We see only two maps in Les Vampires. The first is at the centre of complicated dramatic business in episode six, 'Les Yeux qui fascinent'. Four different characters scrutinise it in succession, and each time we are shown the map in close up.
At the 'Hôtel du Grand Veneur in Fontainebleau', Irma Vep searches the room of two American thieves and finds a printed map of the region:
At the 'Hôtel du Grand Veneur in Fontainebleau', Irma Vep searches the room of two American thieves and finds a printed map of the region:
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She examines the map closely but it is only on folding it that she notices a hand-drawn map of the hotel's immediate vicinity:
This she examines even more closely, realising that it shows where the Americans have hidden their 'treasure', among the famous rock formations in the forest of Fontainebleau. She folds the map to take it to the Grand Vampire:
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It is striking that when she turns out the light the one thing we can make out clearly is the folded map in her hand.
When she leaves the room the second piece of business concerning the map begins. She is seized by the Vampires' rival Moreno, who drugs her and examines the map in turn:
When she leaves the room the second piece of business concerning the map begins. She is seized by the Vampires' rival Moreno, who drugs her and examines the map in turn:
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He too sees only the printed map at first, and only on folding it notices the hand-drawn map:
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Drawing the same conclusion as Irma, he replaces her with a hypnotised servant with instructions to pass the map to the Grand Vampire, as Irma would have done. His plan is to have the Vampires collect the treasure from the rocks and waylay them, rather than go to the bother of fetching the treasure himself.
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In this sequence also there is a moment when the lights are put out and all we see is the white folded map.
The third person to scrutinise the map is the Grand Vampire, who goes through the same process of first attending to the printed side and only after noticing the hand-drawn map overleaf:
The third person to scrutinise the map is the Grand Vampire, who goes through the same process of first attending to the printed side and only after noticing the hand-drawn map overleaf:
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He show the map to his accomplice, and sends her out to fetch the treasure in the forest:
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The last time we are shown the map is as she finds her way in the dark up to the hiding place:
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The dramatic irony in this sucession of sequences is that the map is useless to everyone involved, since Guérande and Mazamette have already discovered the hiding place and replaced the treasure with a note to that effect.
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The cartographic irony in this succession of sequences is that neither the map of the region nor that of the hotel's vicinity could tell us where we really are in the film. This is indeed the forest of Fontainebleau, though I am not yet equipped to identify which specific rock formation features in the film. I can say, however, that we are not in the town of Fontainebleau, where there was no hôtel du Grand Veneur at the time (as far as I can tell). The exteriors we see in the sequence are those of the hôtel de la Renaissance, in Marlotte. On the map below, Marlotte is at the southernmost extremity, just right of centre:
The rocks just north of Marlotte may be those we see in the film; convenience dictates that the nearest rocks would do. I have tried to make the hand-drawn map of the hotel's vicinity fit the actual layout of Marlotte, without success. If the map is oriented with the north to the left, then the 'B' could stand for Bourron, a village just west of Marlotte, but I can't see what the 'S' could stand for (presumably the 'R' is a 'rocher'):
I'm forgetting that the hotel is supposed to be in Fontainebleau, to which the map corresponds even less.
The second map in Les Vampires is in episode eight, 'Le Maître de la foudre', and also requires some deciphering. In the Vampires' codebook found by Guérande in the second episode, there is this schematic representation of Paris:
Guérande tells Mazamette he has worked out that these directions and distances correspond to the trajectories of missiles fired from a single point, near the Sacré Coeur in Montmartre. Guérande proceeds to fill in some of the place names to which the letters correspond: 'Etoile', i.e. the place de l'Etoile; 'Elysée', i.e. the palais de l'Elysée; 'Grand Palais', 'Opéra':
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Tantalisingly, in the shot that follows he identifies three more places verbally, but my interpretative skills do not extend to reading his lips:
I have tried matching the distances to places in the corresponding directions, though the film doesn't seem to have been particularly careful in its own calculations, since the Elysée and the Grand Palais are close to each other in reality but according to the map are respectively 3089 metres and 2257 metres from Montmartre.
Still, for the initials remaining I would make these guesses:
'M' = La Madeleine
'M' = gare Montparnasse
'P' = Panthéon
'N.D' = Notre Dame (though the '4803 metres' is far too much)
'L' = Louvre
'N' = gare du Nord
'B' = Bastille
'E' = gare de l'Est
'L' = gare de Lyon (I think that's an 'L')
Still, for the initials remaining I would make these guesses:
'M' = La Madeleine
'M' = gare Montparnasse
'P' = Panthéon
'N.D' = Notre Dame (though the '4803 metres' is far too much)
'L' = Louvre
'N' = gare du Nord
'B' = Bastille
'E' = gare de l'Est
'L' = gare de Lyon (I think that's an 'L')
That's probably enough work on the maps in Les Vampires, and probably enough work on finding maps in films, for the moment. This is the three hundred and sixty-fifth 'Daily Map' posting; this being a leap year, tomorrow's will make it a full year's worth, and will be the last daily map. Further maps in films will be posted from time to time, whenever I find a good one.
