easy for me to make her fall in love." "Easier than to build a paradise." "I wanted to act without premeditation." "My hopes were dashed." "I'd lost her trust, her friendship." "I should have convinced her to come alone with me." "It was impossible." "Since I confessed to her my feelings," "I never saw her alone." "If I'd have taken her with me, we would have quarreled forever." "I decided to take you all, my friends, hoping that, in the middle of such a group, a change would occur in her behaviour."" " Here, Morel stopped." "Not wanting to further clarify his disappointment." "Is he speaking about Faustine?" "In this case, I fear he is." "Faustine leaves." "A doubt comes to me." "Was Morel telling the truth?" "These motors, these screens, do they serve as nothing more than to simply satisy the monstrous needs of a sick man?" "Faustine..." "Faustine's image..." "Of which terrible mysteries are you responsible?" "Will you come back and save me?" "They have left." "I didn't destroy the machines." "What purpose would there be in living if I were never to see Faustine again?" "There was a problem in the way Morel had constructed the engines." "That their functioning correctly depended on his survival." "They're surely extremely solid." "They're different to others." "Morel designed them so that we would not understand their functioning." "I've been trapped here for three days." "For the 20th time, maybe, I turn, hoping to understand." "I spent the day searching the museum for the sensors that Morel spoke of." "Now acquainted with his character," "I spent a long time in his room, trying to know more about him and his invention." "I know how to turn the machines back on without them locking me in." "I finished reading Morel's papers." ""This will allow us to always feel renewed life." "There will be no other memories, at each moment of the projection, except those that we had at the moment of recording."" " Tomorrow," "I will restart the motors." "The others I'll leave 'til Monday, the first day of the week." "Faustine will be reborn." " Do you want milk or lemon in your tea?" "Lemon." "I'm on a diet." "I'll take champagne." "Here I am surrounded by shadow." "I cannot escape a genuine fear that these people I'm mingling with are just images that I've never even taken." "I suppose I'll get used to this kingdom of death." "I can't help but looking at them as if they were machines." "Beautifully arranged models." "I am behind a window of a heaven or a hell." "These shadows are perfect." "There remains only one thing that I can be sure of." "I fear that their bodies no longer have human warmth." " What beautiful weather, Morel." "Did you sleep well?" " Really well." "Thank you." "Did you?" "I dreamt that I were to stay here eternally." "Heaven!" "In eight days, you'd want to be in London, or in Rome." " Of course." "But for the moment I'm here." " I'm thrilled that you love the island, Jane." "A frightening realisation:" "Their bodies are marble, their gestures set." "They are unable to deviate from their recorded path." "I realise the danger I run by living with the shadows." "They could crush me." "I will take care in future." "I must sleep outside, ready to flee if I need to." "I now understand the anomalies of the museum." "Nothing that was recorded can be modified." "The locked doors remain so just until another's opened." "Same with the light switches, the curtains, the windows..." "This world is a dangerous trap but not in the way I imagined a month ago." "I must be alert and on guard non-stop." "For the shadows, it's Wednesday." "Third day of Morel's week." "I know that Faustine went up to her room after Morel walked her back." "During the day, it is one of the only times when I can go into her room." "The recorded door stays open long enough for me to enter." " Who's there?" " Morel." " Come in." "But stay there, Morel." "I'm naked in the bathroom." "You've got nothing to wear in there?" "No." "You're trapped." "Ah, Morel... if you saw me naked, it's you that'd look away." "Be nice." "Go and wait for me downstairs." "Leave, Morel." "Faustine, you're mine." "And you don't even know it." "You left this island 10 years ago but still you are here." "Thanks to your inventor." "Had he hoped to win your love in a week?" "How long have you known him?" "Now, Faustine from 10 years ago, how did you find Morel?" "Today, where are you?" "In my country, maybe." "You look gorgeous in that dress, Faustine." "You're not afraid you've panicked Morel?" "I love you, Faustine." "What fun to play this game with you." "What a strange couple we make." "How I'd love to play your game." "Live by your side." "Yesterday," "I tested on animals to check the devices' capabilities." "There is nothing to distinguish the live birds from their image." "I feel a kind of triumph." "As if I had created life." "I now understand" "Morel's staggering arrogance." "None of this matters now that we're leaving." "You've let yourself go, Morel." "We are guided by our dreams." "Should we destroy them?" "Once again, for Morel and his guests, the week comes to an end." "Used to seeing this week repeat itself," "I feel that mine is ruled entirely by chance." "I think of Morel's discourse." ""Please allow me to set the scene which will seem boring at first," ""...then horrifying."" "Why horrifying?" "Is being recorded so terrible?" "Morel has a secret." "He knows something, but is not saying, and there is no trace of it in his papers." "Has this secret something to do with his invention?" "And if yes, which one?" "They board the yacht." "Where are they going?" "At least, where were they going, 10 years ago?" "To which land, to which shore?" "Are they dead?" "I imagine the Japanese cruiser Namura, the sunken cargo..." "Why, exactly, this island?" "What if the sunken cargo was nothing more than Morel's yacht?" "And if those decomposed lepers were Faustine, the guests..." "I think again of the Sicilian's tale, and of Stoewer's accusations, of the conversation with the captain..." "Do the machines kill?" "Is death the price for this forged survival?" "Suddenly this reveals a coherent whole." "I understand how to organise fragments of conversations, and of images, which, until now," "I'd thought had no meaning." "The machines kill." " Friends, please allow me to set the scene which will seem boring at first then horrifying." " And Schwachter's factory?" "All the deaths whilst Morel was there." " Leave the dying sailor at Rabaul." "Doctors made no diagnostic." "We're speaking of a rare plague." "The Sicilian's words come back to me." ""This island is the home to a mysterious illness..."" ""...that kills the surface from within."" ""The passengers of a steamer, anchored off the island..."" ""were all skinned, bald..." "and without fingernails"" ""when the Japanese Namura cruiser found them."" "The Japanese cruiser sank it with cannon fire 10 years ago." "The yacht lies several fathoms underwater just off the island." "How had I not understood sooner?" "Faustine, gone forever, dead." "Her body amongst the rusted scraps." "Faustine..." "From her death, lives her icy double, on this island forever." "Faustine..." "The assumption that the images have souls seems to be confirmed by the effects from my machine." " A monstrosity." "Morel used his own death, and those of his friends" " to confirm the widespread rumour concerning the illness that struck the island - to protect his machines and his immortality." "I thought at one time that I could exchange his invention for a passport, for my grace." "Then, the idea made me smile." "My life stops here." "These shadows now belong to me." "I will pay the price, as demanded by Morel." "My ordeal would have been long." "Anxiety, terror, hunger and thirst grinding at my body and mind." "At the end of this horrible tunnel," "I decided to die." "I will live eternally with Faustine." "Saved from interminable days that I would've had to endure whilst waiting to die in a world without Faustine." "I will record myself, participate in Morel's week, destroy his dream." "I have to repeat thoroughly all my gestures, all my attitudes;" "all my words must agree perfectly with my gestures, my attitudes, to Faustine's words, and to those of the intruders." "I must take care not to be knocked over by a shadow, as I was 15 days ago." "We arrived yesterday on this island." "Me as a stowaway." "I find it difficult to converse with the shadows." "We're not from the same world." "Their banalities are unbearable." "It's the one thing that bores me." "To live for eternity in a world that I've constantly fought against." "I will try to forget what I am." "Imagining Faustine will help." ""When I completed my invention, it came to me first as a folly for the imagination, then as an incredible project, which gave a permanent reality to my sentimental fantasy."" "This week, Morel hatched the death of his friends, and his own, to achieve immortality with Faustine." "Beautiful, unattainable Faustine." "Her beauty warranted those follies, those respects, those crimes." "I think of this eternity with her and death becomes an open door to bliss." "I must ensure that the operation of the machines runs smoothly." "This paradise will be exalted." "Yesterday, I managed to speak to Faustine." "I hope to give the impression that I was carried toward the rocks." "I must use extreme precision." "My gestures must correspond exactly with hers and the risk of being harmed by her is great." "I begin to know her movements, her reactions." "I wanted to experiment, however wrong, with my resistance to smaller objects." "Like the stones she throws." "I had to stop the machines to heal my wounds." "My hand looked like a bullet had torn through it." "This constant attention causes nervous exhaustion." "I am constantly in danger of dying." "It is the necessary pain that will open for me this paradise." "The final challenge imposed by the shadows." "I sit down for a while in this chair." "In 10 seconds, Madeleine will come." "I get up," "I ask Madeleine to take my place and to sit down opposite Faustine." "Madeleine sits." "I can only serve myself the same objects as the shadows." "The alcohol does not slide down my throat." "My cigarette will not light." "Therefore, for each moment with them," "I must predict which objects, and accessories, that I seize will stop the machines." "I divide the objects into two." "Those I take and move are usable." "The images continue their recorded existance." "I take a cigarette from a pack in Morel's supplies." "I move closer to Morel." "Madeleine gets up." "She's not playing." "She has to pass behind Faustine." "I start to belong in the group." "A spectator could not believe in two different worlds." "I laugh thinking about my situation three weeks ago." "When I moved through the living room, terrified." "When I do record myself," "I will need to use this same precision." "To avoid people and objects," "I'll play my body like a matador dancing with his bull." "The tighter, the fairer." "I stay a moment behind Morel." "In 2 seconds I'll turn around to Christina and Ulysse, then toward Jane." "I raise my glass and drink to their health." "They raise a toast to Jane." "Jane, to love." "I'll take a step back to let Ulysse try and woo Christina." "I'll move at the last minute." "He leads her to the window." "I go round the table." "I go behind Stoewer, and then behind Jane." "I take my place just behind Faustine, on her right." "I observe Faustine et Morel." "I watch their moves." "I'm afraid that they'll catch my glance." "I raise my head." "Stoewer gets up, goes towards Faustine, forcing me to step to my left." "I look again at Faustine's hand." "Stoewer goes and sits opposite her." "I retake my place behind her right shoulder." "She hesitates." "I advise her." "I feel ready." "Monday," "I will turn on the recording machines." "I know I can never take place in your bed." "I find your sheets have the hardness of marble." "It's done." "My week is recorded." "I'm going to die." "I exhausted the energy reserves in recording it." "I now just have to wait for the tides." "Eight days of anxiety." "I fear everything." "I have an idea." "What if Morel had fixed his machines so that his week were blessed?" "I hope that when I become a shadow, like them," "I will see things as they had lived, 10 years ago." "The anxiety I had concerning" "Morel and Faustine's relationship disappears." "To an unwitting spectator, she loves me and I love her." "Our images are bonded together for eternity." "I saw her with me earlier." "The result was so perfect that it reduces the horror of my illness." "My skin is burned." "I have lost my hair, and my fingernails." "My strength decreases." "A frequent throbbing forces me to close my eyes." " Go and apologise." " Open your eyes, everyone!" "You've not realised a thing." "Morel said that he's recorded us..." "All our thoughts, and acts are captured..." "That he's made us into images..." "And that's all this does to you?" "What about Schwachter's factory?" "That doesn't tell you anything?" "All those deaths whilst Morel was there..." "I've seen the photos." "You forget that Morel recorded himself as well." "He's not dead, as far as I know." "He made a few unfortunate errors, but that was just coincidence..." "He's maybe not as mad as that." "He's not coming back." "He's so touchy." "OK, we'll drink without him;" "to the island, and to his invention." "And to our final evening." "I'll drink to Morel's invention." " Do you want milk or lemon in your tea?" " Lemon." "I'm on a diet." " I'll take champagne." "You have exquisite skin, my dear." " I'll have a brandy." " Yes, sir." " I propose a toast to our friend, Jane." "I decree arbitrarily that it is her birthday!" "Long live Jane!" "LONG LIVE JANE !" "Alright, we're not in a cabaret." "Let's play." "Don't you find Morel just a little bizarre?" "He is not well, Morel." "It will pass." "Faustine is very beautiful." " What a strange evening." "Jane and Christina were hyper." "It's more Morel I'm thinking about." "What an incredible story..." "Ten years ago, he caused a scandal in scientific circles with his theories on light." "He's a character!" "What do you do to have such smooth skin?" "I love you." "Let's go to Caracas in spring." "It's a wonderful season." "The women are beautiful." "You'll see." "We'll go to wild bullfights." "That's the show for you." "The party's still going." "They're indestructible." "Ulysse, especially." "He's a prince of night." "You are beautiful." "Beautiful." "I'd like you to see the mountains." "The air there is dry and cold." "The Indian shepherds would make us a soft bed of leaves." "We'll go next year." "I'm feeling weaker and weaker." "I am going to die here in the middle of all these motors, where I'll be the watchman." "They serve me." "They pay tribute to my death." "To he whom may discover this report one day ," "I have but one request." "Look at us." "It depends on you that we, Faustine and I, remain forever bound in the floods of time."