The Paul Dini Museum of Villefranche-sur-Saône (Rhône, France) presents from 03/23/2013 to 09/15/ 2013 an exhibition entitled « Landmark. » Le Musée Paul Dini de Villefranche-sur-Saône (Rhône, France) propose du 23 mars au 15 septembre 2013 une exposition temporaire intitulée : « Point de repère ».Le musée présente ainsi cette exposition : « Depuis que l’Homme est sur Terre,…
Relief maps have a rather elegant rendering. Despite their decorative aspect, they are quite rare in fiction movies. This post attempts to begin an inventory of films with relief maps, beginning by 4 French movies. Les cartes en relief donnent un résultat assez élégant. Cependant il est plutôt rare d’en rencontrer dans les œuvres de…
The Eruption of Karamako is the second volume of The Secret Ray, a volume of the series The Adventures of Jo, Zette and Jocko that Hergé published in 1952. In the book Jo was saved from certain death by a film crew who filmed the eruption of Karamak volcano from a seaplane. The pilot reported…
About a Mountain is an essay by John d’Agata about nuclear waste issue. The book has another title in the French edition (Yucca Mountain) and the cover represents a face drawn with the traditional cartographic symbols. The illustration does not exist on the original book’s cover. Why ? Publié en 2012 en France, Yucca Montain…
Ni à vendre ni à louer is a French comedy by Pascal Rabaté. Several stories intertwine in this offbeat film without a word. A spatial machinery can be found in this film that we already mentioned twice (Dogville et Bob la flambeur): a 1:1 scale plan. Ni à vendre ni à louer est une comédie…
La Grande Vadrouille (literally « The Great Stroll »; originally released in the United States as Don’t Look Now… We’re Being Shot At!) is a 1966 Franco-British comedy film about how the crew of a Royal Air Force bomber shot down over Paris must then make their way through German-occupied France with the main help of two…
The Seven Year Itch is an American comedy released in 1955 that was adapted by Billy Wilder from a play by George Axelrod. Despite the strong intervention of the censor board during the writing the script and the filming, the movie caused a scandal when it was released in American Puritan circles. Billy wilder uses…
Paris Noir is an anthology of short stories located in Paris and written by French authors. Published in 2008 English as part of the Noir Series of Akashic Books, the original texts are now available in French. The Noir Series bring together all-new stories, each one set in a distinct neighborhood or location within the…
Toute la beauté du monde is a French movie directed by Marc Esposito and released in 2006. Frank (Marc Lavoine) falls madly in love at the first sight with Tina (Zoé Félix). But she cannot love him back. Her best love just died and she is deeply depressed. On a trip to Bali where Tina…
Un bar parfait is a French novel by Jean-Bernard Pouy published in September 2011. A white wine lover goes all over Paris in search of the perfect bar. The One that will offer him better than Cabernet or Sauvignon. He tries one bar after the other, all are different. In this book J.-B. Pouy uses…
Thomas Klimowski is an artist who publishes his french blog « a kind of virtual workshop which outlines some work and some research workshops. » These posts of July 6th, July 7th and August 8th display screenshots of films of spatial machineries (mostly maps). Thomas Klimowski est un artiste qui publie sur son blog « une sorte d’atelier…
Great Guns (1941) is an American comedy directed by Monty Banks. Laurel and Hardy are the domestic servants of a rich and capricious boss. When the United States get involved in World War II, the boss joins the Army. Both friends decide then to enlist also in order to continue serving him. Many maps are…
The Sandmen (2000) is a French thriller movie directed by Pierre Salvadori and set in the 18th Arrondissement of Paris. When the film starts Alain (Serge Riaboukine) is giving a statement to the police. The scene ends with a shot of a map hang on the wall of the Police Station that shows the precinct.…
Bob le flambeur is a French movie directed in 1955 by Jean-Pierre Melville. Bob, an old gangster and gambler, is almost broke now. In spite of the warnings of a friend, a high police official, he decides to rob a Casino in Dauville. Everything is carefully planed, but the police is informed about the coup.…
Sherlock Holmes is a 2009 action mystery film based on the character of the same name created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The film was directed by Guy Ritchie and produced by Joel Silver, Lionel Wigram, Susan Downey and Dan Lin. The screenplay by Michael Robert Johnson, Anthony Peckham and Simon Kinberg was developed from…
Isle of Flowers is a 1989 Brazilian short film by Jorge Furtado about globalization.You can watch it (12 min) on line. Here are the part one and the part two in English). The film starts with a spinning globe and the next shot focuses on a field of tomatoes. A voice locates the action very…
Released in 1966, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (It buono, brutto it, it cattivo) is a western directed by Sergio Leone. It is the last Sergio Leone’s westerns with Clint Eastwood. In this film he co-starred with Lee Van Cleef and Eli Wallach. The three protagonists are in search of a treasure. One…
Elective Affinities (1996) is a movie directed by Paolo and Vittorio Taviani based on the novel by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Edouard (Jean-Hugues Anglade) and Charlotte (Isabelle Huppert), a couple of aristocrats, invited a childhood friend of Edouard (Fabrizio Bentivoglio) to join them in their villa in Tuscany. This friend is an architect. In the…
Released in 1965 Le corniaud is a French road-movie directed by Gérard Oury. Leopold Saroyan, godfather of a syndicate of gangsters, persuades Antoine Maréchal to drive a Cadillac from Naples to Bordeaux. He does not know that various illicit substances are hidden in the vehicle in order to cross illegally the border. During a meeting,…
Created in collaboration between Yona Friedman, a theoretician of architecture and Jean-Baptiste Decavèle, a photographer and a videographer, this exhibition transposed the fictitious geography of an island situated in the far north of Canada to the middle of the Lake of Vassivière in Limousin. Visitors were invited to discover the mapping of the imaginary Balkis…
The X-Men are a group of superheroes created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. There adventures were published in X-Men # 1 by Marvel Comics in September 1963. The book was adapted for three movies released in 2000, 2003 and 2006 (plus a prequel in 2009 telling the story of one of the main characters:…
NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense Command) is striving for over fifty years to locate Santa Claus. You can follow his route on their website. It proposes a real-time tracking of Santa Claus on google map and google earth, and a detailed methodology. Le NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense Command) s’évertue depuis plus de cinquante ans…
The Potemkin Stairs are a giant stairway in Odessa, Ukraine. This stairway marks the formal entrance into the city from the direction of the sea and is the most famous symbol of Odessa. It was constructed between 1837 and 1841. Originally known as Richelieu Steps, because of the monument located at the top of the…
Braveheart is an American historical movie directed by and starring Mel Gibson and released in 1995. The film refers to the life of William Wallace, hero and symbol of Scottish independence. In the late thirteenth century, Wallace united the Scottish clans and fought the forces of King Edward Ist of England, who attempted to invade…
As already shown in this post, geographic space plays a fundamental role in the work of Hergé. In The ‘Manitoba’ No Reply, first volume of The Secret Ray from The Adventures of Jo, Zette and Jocko, published in 1952, the liner SS Manitoba indicates its position by radio, remains silent for 20 hours and send…
Suddenly is an American movie directed by Lewis Allen and released in 1954. In the late 40’s, Tod Shaw, the sheriff of Suddenly in California learns that a special train with the President of the United States on board is going to stop in the small town. Shortly afterwards, a Secret Service team arrives, led…
The Beach is a 2000 drama film by Danny Boyle based on The Beach, a 1996 novel by Alex Garland. Richard (Leonardo DiCaprio), a young American backpacking in Thailand, came to Southeast Asia with the intention of experiencing something radically different from his familiar life. He meets Daffy a crazy man (Robert Carlyle) who is…
National Treasure (released in 2004) and National Treasure: Book of Secrets (released in 2007) are two movies directed by Jon Turteltaub. Both films have the same narrative structure : Benjamin Gates (starring Nicolas Cage) goes to treasure hunt. By solving different clues he finds a treasure map. He succeeds in deciphering it to finally discover…
Garri Bardine is a Russian animation director. In 1990 he created Grey Wolf and Little Red Riding Hood (Russian: » Серый волк энд Красная Шапочка, Krasnaya Chapotchka seriy Volk i »), a claymation film. The movie was adapted from the famous children’s story Little Red Riding Hood as a musical. Living in Moscow, the mother of…
16th June 2010 : the British PM David Cameron apologized to the families of victims for the killings that occurred on 30th January 1972 in Londonderry, Northern Ireland. The film Bloody Sunday directed in 2002 by Paul Greengrass narrates the events that occurred this day. Several scenes depict British officers annotating the progression of the…
(e)space & fiction 