A cinemap traces a voyage first from Jamaica to Haiti and then from Haiti to Panama: Several other maps populate this sea-faring saga: Bardot stars as a film star in the film. She doesn't come into contact with any maps until near the end, when she distracts Lino Ventura from them by beginning to undress: For those of you who want more Bardot, here are some entirely uncartographic images from one of the films-within-the-film in which her character stars:
An exposure of U.S. involvement in the secession of Panama from Colombia is framed by matching, map-centred allegorical scenes, associated with two key dates: Uncle Sam's appropriation of Panama is presented in similar terms by Joris Ivens in A Valparaiso (1963): (You can watch Garras de Oro here.)
‘England supports Chile's independence. Isabel II of Spain has the city bombarded. The final shudder of the thwarted coloniser. In its turn the ground opens up. Earthquakes, floods, fires, cyclones and looting. This was to be the fate of this peace-loving people. And it did not end there.
A cartoon satirising "Uncle Sam", driving a nail into Panama.. A mermaid watches over a ship. A bunch of seaweed, conjuring up streaming hair, floats in the troughs of the waves. Then different statues of mermaids. But when is there an end? The mermaids in the harbour have not ended their song. They are there, watching, listening, waiting.' Chris Marker, script for ... A Valparaiso, in Rosalind Delmar, Joris Ivens: 50 years of filmmaking (London: BFI, 1979), p.96. |
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