Le Collectionneur de cerveaux(Thinking Robots) is a French horror film (1976) based on George Langelaan's novel Les robots pensants starring Claude Jade.
The young pianist Penny Vanderwood (Claude Jade) notices that a robot, created by the Count Saint-Germain (André Reybaz), plays chess in the same way as her deceased fiancé Robert Tournon. She convinces her friend Lewis Armeight (François Dunoyer) to open Robert's coffin, which is empty. Penny seeks to solve this mystery and embarks on the trail of the count...
Fantastic story adapted from George Langelaan's "Thinking Robots" and which portrays the contemporary adventure of a chess-playing automaton. Alone on the stage of a provincial theatre, the famous pianist Penny Vanderwood practices for her next piano recital. A middle-aged man breaks into the theatre and observes the young woman. As soon as she finishes playing, he applauds at length: "I had long dreamed of inventing a pianist robot and when I saw you, I knew it would look like you." The man leaves Penny his business card: "Count of St. Germain, creator of automatons." The day after her recital, Penny reads in bed a flattering newspaper article dedicated to her. The girl's attention is drawn to another article announcing a championship that pits the best chess players in town against a mysterious and infallible robot presented by the Comte de Saint-Germain... Intrigued, Penny decides to extend her stay to attend the tournament...
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The Count of St. Germain whose real name and origins remain unknown, was a European adventurer with interests and achievements in science, alchemy, philosophy, and the arts. He rose to prominence in the European high society of the mid-18th century due to his works and interests. He associated himself with some of the top contemporary figures including Casanova, Voltaire and Mozart.
Claude Marcelle Jorré, better known as Claude Jade, was a French actress. She starred as Christine in François Truffaut's three films Stolen Kisses (1968), Bed and Board (1970) and Love on the Run (1979). Jade acted in theatre, film and television. Her film work outside France included the Soviet Union, the United States, Italy, Belgium, Germany and Japan.
The Mechanical Turk, also known as the Automaton Chess Player, or simply The Turk, was a fraudulent chess-playing machine constructed in 1770, which appeared to be able to play a strong game of chess against a human opponent. For 84 years, it was exhibited on tours by various owners as an automaton. The machine survived and continued giving occasional exhibitions until 1854, when a fire swept through the museum where it was kept, destroying the machine. Afterwards, articles were published by a son of the machine's owner revealing its secrets to the public: that it was an elaborate hoax, suspected by some, but never proven in public while it still existed.
"Moxon's Master" is a short story by American writer Ambrose Bierce, which speculates on the nature of life and intelligence. It describes a chess-playing automaton that murders its creator. First published in The San Francisco Examiner on April 16, 1899, it is one of the first descriptions of a robot in English-language literature written much before the word 'robot' came to be used. The story was included in the 1910 edition of the short story anthology Can Such Things Be?.
Louise Forestier is a Canadian singer, songwriter and actress.
Anne Françoise Elisabeth Lange was a French actress of the Comédie-Française and a "Merveilleuse" of the French Directory. Her stage name was Mademoiselle Lange.
Jean Raoul Robert Rochefort was a French actor. He received many accolades during his career, including an Honorary César in 1999.
Angela Hewitt, is a Canadian classical pianist. She is best known for her Bach interpretations.
The Young Girls of Rochefort is a 1967 French musical comedy film written and directed by Jacques Demy. The ensemble cast is headlined by real-life sisters Catherine Deneuve and Françoise Dorléac, and features George Chakiris, Michel Piccoli, Jacques Perrin, Grover Dale and Geneviève Thénier, along with Gene Kelly and Danielle Darrieux.
George Langelaan was a French-British writer and journalist born in Paris, France.
The Invention of Hugo Cabret is a children's historical fiction book written and illustrated by Brian Selznick and published by Scholastic. The hardcover edition was released on January 30, 2007, and the paperback edition was released on June 2, 2008. With 284 pictures between the book's 533 pages, the book depends as much on its pictures as it does on the words. Selznick himself has described the book as "not exactly a novel, not quite a picture book, not really a graphic novel, or a flip book or a movie, but a combination of all these things". The book won the 2008 Caldecott Medal, the first novel to do so, as the Caldecott Medal is for picture books, and was adapted by Martin Scorsese as the 2011 film Hugo.
Hugo is a 2011 American adventure drama film directed and produced by Martin Scorsese, and adapted for the screen by John Logan. Based on Brian Selznick's 2007 book The Invention of Hugo Cabret, it tells the story of a boy who lives alone in the Gare Montparnasse railway station in Paris in the 1930s, only to become embroiled in a mystery surrounding his late father's automaton and the pioneering filmmaker Georges Méliès.
For Pablo Picasso's 1905 painting, see La famille de saltimbanques
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Jacques François Mouret (1780–1837) was a French chess master of the early 19th century who became chess tutor of the future Louis Philippe I and was one of the most successful operators of The Turk, a famous chess-playing automaton.
Gisèle Casadesus was a French actress, who appeared in numerous theatre and film productions. She was an honorary member of the Sociétaires of the Comédie-Française, Grand Officer of the Legion of Honor, Officer of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, and Grand-Croix of the National Order of Merit. In a career spanning more than 80 years, Casadesus appeared in more than a dozen films after turning 90.
Le Songe d'une nuit d'été is a French TV film from 1969. It is based on A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare, and was directed by Jean-Christophe Averty.
Mary Marquet was a French stage and film actress.
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