Hugo Page #4

I wonder what my purpose is.

I don't know.

Maybe if I had known my parents...

I would know.

Come with me.

Right after my father died,

I would come up here a lot.

I'd imagine the whole world

was one big machine.

Machines never come

with any extra parts, you know.

They always come with

the exact amount they need.

So I figured if the entire world

was one big machine...

I couldn't be an extra part.

I had to be here for some reason.

And that means you have

to be here for some reason, too.

Get back.

I'll bring Tabard

tomorrow night at 7:00.

Don't say anything.

Are you sure about this?

Not really.

But I think it's the only way to...

To fix him.

Hello. How was your day'?

Boy on the track!

There's a boy on the track!

Get out of the way!

There's a boy!

- Turn it off!

Get out of the way! Move!

Come on!

- Out!

Ahh!

Look out!

Morning.

Yes, he's employed here.

Large, uncouth man.

In the Seine?

Deceased? Are you sure?

No, he has no... no relatives.

Thank you, I'll...

I will gather his belongings.

Thank you so much.

If he is deceased...

then who has been

winding the clocks?

Good evening.

- This way, sir.

I'll get it.

Well, what a surprise.

Come in, come in.

Isabelle, what's the meaning of this?

Please don't be mad, Mama.

That young man is not welcome here.

We found out who Papa Georges is.

I... I deeply apologize, madame.

I thought you were expecting us.

I will leave immediately

and return upon your request.

Please keep your voices down.

My husband's sleeping.

He hasn't been well since...

No, Mama. Mama, please

don't make them leave.

I-I don't wish to impose

on you, Madame Mlis,

but if this is to be

the only time we meet,

please, let me express to you

the profound debt of gratitude

I owe your husband.

When I was a boy,

I saw all his films.

They inspired me.

Your husband is a very great artist.

Oh, I am so pleased

you remember my husband's films

with such fondness.

But... he's so fragile now.

It only hurts him to remember the past.

Then we will take our leave, madame.

And I do hope you'll

forgive me for saying...

you are as lovely now

as you were in the movies.

Mama?

- You were in the movies?

She appeared in almost all his films.

- You were an actress?

- Well, I...

Was a long time ago, children.

It was...

It was another time. I, uh... I...

Well, I was another person.

Would you like to meet her again?

We have a film.

One of Georges' films?

That's not possible. They're all gone.

May we show you?

Please.

- Oh, yes, please, Mama. Please.

Just be quick with it.

You were an actress,

a real cinema actress!

- It's impossibly romantic, Mama.

- It wasn't like that.

We weren't movie stars

like they have today.

But we did have fun.

Madame Mlis?

It's in color!

But of course.

We tinted the film.

We painted it by hand,

frame by frame.

Mama, it's you!

Yes.

Oh, beautiful.

You were beautiful.

She still is.

I would recognize the sound

of a movie projector anywhere.

Georges...

you've tried to forget

the past for so long.

It's brought you nothing

but unhappiness, hmm'?

Maybe it's time to try and remember.

You want to know?

Yes.

Just like you...

I loved to fix things.

I started out as a magician.

Mama Jeanne was my assistant.

We were very successful, I must say.

We even had our own theater.

But I was always tinkering

with machines.

I had my own workshop at the theater,

where I could invent new illusions.

Once, I even built a

working automaton.

Oh, he... was a particular treasure.

I put my heart and soul into him

Then, one night,

Mama Jeanne and I

went to visit a traveling circus.

We were walking past the sideshow tents

when I noticed something.

Something strange.

Something wonderful.

It will terrify you!

Sir, madame, inside we have

moving pictures! Come and see!

The Lumire brothers

had invented the movies.

I fell in love with their invention.

How could I not be part of it?

It was like...

It was like a new kind of magic.

I asked the Lumire brothers

to sell me a camera, but they refused.

You see, they were convinced

that movies were only a passing fad

and they saw no future in it,

or so they said.

In the end, I built my own camera

using leftover pieces

from the automaton.

I just had to be a part

of this new wonder.

We risked everything. And we sold

the theater and everything we had

so we could build

our own movie studio.

Excellent.

Cameras, are we clear?

And so the great adventure began.

Actors only on the set, please!

Clear the set!

Look at you, look at you!

Love this shape, Mel.

It's a toile, though, right?

I wrote, designed, directed, and acted

in hundreds of movies.

I'm ready.

Oh, that was good,

that was good, yes, yes.

That felt good, that felt good.

On the pulley? On the smoke?

Stop, stop, stop. I saw that.

Give me two minutes.

It was good up to there.

Benny'? I'm gonna have a word.

Reload. Reset the dragon.

Benny, speak to me.

If you pull down a little harder

on the left-hand rope,

the head will come up higher,

which will be better...

- Under the belly!

- I see it.

Excellent, excellent, excellent.

The choreography was really good

up to there. Thank you, gentlemen.

- First positions!

- Back, first positions!

Action!

Excellent, excellent.

Setting back.

And in for the kill, knights.

In for the kill!

Come on, then, attack!

Stabbing, stabbing, and lunge!

Good.

Good, good. Good, knights.

Poised for the attack.

And... knights!

Three, two, one, freeze!

Skeletons, that's great.

You can go.

Pyrotechnics in, please.

Knights, please don't move.

Freeze. Freeze, everybody.

Wait for my "action."

Three, two, one, action!

Magic tricks and illusion

became my spaciality.

The world of imagination.

My beautiful wife

was my muse, my star.

And we couldn't have been happier.

Action!

We thought it would never end.

How could it?

But then the war came.

- And youth and hope were at an end.

The world had no time

for magic tricks and movie shows.

The returning soldiers,

having seen so much of reality,

were bored by my films.

Tastes had changed,

but I had not changed with them.

No one wanted my movies any more.

Eventually I...

I couldn't pay the actors...

or keep the business

running, and...

and so my enchanted castle

fell to ruin.

Everything was lost.

One night, in bitter despair, I...

I burned all my old sets

and costumes.

I was forced to sell my movies

to a company

that melted them down

into chemicals.

These chemicals were used

to make shoe heels.

With the little money I had from selling

my films, I bought the toy booth...

and there I have remained.

The only thing I couldn't

bring myself to destroy

was my beloved automaton.

So I gave him to a museum,

hoping he would find a home.

But they never put him on display.

And then the museum burned.

It's all gone now.

Everything I ever made.

Nothing but ashes

and fading strips of celluloid.

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