the decameron of morel

it was july1929 at the height of the coronavirus epidemic that had decimated humanity following the wars, the revolutions and the spanish flu of the first quarter of the 20th century. the inventor morel decided to retreat with a group of his friends to a remote island, and to a museum he had had built there, to sit out the conflagration. his initial plan had been to retire there with his love faustine but she had been unwilling to come without her friends. there they would dance, talk, and tell each other tales until the crisis was over. 

but secretly morel had a plan to record everyone's actions over the first week of the retreat (using  technology he had recently perfected) and then (in a further extension of that technology) repeat that week as if on a loop forever. 

it was 50 years later when a solitary survivor stumbled upon the recordings still repeating themselves over and over...

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horsemouth has made a conflation of  adolfo bioy casares the invention of morel  with boccaccio's il decameron (he thinks it suits the times). there's a comparison to be made with last year at marienbad  (or so the critics think - horsemouth will have to watch for himself) but mostly horsemouth would compare it to groundhog day. 

there are many time recycled movies (as horsemouth's friend ben would point out). 

how did horsemouth find it? 

well someone (OubaelPhoumet) on youtube had posted up a clip from the movie soundtracked by  robbie basho playing bardo blues but hadn't identified it. he had also posted up mountain man's farewell by basho over a clip from il grande silenzio. (all excellent choices dude) 

suddenly, while watching it, noticing in particular the heroine's indifference when the hero speaks to her, horsemouth realised what he was watching. the vain attempts of the living to speak to the recorded - the result is indifference. 

horsemouth had read the book many years ago and was aware that a film had been made of it. he researched some more and came across a french tv version of the same tale (set in january).

horsemouth will leave you with basho playing piano and singing mehera.

today horsemouth works (and then he will go for a walk).