Of the two 1943 films based on Gregor Ziemer's 1941 book, Edward Dmytryk's Hitler's Children has the more maps. An early vis-à-vis of a Nazi school and an American Colony school shows two different classes being taught through different maps: The film also has a wall map and two globes: Clyde Geronimi's Walt Disney production Education for Death only has a globe: Both films emphasise the authority of the book on which they are based. The Disney film is particularly focussed on the book as motif. The green book on the desk above, next to the globe, is Mein Kampf, seen earlier in a different edition: The red one may be meant to represent the book of 'New Order Fairy Tales' that had prompted the film's retelling of Sleeping Beauty: The status of Mein Kampf as Nazi Bible is made explicit in a dissolve: And a central place is given to the burning of books: I assume that the 'Ma....' seen alongside Einstein, Spinoza and Voltaire is Marx. The key book moment in the narrative of Hitler's Children is when the American teacher reads to the American girl and Nazi boy from Goethe's Faust:
He adds: 'The same poet expressed it in a simple line: "And those who live for their faith shall behold it living".' I haven't found this attributed to Goethe anywhere, and it seems like it may be Schiller. Any suggestions here, please. The burning of books is evoked by Hitler's Children in the opening prologue that leads to the film's title and credits. From a burning pile of books emerges Ziemer's Education for Death, spared from the flames but, through animation, marked with blood: The best thing in an otherwise ordinary film is this simple one-shot device for showing a plane journey from Paris to an outpost in Mali.
The other maps in the film are far less interesting: Most of the drama is played out in a single, map-lined room. The film was shot in the home of the author of the book from which it is adapted, and I assume these maps are his. They are used in the film as significant décor, often as a backdrop to the dramatic attitudes assumed by the German officer billeted in this French home: The maps also set off poses adopted by the old man and young woman who live in the house: To my shame I can identify none of the places represented on these maps, except for those on the globe and the planisphere of the heavens. A few other maps feature in the film, such as this curious (hand-drawn?) map of the Red Sea area: The map is in reverse because it is filmed from below and behind, as the old man folds it back into the book he is reading. In the kitchen of the house we see a part of a map if Paris on the wall, and in his room the German officer examines a book about Paris with a map of the Ile de la Cité on the cover: There is also a map of Europe on the banner of the Petit Parisien newspaper that he has in his room: The only other maps are at the mairie of Villiers-sur-Morin, where the German officer works. One probably represents the area of jurisdiction, the other shows the outline of the British Isles on a propaganda poster: Each of these, curiously, is reframed and reversed by being seen in a mirror: Postscript:
A still of this last image is used in Jean-Louis Roy's 1967 film L'Inconnu de Shandigor, where it evokes the Nazi past of a character played by Howard Vernon: This animated logo for a distribution company prefaced the 1946 film Martin Roumagnac. There are no maps actually in the film.
To the Cine-Tourist's regret, 'location' in the third frame up means rental, not the place in which the film was shot. The principal location of the film is Saint-Dizier, Haute-Marne, though an excursion is made to a studio-bound Paris: Two area maps in the Bay City police chief's office and two globes in two other offices supply incidental décor. Briefly, a newspaper publisher studies a set of blueprints, just before he is murdered: (See The BlowUp Moment for some slightly more interesting images, here.)
A brief glimpse of the West Coast on a map is an irrelevance in this New York-set film. The real map moments are in Melvin's world travel dance number: This number includes a crime-investigation digression, featuring a different globe:
The two Flint films are full of maps. Some of these I have posted before under other headings, but here is the full complement.
Unfortunately, when I first found the images I didn't sort them according to which film they were from, so if you want to separate them out you'll have to watch the - very entertaining - films. |
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