M (dir. Fritz Lang 1931) tells the story of a serial killer who preys on children in 1930s Berlin, and who is on the run from police and an organized crime syndicate. The film begins with the murder of Elsie, the eighth child to be murdered. At the crime scene police find a paper bag…
Shannon Rankin is an American artist born 1971 in California who lives and works presently in Rangeley, Maine, USA. She created several series of artworks with maps as raw material, maps she cuts, disintegrates, sticks, connects with threads, pins… As she writes on her homepage: « I deconstruct maps to create new geographies, suggesting the potential…
« Who is the murderer of the subway? Who is this man who pushes innocents under the train? And who are its victims? » Such is the plot of the thriller written by Frederic H. Fajardie in 1982. Police inspector Padovani (recurring character in the work of Fajardie) investigates. During a briefing with his staff, he says:…
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…
Between Toy Story 2 and 3, eleven years have passed and mapping techniques have tremendously changed. The inevitable G* Maps has replaced the paper map. Incidentally, is it possible to localize Tri County, the place of the movie, in the United-States ? Entre Toy Story 2 et 3, onze ans ont passé et les techniques…
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…
Avatar – James Cameron’s film released in 2009 – takes place on the planet Pandora. The human coveted ore located beneath the natives’ village ground. At a briefing, soldiers try to localize their position with an interactive 3D holographic maps. Its handling is rather technical and tricky. The head of the crew fails to navigate…
The professional cartographer Jonah M. Adkins met the challenge of geographically depicting the fictitious Island of the TV Series LOST. Here is his story. Le cartographe professionnel Jonah Adkins a tenté de décrire géographiquement l’île fictionnelle de la série télévisée LOST et d’en dresser une carte. Voir cet article en français sur le site Ecrans…
In animated films, ways of representing space are unlimited. Everything is possible in an animated cartoon. From the beginning of the 20th century, animated movie makers have been inventing new ways of representing space (e.g. The flying house by Winsor McCay, 1921). Le dessin animé est un domaine dans lequel les formes de représentation de…
A really great idea ! Luke Lewis locates famous Rock ‘n’ roll album sleeves with Google Street View and begins a musical mapping of London. Une très jolie idée de Luke Lewis : localiser sur Google Street View les albums des groupes des années 60 et proposer ainsi un début de lever cartographique musical de…
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,…
The stylistic innovations that made the success of the TV series 24 are now influencing movies. A very clear example is Greenzone, the movie of Paul Greengrass. It is saturated with maps, navigation softwares, satellite images and many other representations of the space of action. Of course Green Zone is based on a true story…
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 Exercises in Style, Raymond Queneau collects « 99 retellings of the same story, each in a different style. In each, the narrator gets on the « S » bus , witnesses an argument between a man with a long neck and funny hat and another passenger, and then sees the same person two hours later getting advice…
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 !),…
Released in 2003, Greendale is a concept album by Neil Young & Crazy Horse, which tells the story of a family facing a murder in the small town of Greendale (a fictional California seaside town). The album cover shows a map of the city. Complementary to the album, a website uses the same map to…
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…
Directed by Stanley Kubrick in 1980, The Shining is a horror film shot during the winter in a hotel isolated in the mountains of Oregon. Two sequences are located in a maze. Kubrick uses a map and a scale model of the maze in one of these sequences. Réalisé en 1980 par Stanley Kubrick, Shining…
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…
(e)space & fiction 