The operation of the camera supplied Pirandello with an image for a new detachment from life as it unfolds before one. Gubbio watches, observes, records, but remains unmoved by the dramas enacted before him. This professional attitude becomes a model for his behavior in all situations, extending to the complex love triangles of past betrayal and future revenge that make up the off-screen drama enacted by the personnel of Kosmograph Studio. Gubbio strives to remain detached -- "impassive," as he puts it -- a modern man trapped within his observing self-consciousness, alienated from both action and affection.