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First Line
Second Line 

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Ladies and gentlemen. 
So listen to my story. 

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This is a... true story. 

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Truth can be more amazing than fiction. 

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A long time ago I was given this piece of... 
little piece of paper by my grandfather.

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Not really that piece of paper, the piece of 
paper that I'm reproducing here on the screen. 

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He had got this little tiny 
piece of paper from his father. 

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Who got it from a mysterious stranger. 

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Who was said to have traveled 
around the world. 

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He spoke a language we hardly understood
in the northern tundra. 

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In Lapland, where we lived. 
Where there were very very few visual delights.

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I mostly had to look at those snowy plains
and a couple of reindeer all my days. 

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So we didn't speak any languages. 

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My grandfather thought that the person 
had been speaking French. 

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And had mumbled something about 
Maréo, maréo… maréo whatever.

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Something like that. This is how much
my grandfather picked of that thing 

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Anyway, that triggered my imagination. 
Imagine me, there. 

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Far in the Finnish Lapland.

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Very few things to look, 
but many things to think about. 

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So it became an obsession. 

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And I decided to try to find out in my life 
what were those marvelous strange mumblings?

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That mysterious person who
disappeared a long time ago 

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had probably told to my grandfather's...
my great grand-uncle. 

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Grand... whatever. 
Grand something. 

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And this is my interpretation of what this
little piece of paper may have hidden behind.

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[ piano ] 

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So as years went by I was still stuck 
in that godforsaken place. 

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I started figuring out that, that little 
piece of paper had been an entrance ticket 

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to this marvelous event that took place 
in the year 1900 in the great city of Paris. 

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Where all the world gathered to 
celebrate the dawning new century 

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the 20th, glorious 20th century.

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Where people would visit wonderful things
wonderful places, wonderful pavilions. 

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All those things that I never had a 
chance to visit myself

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except in my imagination. 

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So as years went by, I started 
memorizing these paths and lanes 

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and buildings and things and the 
secret mysteries inside some of those buildings 

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I would like now to
take you to some of those places. 

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And there was a very special way 
to move around 

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which was called 'La Plate-Forme Mobile'

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Some people called it 'la trottoir roulant'

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in this country I think people talk
about moving walkways. 

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So there was a moving walkway that 
took you around the city center. 

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Past those marvelous things 
hidden inside those palaces. 

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And not only that, there was 
another marvel of the age 

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the electric railway. 
So electric railway went one way

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and the moving walkway went
the other way. 

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And at certain intersections you could
switch between from one to the other. 

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And this is the way how people would
be traveling around in the 20th century.

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So in my imagination I stepped on
the moving walkway and I 

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traveled past all these buildings
and I saw the mighty shadow 

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of the thing called the Eiffel Tower. 
You must have heard about the Eiffel Tower. 

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That was already there. 

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And I got pretty interested in this thing
the moving walkway 

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and I figured out that actually 
it was something special 

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for there were three tracks 

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there was a trottoir fix:
the fixed platform

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and there's a slow speed platform, 
and there's a high speed platform. 

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And I imagined people jumping from
one platform... to another 

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depending on how they wanted 
to see their surroundings. 

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And as you can imagine, 
accidents happened. 

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I just imagined seeing this lady just
fall in front of my eyes

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and the other lady laughing. 

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Cruel people. 

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[ audience laughter ]

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So what you actually saw when you
were traveling around that great city 

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was a city as a panorama.
A city as a sight, visual sight. 

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Opening all around. Surrounding you
wherever you looked. 

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I traveled, I made the whole round. 
Here's the round. 

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And when I entered this corner 
the second time

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I decided to step out 
and I walked 

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I crossed the River Seine, 
I took the Pont de l'Alma 

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and I walked this way, towards the 
place called the Trocadéro. 

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This is where I imagined going. 

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Trocadéro.

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As I got a little further,
further away from the river,

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a building on the right hand side 
attracted my attention. 

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This was the Russian pavilion 
so in the traditional Russian architecture 

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I had seen so much close to my 
northern home in Finland

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so visiting the great city of St. Petersburg.

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And I went inside
again in my imagination. 

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And this is what I encountered. 

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There was a mighty interesting 
attraction there

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I saw all these people crowded on the side 
some of them were inside those railway cars.

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The railway cars themselves 
were not moving. 

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Instead the landscape 
was moving in front of them. 

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And I figured out this is the landscape
between Moscow and Beijing. 

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That must be the Siberian Railway. 

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That was nearly completed, not quite.
So the rest had to be imagined at the time.

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And it was a very special kind of a 
version of the railway

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for there was not just one canvas moving
taking you from Moscow all the way to Beijing

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but there were several canvases. 

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Closest to the railway cars, which would 
be right here, there was a 

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kind of a treadmill like place with grass
and stones and things moving 300 meters a minute.

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There were layers of trees and bushes
and things and once you got to the back 

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you have a mighty huge canvas
moving only five meters a minute. 

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So obviously here the idea was 
when you would actually enter those cars 

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you would experience the landscape 
speeding by just as if you were 

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on that Trans-Siberian railway. 

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Okay, I came out. I joined these 
jolly fellows, turned back and looked left 

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and I saw the words 
Le Stereorama Mouvant

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The Moving Stereorama
I became pretty curious. 

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I stepped inside, and I see...
this is what I saw. 

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A special kind of a round building
inside the building with those windows

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and a lot of people peeking inside. 

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What was inside was obviously something 
like this, as I found out later. 

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A landscape moving, tiny boats 
rocking on this kind of a mechanism 

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and the sun setting.

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And it was all happening somewhere 
on the Algerian coast. 

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Around the Algerian sea coast. 

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Cylinder rotating. Waves moving. 
And giving a perfect illusion of travel. 

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So here were the ideas of travel 
that I never experienced in my life 

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and I suddenly felt like 
home in my mind. 

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Okay. I came out again and 
walked back to the river 

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crossed the bridge again and 
I turned right. 

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And I saw a very strange building 
called Kammerzell.

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It seemed like some kind of an old 
Alsatian house 

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and hiding behind something
very special, as I found out. 

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Indeed, the greatest immersive 
catastrophe of all times. 

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Patience. 

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And almost next to that building,
so, ladies and gentlemen,

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this is the Kammerzell building that 
I just showed you

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and next to the Kammerzell building
there was another one 

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much more magnificent building 
almost next to the Eiffel Tower 

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Ladies and gentlemen. That is the 
building where I'm going to take you tonight.

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[ piano ]

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For this was the building that
inside hid the greatest attraction

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of that world's fair. 
The mighty simulator ride Maréorama. 

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The work of Hugo d'Alesi 

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Work that was the realization of his dream.

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Dream for total illusion of reality. 

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Total illusion of reality of traveling on 
a boat on the Mediterranean Sea. 

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So who was Hugo d'Alesi?

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The person behind this magnificent 
attraction. 

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An attraction that probably has 
never been surpassed since. 

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Actually by the time he created the 
Maréorama he was already a

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well known cultural figure in his
native city, his city of Paris.

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And actually I heard him called 
the father of the travel poster. 

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I guess we would now call 
him a graphic designer. 

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So Hugo d'Alesi had made some money
by designing travel posters

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for some railway and shipping companies. 

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Something like you have right here. 
Right in this picture. 

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And interestingly many of these posters 

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that he produced with his atelier
in great quantities 

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had to do with travel on
the Mediterranean. 

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And I couldn't stop thinking about
the position of that lady. 

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She's leaning forward,
looking at the scenery

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by the mighty Mediterranean Sea.

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And I started thinking about 
the Maréorama. 

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The way how the spectators would be 
looking at his huge, gigantic canvases

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passing by. 

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And indeed, this may well explain
why the Maréorama came to be

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what it became. 

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A place where you could virtually
visit those cities that his travel posters 

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tried to make you visit in reality. 

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[ piano ]

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But...

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[ piano ]

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there was another side to
Hugo d'Alesi's personality. 

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For he was a drawing medium. 

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So the nighttimes after work, 
after finishing those colorful posters

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Hugo went to sit in houses 
where he sat around the round table 

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with his hands with others
and spoke to the spirit world. 

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And not only that, but the spirits 
sent pictures through Hugo. 

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So in a trance-like state, Hugo 
would be drawing 

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signing them by names
from the spirit world. 

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Night after night...

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I can tell you, it was even claimed
in the Parisian circles in which he lived 

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that this Romanian artist with no 
artistic education whatsoever 

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had actually been taught his
skills by the spirits. 

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Now I know you don't believe me 

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but this is a true story. 

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Every word that I tell... tell you. 

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However when Hugo's conscious 
mind took action 

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it very very neatly and rapidly 
replaced the haunts of afterlife 

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with the phantasms of capitalism.

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And this is the mystery time
I'm trying to understand. 

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So to realize his dream, 
it was not enough to evoke ghosts

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or draw, take pictures from
some other realm. 

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You had to have something concrete,
so you had to have a stock company. 

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And this is actually the invitation
for stockholders 

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to join the adventure
of the Maréorama. 

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And this is what they would have 
received after making that decision. 

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Now Hugo had been planning
his idea for years. 

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There were failures at the world's fair.

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Ideas that appeared from somewhere 
like a few months earlier 

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One year, two years earlier. 

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But Hugo had been thinking about 
his dream for years. 

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And he actually took this patent 
already in 1894

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safely six years before the great
exhibition opened. 

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And in this patent he already described 
in great detail what he planned to realize

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And this is what Hugo and his team
and his stockholders... produced. 

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So you had a huge boat 
an entire boat 

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rocking, moving on a complex system. 

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You had the platform which was 
rolling and pitching 

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on an elliptical pivot which was 
run by hydraulic motors 

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and on both sides you had gigantic 
panoramic canvases 

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moving in perfect synchronicity 
by the spectators 

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Ingeniously these canvases had 
been placed in gigantic water tanks

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so they were floating canvases 

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which means as the weight 
of the canvas increased 

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the weight was counteracted 
by the flotation in those tanks

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that also kept those canvases 
from breaking apart 

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the canvases were no less than 
42.5 feet high, and 2,460 feet long.

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By the way, this is the first known 
example of technology

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that has ever since been used in
countless hydraulic simulator platforms

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for virtual reality, for flight 
simulation, whatever. 

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And it was imagined by the artist 
and drawing medium Hugo d'Alesi. 

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So what did the audience 
actually see?

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There were many things the audience 
was meant to experience. 

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They would watch a whole crew
on the boat in action. 

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They could enjoy groups of local
entertainers that appeared when the

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0:22:34,254 --> 0:22:36,523
ship entered the new harbor. 

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They could have dinner in a dining room
under the main deck.

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They could sense the smell of tar, 
feel the salty sea breeze, 

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witness smoke rising from the funnels

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and hear the sounds of a steam whistle. 

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As one magazine put it at the time:

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0:23:4,918 --> 0:23:11,658
Monsieur Hugo d'Alesi a voulu donner
une illusion compléte d'un voyage.

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0:23:12,659 --> 0:23:24,37
Mister Hugo d'Alesi has wanted to give, 
produce a complete illusion of a voyage.

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// piano // 

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So when people entered that building 
this is what they were handed. 

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Itinerary showing that it was Villefrance,
in the southern France

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from where the Maréorama set out 
on it's voyage. 

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It had first crossed the Mediterranean, 
entering the Tunisian seaport of Souse

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It continued it's way, sailing out 
to the mighty seaport of Naples in Italy.

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Next, steamed around Italian Peninsula
and entered the port of Venice.

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After Venice, on the Adriatic Sea,
a huge storm broke out 

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0:25:0,433 --> 0:25:5,705
and the Maréorama barely made it,
shaking and moving and people were 

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possibly screaming. 

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[ laughter ]

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Until the cruise ended in the city of 
Constantinople.

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0:25:19,19 --> 0:25:21,488
And now, ladies and gentlemen, 

234
0:25:22,956 --> 0:25:29,329
after one hundred eleven years 
you will be able to experience almost

235
0:25:29,996 --> 0:25:33,867
what those thousands and thousands
of people taking the ride 

236
0:25:34,534 --> 0:25:40,640
on the Maréorama, in Paris, 
could experience. 

237
0:25:41,174 --> 0:25:44,210
It just takes a little bit of 
imagination. 

238
0:25:45,545 --> 0:25:48,615
You just have to imagine that this 
is not really an auditorium

239
0:25:48,648 --> 0:25:50,517
that this is a huge boat.

240
0:25:52,118 --> 0:25:53,853
You are on that boat. 

241
0:25:54,254 --> 0:25:59,459
And we have huge panorama rolls
rolling on both sides. 

242
0:26:2,562 --> 0:26:10,136
But... we have a version of that. 

243
0:26:10,737 --> 0:26:12,338
And we have the music. 

244
0:26:13,239 --> 0:26:17,877
And this music was composed 
especially for Maréorama 

245
0:26:17,911 --> 0:26:21,548
by the well known salon
composer Andre Kovalski 

246
0:26:22,282 --> 0:26:28,421
and utterly forgotten until me and my

247
0:26:29,589 --> 0:26:34,394
faithful traveling companion 
Pekka from Lapland

248
0:26:35,462 --> 0:26:40,767
found it and decided to 
reconstruct this thing for you. 

249
0:26:42,68 --> 0:26:43,370
So here goes. 

250
0:26:48,875 --> 0:26:53,246
As I mentioned the trip starts 
from Villefrance and 

251
0:26:54,648 --> 0:27:0,520
the first destination is the 
seaport of Souse. 

252
0:27:2,355 --> 0:27:4,311
[ piano ] 

253
0:29:9,883 --> 0:29:19,25
Now, sailing out to the open sea 
and reaching the famous city of Naples. 

254
0:29:20,160 --> 0:29:42,295
[ piano ]

255
0:32:52,38 --> 0:33:0,180
So the cruise continues and finally 
reaches the city of Venice 

256
0:33:1,348 --> 0:33:5,986
just as the sun is setting.

257
0:33:13,660 --> 0:33:18,178
[ piano ]

258
0:36:24,50 --> 0:36:29,389
At this point, we decided to save
you the sufferings of the sea storm

259
0:36:30,357 --> 0:36:34,627
and instead we bypassed that 
sequence and show you the 

260
0:36:35,195 --> 0:36:42,869
glorious arrival to the famous
golden horn in the city of Constantinople. 

261
0:36:44,104 --> 0:36:46,206
Our final destination. 

262
0:36:48,108 --> 0:37:15,48
[ piano ]

263
0:40:17,851 --> 0:40:25,692
So having reached the final destination
and having all these people 

264
0:40:25,725 --> 0:40:29,963
move out of the building and 
go where ever they go 

265
0:40:30,930 --> 0:40:36,102
in their daily lives,
we should probably ask

266
0:40:36,703 --> 0:40:44,411
what, if any, effect did the 
Maréorama leave behind? 

267
0:40:46,179 --> 0:40:52,152
Well surely, there were things like
sheet music you could buy 

268
0:40:52,185 --> 0:40:54,587
from department stores 
and you could sort of like 

269
0:40:55,488 --> 0:40:58,792
have talented pianists 
play it on Sundays and 

270
0:40:59,893 --> 0:41:5,398
you could revisit that experience
by turning the score and

271
0:41:5,465 --> 0:41:7,0
looking at these scenes. 

272
0:41:9,703 --> 0:41:14,307
There... also many postcards
were sent, mentioning

273
0:41:14,407 --> 0:41:21,348
I went to the world's fair, 
I experienced the Maréorama, but...

274
0:41:21,481 --> 0:41:23,49
not much more than that. 

275
0:41:24,150 --> 0:41:28,922
But interestingly there were also
cards that were meant to be part 

276
0:41:29,189 --> 0:41:32,58
of the total illusion that 
Hugo d'Alesi

277
0:41:32,859 --> 0:41:35,962
had imagined, for these cards 
were meant to be 

278
0:41:36,997 --> 0:41:42,635
written by the travelers on the deck. 

279
0:41:43,236 --> 0:41:48,775
and sent to their friends just like 
all those people who had been 

280
0:41:49,776 --> 0:41:53,179
having a peek at the...
Hugo's travel posters and 

281
0:41:53,780 --> 0:41:58,718
taken the trip to the real
Mediterranean sea used to do. 

282
0:42:0,53 --> 0:42:2,689
But when I look at some 
of these postcards 

283
0:42:3,323 --> 0:42:7,160
a certain doubt creeps into my mind. 

284
0:42:8,194 --> 0:42:13,99
Looking at these ladies sitting in
their chairs and reading a book

285
0:42:13,733 --> 0:42:18,171
and worse...
not paying any attention at all

286
0:42:18,271 --> 0:42:21,975
showing signs of utter boredom.

287
0:42:22,843 --> 0:42:24,744
Not even chatting with each other. 

288
0:42:25,645 --> 0:42:29,282
So a certain doubt creeps into my mind:
was it really impressive?

289
0:42:32,85 --> 0:42:39,626
And actually, very few people ever
bothered to explain in detail 

290
0:42:39,659 --> 0:42:44,798
you know, what they had experienced 
on that magnificent, huge

291
0:42:44,864 --> 0:42:49,502
simulator ride, the dream of 
Hugo for so many years. 

292
0:42:51,404 --> 0:42:54,875
There was an American journalist 
who took the ride and 

293
0:42:54,975 --> 0:42:59,279
he basically said
Well, I don't feel like at sea.

294
0:43:0,347 --> 0:43:5,318
And he also criticized Hugo's paintings,
saying the drawing is bad. 

295
0:43:6,653 --> 0:43:10,924
And he also referred to the 
suggestion of chromolithography

296
0:43:11,124 --> 0:43:17,697
which was a really, really bad
complaint, indeed. 

297
0:43:18,765 --> 0:43:25,472
That was a four letter word in the 
world of visual representations at the time. 

298
0:43:28,74 --> 0:43:29,876
But how did Maréorama do?

299
0:43:30,277 --> 0:43:35,148
Think about all those hundreds of 
stockholders who held onto their stock and 

300
0:43:36,883 --> 0:43:42,989
nervous, looking at the, 
waiting for the company news 

301
0:43:43,223 --> 0:43:47,661
well actually, it did well. 
It was a financial success, so 

302
0:43:48,628 --> 0:43:54,768
nearly 600 thousand francs while
some of it's competitors like the 

303
0:43:54,834 --> 0:43:59,706
...Trans-Siberian Panorama just made
about just over 200 thousand. 

304
0:44:0,340 --> 0:44:4,945
Of course we don't know exactly how
much it cost to put this whole thing up 

305
0:44:6,880 --> 0:44:11,518
there were plans to take Maréorama
to other cities in Europe 

306
0:44:11,584 --> 0:44:13,420
and in the United States

307
0:44:13,920 --> 0:44:19,259
and they also planned to paint 
other trips, not just the Mediterranean

308
0:44:19,292 --> 0:44:21,861
but nothing ever came out of this. 

309
0:44:22,229 --> 0:44:29,603
Hugo died just six years after the 
World's Fair closed it's doors.

310
0:44:30,570 --> 0:44:36,710
and the company silently disappeared 
and so did those canvases and 

311
0:44:36,810 --> 0:44:42,615
all those mechanical details from
that boat, so nothing 

312
0:44:42,849 --> 0:44:44,818
was ever discovered. 

313
0:44:47,621 --> 0:44:50,190
So, and there's another thing to say. 

314
0:44:50,323 --> 0:44:55,729
So we could say that in some aspects
Maréorama probably had been a synthesis

315
0:44:55,762 --> 0:45:0,500
of the past rather than
a true opening to the future. 

316
0:45:2,35 --> 0:45:4,504
but was this really so?

317
0:45:6,106 --> 0:45:26,626
[ piano ]

318
0:45:28,228 --> 0:45:31,665
For there were other kinds of 
attractions at the World's Fair

319
0:45:32,833 --> 0:45:37,437
attractions which probably looked
to the future rather than

320
0:45:37,737 --> 0:45:42,742
to the panoramic past and 
history of painted canvases and 

321
0:45:43,209 --> 0:45:49,49
things like that so they were
cinematographic representations 

322
0:45:49,82 --> 0:45:56,423
even on a gigantic scale like Louis
 Lumiére's cinématographe géant projections

323
0:45:57,490 --> 0:46:2,162
There was also Lumiére's photorama
a new kind of a system of using 

324
0:46:2,195 --> 0:46:7,934
photographs to produce a full
360 degree illusion. 

325
0:46:9,169 --> 0:46:12,906
And then there was this thing
called the Cineorama. 

326
0:46:14,441 --> 0:46:17,744
A panorama of the future 
if ever there was one. 

327
0:46:18,311 --> 0:46:21,181
Unfortunately one that failed. 

328
0:46:23,884 --> 0:46:30,190
So the idea behind the Cineorama, 
which was located almost 

329
0:46:30,457 --> 0:46:35,128
next to the Maréorama, 
was to shoot perfect, seamless

330
0:46:35,195 --> 0:46:40,467
360 degree moving pictures 
from a hot air balloon

331
0:46:41,67 --> 0:46:47,207
rising above the cities 
of Europe and Northern Africa. 

332
0:46:48,842 --> 0:46:54,247
And this picture, ladies and gentlemen,
shows the set up of 

333
0:46:54,814 --> 0:47:0,153
ten circular cameras in the 
gondola of a huge balloon

334
0:47:0,220 --> 0:47:5,325
just about to take off from the 
Jardin des Tuileries in Paris

335
0:47:5,358 --> 0:47:8,161
in a much publicized event. 

336
0:47:9,729 --> 0:47:12,565
So it rose to the skies, 
and it shot the film. 

337
0:47:13,33 --> 0:47:17,504
But that was the only film that ever 
was shot from a balloon 

338
0:47:17,704 --> 0:47:22,843
so when, at the end of the show
the balloon had to come down to the ground

339
0:47:23,510 --> 0:47:28,415
they had to show the same 
film in reverse order

340
0:47:29,216 --> 0:47:31,84
cranking it the other way.

341
0:47:31,718 --> 0:47:36,189
In between there were just 
films safely shot from the ground.

342
0:47:40,393 --> 0:47:47,767
According to the inventor, Grimoin-Sanson,
another dreamer like Hugo d'Alesi 

343
0:47:48,602 --> 0:47:57,544
the audience was to be placed in
the gondola of a gigantic simulated balloon

344
0:47:58,645 --> 0:48:3,884
with projectors shooting those moving
pictures 360 degrees around. 

345
0:48:5,552 --> 0:48:12,492
And as we now know, just like at
the Trans-Siberian Railway panorama 

346
0:48:13,360 --> 0:48:16,329
there wouldn't be space for 
everybody on the gondola

347
0:48:16,363 --> 0:48:22,135
so there were two ticket catagories
for those poor people who couldn't afford 

348
0:48:22,335 --> 0:48:26,139
the real price of the ticket
that was placed around the gondola

349
0:48:28,108 --> 0:48:32,746
to view those movies. 

350
0:48:35,415 --> 0:48:40,86
Unfortunately, it never really took place. 

351
0:48:41,921 --> 0:48:48,28
The projection room overheated 
and just a few years ago, earlier

352
0:48:48,428 --> 0:48:56,469
...more than a hundred notable 
citizens of Paris had been burnt 

353
0:48:57,971 --> 0:48:59,573
...death

354
0:48:59,973 --> 0:49:5,11
in an accident involving a 
moving picture projection. 

355
0:49:5,946 --> 0:49:9,149
So this time nobody wanted to 
take a chance to kill 

356
0:49:9,616 --> 0:49:15,121
such a huge crowd of people and so 
the authorities closed the Cineorama

357
0:49:15,188 --> 0:49:18,858
after only four screenings.

358
0:49:20,293 --> 0:49:25,332
And ladies and gentlemen, now it's
my time to come back

359
0:49:25,398 --> 0:49:30,337
to the building we passed on
our way towards the Maréorama. 

360
0:49:31,504 --> 0:49:39,346
The Alsatian restaurant building. 
For behind this building, that was where 

361
0:49:39,879 --> 0:49:46,152
the huge rotunda of the Cineorama 
lay utterly abundant and hidden 

362
0:49:47,187 --> 0:49:55,362
for the duration of the World's Fair
which is a curious and ironic fate indeed. 

363
0:49:55,795 --> 0:50:1,868
Having the future hidden by 
the nostalgic past. 

364
0:50:2,869 --> 0:50:9,476
Having people eating those Alsatian 
meals without knowing about 

365
0:50:12,11 --> 0:50:16,16
the futuristic attractions they
might have experienced. 

366
0:50:22,222 --> 0:50:24,691
But the dream did not die. 

367
0:50:26,326 --> 0:50:31,364
Elements of the World's Fair 
surfaced in other contexts

368
0:50:31,398 --> 0:50:38,938
In the 1920s La Science et La Vie 
published it's new vision about those 

369
0:50:38,972 --> 0:50:41,908
moving walkways, or platforme mobile. 

370
0:50:42,976 --> 0:50:47,347
This time instead of showing a 
panorama of the city

371
0:50:48,381 --> 0:50:52,619
the moving walkways would be 
hidden under the ground 

372
0:50:53,520 --> 0:51:0,393
and people would be traveling from 
one end of the great city to another 

373
0:51:2,395 --> 0:51:10,3
cozily reading their papers 
on moving benches. 

374
0:51:11,571 --> 0:51:15,208
Now I believe that at the time
it was already clear

375
0:51:15,308 --> 0:51:18,378
that this is not the future. 
That there is going to be other

376
0:51:18,411 --> 0:51:25,85
ways of traveling under the ground
and perhaps there'll be other ways of

377
0:51:25,151 --> 0:51:28,288
looking at the panoramas of 
the city itself. 

378
0:51:31,891 --> 0:51:37,564
And indeed, in this vision
we find the underground railway

379
0:51:37,597 --> 0:51:42,702
electric railway, a bit like the one 
shown at the World's Fair

380
0:51:43,436 --> 0:51:46,540
nearly 20, nearly 30 years before. 

381
0:51:47,941 --> 0:51:52,412
There were also attractions like 
this one, which was called the Hale's Tours 

382
0:51:52,445 --> 0:51:58,718
of the World. Where people 
gathered in railway cars 

383
0:51:58,752 --> 0:52:4,90
once again, but instead of seeing 
painted canvases running 

384
0:52:4,291 --> 0:52:9,329
rapidly on the side, they were
watching movies in the end of these 

385
0:52:9,396 --> 0:52:14,234
railway cars, movies that gave
them the illusion of traveling 

386
0:52:14,701 --> 0:52:18,171
along those railway tracks 
into the distance. 

387
0:52:19,706 --> 0:52:22,676
And as people got bored 
with this idea, 

388
0:52:23,143 --> 0:52:27,614
many of these places were converted
to the early movie theaters 

389
0:52:28,982 --> 0:52:32,953
an institution we still know 
and have with us today. 

390
0:52:34,554 --> 0:52:42,529
But even more curiously, as late 
as 1937, just about when the 

391
0:52:42,829 --> 0:52:46,232
dark clouds were gathering all
around Europe and the 

392
0:52:46,833 --> 0:52:50,737
first signs of the Great War
were in the air, 

393
0:52:51,238 --> 0:52:59,79
so the French railways opened this 
attraction in a place 

394
0:52:59,246 --> 0:53:5,85
in the center of Paris, just a 
stone's throw away from where those 

395
0:53:5,118 --> 0:53:8,354
great attractions of the World's Fair 
used to be. 

396
0:53:9,189 --> 0:53:13,526
Here again, people were taken on a
simulated railway ride 

397
0:53:13,593 --> 0:53:18,632
around the French territory, and 
here again we had

398
0:53:18,999 --> 0:53:26,39
hand painted canvases rolling…
between those huge, gigantic reels

399
0:53:27,40 --> 0:53:30,610
and interestingly, not a word
was mentioned about 

400
0:53:31,378 --> 0:53:37,717
the Trans-Siberian Railway 
panorama and the World's Fair 1900. 

401
0:53:41,54 --> 0:53:46,59
And these ideas were not 
forgotten in the United States, either. 

402
0:53:47,293 --> 0:53:57,3
In Hollywood, a filmmaker named
Max Ophüls traveled back in time 

403
0:53:57,737 --> 0:54:1,208
and took an idea and brought 
it to the present 

404
0:54:2,409 --> 0:54:4,577
in a famous sequence in his film 

405
0:54:4,644 --> 0:54:7,247
Letter from an Unknown Woman
[movie] When my father was alive

406
0:54:7,280 --> 0:54:9,883
we traveled a lot. 
We went nearly everywhere. 

407
0:54:9,916 --> 0:54:11,151
We had wonderful times. 

408
0:54:11,584 --> 0:54:13,787
-I didn't know you traveled so much. 
-Oh yes. 

409
0:54:14,654 --> 0:54:16,456
Perhaps we've been to some of 
the same places? 

410
0:54:17,223 --> 0:54:18,425
No, I don't think so. 

411
0:54:19,92 --> 0:54:22,95
-Where did you go?
-Well it was a long time, but...

412
0:54:22,128 --> 0:54:25,932
for instance, there was Rio de Janeiro.
Beautiful, exotic Rio with it's

413
0:54:25,966 --> 0:54:30,370
botanical gardens, it's avenue of palms,
Sugarloaf Mountain, and

414
0:54:30,770 --> 0:54:33,73
the harbor where you could look
down and see the flying fishes. 

415
0:54:34,274 --> 0:54:35,909
-We're in Venice! 
-Yes! We've arrived.

416
0:54:35,942 --> 0:54:38,979
No where would you like to go next?
France? England? Russia?

417
0:54:39,746 --> 0:54:40,447
-Switzerland. 
-Switzerland! 

418
0:54:40,480 --> 0:54:42,682
Excuse me a moment while I 
talk with the engineer. 

419
0:54:48,788 --> 0:54:50,957
You and the lady, are you 
enjoying the trip?

420
0:54:50,990 --> 0:54:52,559
Yes, very much. We've 
decided on Switzerland. 

421
0:54:54,694 --> 0:54:56,730
-There you are, thank you. 
-Oh thank you! 

422
0:54:58,632 --> 0:54:59,833
Switzerland! 

423
0:55:0,900 --> 0:55:3,403
Switzerland. Switzerland!

424
0:55:14,614 --> 0:55:15,749
[ toy train whistle ] 

425
0:55:24,657 --> 0:55:27,127
So you were looking down at the 
flying fish. Then what?

426
0:55:28,828 --> 0:55:30,30
Aren't you going to finish the trip?

427
0:55:31,131 --> 0:55:32,465
[ voices fade ]

428
0:55:32,999 --> 0:56:25,819
[ piano ]

429
0:56:26,386 --> 0:56:29,723
Thank you. 
[ clapping ]

430
0:56:29,856 --> 0:56:36,496
Pekka!
[ clapping continues ]

431
0:56:36,563 --> 0:56:45,972
[ clapping continues ]