Carte géographique classique en 2D, qu’elle soit topographique, thématique, orographique, statistique … Sans mention spéciale, il s’agit d’une carte statique sur papier. Les cartes sur d’autres supports sont classées dans « Autres cartes ».
A classic 2D map, whether topographic, thematic, orographic, statistical, etc. Unless otherwise specified, this refers to a static map on paper. Maps on other media are categorized as “Other maps.”
In 2006, Pan’s Labyrinth (dir. Guillermo del Toro) is released. The action takes place in Spain, in 1944, during the franquist period. The fascist army chases rebels hidden in the Spanish Maquis. The Captain Vidal (Sergi López), uses a map to organize the hunt. He reads it with a magnifying glass and puts landmarks on…
Fanfan la Tulipe is a French movie directed by Christian-Jaque, released in 1952. Set during a battle between the French King Louis XV and an unidentified enemy, several scenes take place in the headquarters of both armies. The generals on both sides use maps of the battlefield for discussing tactics and strategies. Fanfan la Tulipe…
In 1985, George Romero directed Day of the dead, the 3rd episode of his « Dead series ». In this episode, the spatial machinery is not as sophisticated as it was in Dawn of the dead. The function of the four maps dispayed in the movie is mainly decorative. En 1985, Georges Romero réalisait Le Jour des…
In the name of the father (1993) is an Irish-British film directed by Jim Sheridan and adapted from the autobiographical book Proved Innocent by Gerry Conlon. In 1975, Gerry Conlon, a small time thief from Belfast, is arrested by the Police of London. He is accused of being the author of the IRA bombing in…
WithTournée (2010), M. Amalric received the Award for Best Director at Cannes Festival. This road movie tells the story of a team of New Burlesque US strip-tease performers on a tour across western France. The comedians hope to visit the country before to go to Paris, but they are puzzled by the erratic and irritable…
The subway is an important part of Paris urban landscape. It inspired many French song-writers, as shown in a compilation that can be heard on Amazon. There is even a sub-genre of the metropolitan song that is based on a constraint: tell a sex story through a series of puns with the names of metro…
In 1974, French Director Jean Yanne revisits the period of the occupation in France with a comedy where the Chinese army invades Europe. From Beijing, the ‘Central Revolutionary Committee is setting up its strategy. In committee’s premises, two types of maps are presented. En 1974, Jean Yanne revisite la période de l’occupation dans cette comédie…
Mercury Rising is a movie released in 1998 and directed by Harold Becker. In this film, the character played by Bruce Willis protects an autistic child who threatens the national security of the United States by deciphering « Mercury », the most advanced and expensive encryption algorithm developed ever. In an early scene, we see the young…
In his movie Detour, Edgar G. Ulmer uses some very original « spatial machineries », especially to represent the distance between Al Roberts (Tom Neal) and his fiancée Sue Harvey (Claudia Drake). Dans Detour, Edgar G. Ulmer utilise quelques dispositifs spatiaux très originaux pour matérialiser notamment la distance qui sépare Al Roberts (Tom Neal) de sa fiancée…
Le photographe is a graphic novel (3 albums) created by Emmanuel Guibert (script, design and colors), Frédéric Lemercier (colors and layout) and Didier Lefevre (scenario and photographs). It retraces the journey of a Médecin sans frontières team (MSF is an independent humanitarian medical aid organisation). The story takes place between Pakistan and Afghanistan in 1986…
In 1982, the members of an U.S. Antarctica research program are confronted with bizarre phenomena. A Norwegian team not far from them has been decimated. While watching videos collected in the Norwegian camp, the heroes are intrigued by their discovery and decide to get there. They consult a map for preparing their journey. En 1982,…
In the movie High and Low – original title “Tengoku to jigoku”- (dir. Akira Kurosawa 1963), the police searches the kidnappers of the son of Gondo, the executive director of a shoe company in Japan (the child of Gondo’s chauffeur was in fact kidnapped by mistake). What’s interesting in this movie in terms of spatial…
In his movie Die Hard, John MacTierman has to face a difficult problem: how to allow John MacClane (Bruce Willis) to locate in a tower where all floors are designed on a similar plan. He has also to be sure that the spectator will not get lost when the hero passes from a level to…
On the cover of « Le meilleur du Chat » album, Philippe Geluck makes a joke by inventing an interaction between the map and the user. Such an interaction was impossible at the release of the album (1994 for this Best Of and years before for the original). As new technologies (GPS, GSM, IP geolocation…) allow now…
In Sneakers, a 1992 film, Robert Redford is the leader of a security expert team. We can notice 2 spatial machineries that are complete opposites (and some other stuff, too). Quand Robert Redford est à la tête d’une bande de « spécialistes » en sécurité, cela donne « Les experts » (à ne pas confondre avec la série !),…
Navigation tools in a helicopter, map and plans… many spatial devices are used by the 4 heroes of George Romero’s Dawn of the dead (the second part of his « Dead series ») for escaping from zombies and getting to the mall which will become their sanctuary. It is interesting to notice that the relationship to space…
The film Dogville directed by Lars Von Trier (2003) takes literally place on a map. The action unfolds in a small town in the U.S. The houses are drawn on the ground, some elements are represented by symbols (e.g. some bushes), and the names of the streets are written on the ground. Only few pieces…
In Alien, the Ridley Scott’s movie, the science officer Ash designs a tracking device to detect moving objects. By this way, the Nostromo’s crew hopes to locate and eliminate the « 8th Passenger » that is hidden in the ventilation ductwork. Dans Alien de Ridley Scott, Ash, l’officier scientifique, conçoit un détecteur permettant de repérer les objets…
The adventures of Nestor Burma, the private detective created by the French writer Leo Malet, have been brilliantly adapted as a comic book, first by Jacques Tardi (4 albums) and then by Emmanuel Moynot (3 albums). Each investigation takes place in a different Paris arrondissement, which is mapped at the beginning of the album. Nestor…
Suggestion proposed by Mathias in this comment and completed by Gaëtan in this comment In Waterworld, movie by Kevin Reynold released the 28 July 1995, the young Endola has tattooed on her back the map that she will use to find Dryland. Any supplementary information is welcome. Suggestion proposée par Mathias dans ce commentaire et…
Everybody knows or thinks he knows Mona Lisa, the most famous painting in the world. But it is also a mysterious work that has given rise to many rumors and speculations. We propose here an original interpretation that considers the painting as a sophisticated spatial and cartographic arrangement. We first build our reasoning upon an…
Fantastic Mr Fox is a great animated film by Wes Anderson. It incorporates several space machineries, mostly master plans and battle plans. One of them takes the form of an animated map. The most original is certainly the picture painted by Felicity Fox to support the fight of « wild animals » against evil farmers. She uses…
Before Google Earth there was WorldWind and Keyhole (the company that created the application used to develop Google Earth). Before Keyole, there was the movie Powers of Ten (dir. Charles and Ray Eames 1977). Indeed, one of the co-founders of Keyole – Avi Bar-Zeev – recognized the inspirational dimension of Power of Tens in the…
Up in the Air, a film by Jason Reitman (2009), is full of various spatial arrangements. The film itself is built as an erratic journey throughout the United States : Detroit, Michigan, Omaha, Nebraska, Las Vegas, Nevada, Florida, Wisconsin, Chicago… It is also a subtle evocation of the spatial dimension of personal, family and work…
My favorite war room map is the one that appears in Dr. Strangelove (Dir. Stanley Kubrick 1964). In this scene the paranoic and anticommunist US general Turdgison (hilarious George C Scott) is using the map (« the big board ») as the irrefutable proof that the russian president « Dimitri » is lying when he says that one B52…
Suggestion proposed by Simon in this comment. The Video Game Call of Duty 4 is literally peppered with spatial features, since many mission briefings are integrally presented with military graphic animations – maps, satellite images, troop movements … » Any supplementary information is welcome. Suggestion proposée par Simon dans ce commentaire. Le jeu Call of Duty…
There is one map in the Watchmen movie (see also Wikipedia). It appears in the War Room scenes behind President Nixon when the Army staff presents a simulation of the consequences of a Russian response to a US strike. This is an animated world map, first displayed at a medium scale, followed by a zoom…
We can find a very interesting and spectacular spatial machinery in the Prison Break TV show. In Season 1, Michael Scofield has incorporated elements of his escape plan in a tattoo that covers his upper half. The tattoo has hidden within it the blueprint of the prison and specific references for items and places that…
Angosto (La noche de los girasoles) is a Spanish-French movie film directed by the Jorge Sánchez-Cabezudo and released in 2006. A cave was discovered in the surroundings of Cerredo in the Spanish Pyrenees. Two cavers come from the city to explore it. Two maps appear furtively in the movie. La Nuit des tournesols (La noche…
Each one of the two parts of the movie Che (dir. Steven Soderbergh 2009) starts with an animated map (at least in the North American version of the film): An animated map of the different Cuban provinces in Part I and an animated map of the different countries of South America in Part II. Both…
(e)space & fiction 