Julius Chapple credited as playing...
Henri Cotillard
- [Henri learns that Kirby is searching for the dangerous film]
- Henri Cotillard: You have to earn this movie.
- Kirby: What do you know about Patton League?
- Henri Cotillard: The cinematographer?
- Kirby: Yeah. You think he can help me?
- Henri Cotillard: A tragic story, that. He went blind after they made the movie. As I understand, he won't even speak Backovic's name. The last person to ask him about "La Fin Absolue du Monde" needed six stitches from where League smacked him with his cane.
- Kirby: What's with all the mystery? There's a wall of silence around this film, around Backovic's whole life! If I could just talk to him for a second...
- Henri Cotillard: He's dead.
- Kirby: But there's no records that he's dead.
- Henri Cotillard: Trust me. Backovic is quite dead.
- Kirby: Well, who told you that? His family? His friends? Anybody maybe you could introduce me to?
- Henri Cotillard: I'm sorry, I can tell you no more.
- Kirby: I don't understand anything that's happening to me. Last night I saw something I can't...
- Henri Cotillard: A circle? Huh? Like the reel change in a movie?
- Kirby: Yeah.
- Henri Cotillard: Then it's started. You're already in it. It's only going to get worse from here.
- Kirby: What's started? What's happening to me?
- Henri Cotillard: The more you look for this film, the more you will see those burns. You'll pay for every step closer you'll take. I'm trying to do you a favor. I'm telling you to walk away because I like you, Kirby. I've been where you are right now. I've felt that same building curiosity, like an unscratchable itch. I had to know. I had to see it.
- [Henri pulls his left hand out of his jacket pocket. It is burned, withered, the fingers seamed together]
- Henri Cotillard: I was the projectionist at a private screening in 1988. The faces in that room. Famous, beautiful people from all over Europe. When I threaded the film into the projector, I saw those same dots you described. And when I actually started it running, I lost my nerve. I looked away. It was playing right there, right in front of me, and I was too frightened to watch. When the screaming started and the smell of blood hit me, I tried to stop the film. The projector wouldn't shut off, and I grabbed the film to rip it out, and then I saw those same circles. And... I don't know. I must have blacked out. Time seemed to drop away. When I came to, the film was over and my hand... Look.