Inglorious Bastards

[MGKatz036]

Hello,

 

Just saw the new Quentin Tarantino movie, Inglorious Bastards. Without divulging the plot, any idea what FP/Ink Hans Landa was using the the opening scene of the movie. While there is no close-up of the entire pen, you do see him filling it and there is a short close-up of the nib for a few moments. Personally, I thought the use of a FP was so creepy, chilling, and comedic all at the same time.

 

Just wondering,

Mike

[El Mocho]

The ink bottle looked like Pelikan, and the same style of bottle they used now. Probably some Pelikan folks could tell us exactly when they started making that bottle.

 

The pen itself looked like a button filler-- Landa took the blind cap off and gave the pen a couple of pumps, which seemed odd to me-- does he just carry the thing around dry and fill it when he needs it? What's he do with it in the meanwhile?

[waznojake2001]

  MGKatz036 said:

Hello,

 

Just saw the new Quentin Tarantino movie, Inglorious Bastards. Without divulging the plot, any idea what FP/Ink Hans Landa was using the the opening scene of the movie. While there is no close-up of the entire pen, you do see him filling it and there is a short close-up of the nib for a few moments. Personally, I thought the use of a FP was so creepy, chilling, and comedic all at the same time.

 

Just wondering,

Mike

The bottle of ink was certainly a Pelikan bottle. The fountain pen was a button filler which means it could have been a PENOL (Pen Olson) or a Parker. However, I don't think German soldiers would have been writing with a Parker at that time, or would they?

 

I would love to hear what others think.

 

Cliff

 

ps

The movie's pretty good too!

[ZeissIkon]

  waznojake2001 said:

The fountain pen was a button filler which means it could have been a PENOL (Pen Olson) or a Parker. However, I don't think German soldiers would have been writing with a Parker at that time, or would they?

 

The Parker Vacumatics had been around for quite a while before the start of open hostilities (IIRC, Germany annexed the Sudetenland in 1936, but didn't start actually shooting until they invaded Poland in 1939). Even after the invasion of Poland, it likely would have been possible for a German officer who wanted one to obtain a Parker via Switzerland or, after the invasion of France, get a French one.

 

There were other button fillers around, too, using pressure bars rather than a vacuum driven mechanism like the Vacumatic. I'm not enough up on the history to give brand names, but there certainly were more than two choices.

 

BTW, if it was a Vacumatic, it's entirely reasonable to "top up" a partially filled pen to ensure there's enough ink for a long writing session, and it wasn't completely out of the question to fill a pen before starting to write even with pressure bar button fillers (or lever, or crescent, or coin or hatchet or slide or twist fillers, for that matter).

[xena]

Were merlins in play as well?

[Bill]

I posted in the Penspotting forum Friday, getting the bottle wrong, but it appeared to me that he used a short stroke when filling it and I immediately guessed a short throw button-filler instead of a vacumatic style. Of course, that assumes the pen was authentic to the era and location, and there were no Hollywood shortcuts. A big IF.

 

I don't know my WWII German pens very well, but one was the Goldfüllfederkonig, a button-filler produced in Austria during the 30's and 40's. There is a review of a glass-nibbed version here with a close-up of the button. The review does not mention that the Goldfüllfederkonig was produced with standard metallic nibs, too. I'm confident Landa's pen was not the Elite model, but it would be reasonable that other models were made. If we don't get an answer sooner, maybe we can send a screen shot (when the DVD is released, I suppose), to Georg of WFW who may know what it is.

 

Bill

Edited August 24, 2009 by Bill

[El Mocho]

Also of note: Landa is in occupied France. I know Colette favored Parkers, so they would have at least been available.

 

(In a real bit of "If it were true": Collete wrangled to get her husband released from a concentration camp. Maybe, fictionally, she met up with Landa, used a pen to sweeten the deal?"

 

In one script floating around online, it just says "expensive black fountain pen."

[Tsujigiri]

Just saw it a few hours ago. It didn't look all that much like a Parker, although it could have been. The resolution on the pen wasn't that good. A Parker seems horribly incongruous with Landa's character, though. I could be wrong, but I thought I saw a translucent green ink window on the pen, like a modern Pelikan. It was definitely a button-filler, though, and a very wet writer at that. The ink bottle looks like a Pelikan one, too. BTW, did anyone get a good look at Hammersmark's pen later in the movie, when she autographed the napkin? It looked a little pointy, maybe some kind of Sheaffer Balance?

[EventHorizon]

  xena said:

Were merlins in play as well?

 

Good question. The ones I have seen were from the 50's but I know very little about the brands history and the ones I have seen were lever fill but.......maybe.

Edited August 24, 2009 by EventHorizon

[irish_monk]

I saw this movie last night. Hard to tell what kind of pen it was. When he filled the pen he did not wipe off the excess ink. Silly Nazi, you'll have inky fingers.

[jmw19]

I thought the pen appeared to have a partially-hooded or inset nib - it certainly didn't look like a Vacumatic or P-51 to me. The blind cap appeared longer, with a flat end as well. Certainly filled like a button-filler, too, not a vac-fill.

 

To be honest, though, I couldn't get a good look at it, since my better half likes to sit way far away from the screen, and that scene was far more focused on other things. Definitely a Pelikan bottle, though - it looked like the 1 ounce bottles I have now, though those have been in production for quite some time.

 

Someone must know, though

[ZeissIkon]

  irish_monk said:

I saw this movie last night. Hard to tell what kind of pen it was. When he filled the pen he did not wipe off the excess ink. Silly Nazi, you'll have inky fingers.

 

This is what happens when the film doesn't have a fountain pen verisimilitude consultant. I'd guess there was no one on the set who both knew enough about fountain pens to know better, and had enough status to actually speak up in the presence of Quentin Tarantino...

[Tsujigiri]

  irish_monk said:

I saw this movie last night. Hard to tell what kind of pen it was. When he filled the pen he did not wipe off the excess ink. Silly Nazi, you'll have inky fingers.

 

Yeah, odd how clean the nib was for the closeup given that he didn't even wipe it... you don't really have to know about fountain pens to understand that.

 

jmw19, the blind cap did seem oddly long... but I think it was a conventional nib. It didn't have the stripes on it that a Vacumatic would, though. Either that, or the focus was set for the paper instead of the nib, making the nib look smooth.

[JonDoh]

There certainly appear to be some technical oversights in the movie, although otherwise I enjoyed the movie. The bottle of ink was a modern Pelikan bottle. You can find pictures of what the bottles looked like in the 1930's. At least they could have put a metal top on the bottle since plastic wasn't around then. And in the scene where they are smoking their pipes, the Frenchman pulls out a corncob pipe. No one in France then or now would smoke a corncob pipe. That's an American invention. The French were the first to use briar and they have always smoked briar pipes. St. Claude is the briar pipe making capital of the world. Many of the expensive British brands are made there and relabeled.

[johnnyies]

I think it was dry to begin with. Always keeping it dry then filling it when you need it seems of an inconvenience. Maybe showing him filling the pen through the ink bottle contributes to the character's exquisiteness?

[Djehuty]

  JonDoh said:

There certainly appear to be some technical oversights in the movie....

 

Wait, what? You mean things didn't really turn out the way they did at the end of that movie? You mean my high school history teacher was right??

 

  Quote

No one in France then or now would smoke a corncob pipe. That's an American invention.

 

True, but remember that this is a fantasy version of World War II, meant to be the spaghetti Western of WWII movies (right down to the music and opening titles). The corncob pipe was probably an intentional mistake.

 

The pen and ink, on the other hand, were probably one of the points at which the director said, "Who cares? I'm Quentin Tarantino, this is my movie, I can do what I like." I think we should all be glad he wasn't using a disposable Bic ballpoint.

 

[offbase]

I think we're all too obsessed with fountain pens. It's Hollywood. They make King Arthur (Circa late 5th Century A.D.) movies with armour and weapons from the late 16th Century -- hell, what's a lousy 1100 years? The shiny armor looks cooler than leather and chainmail! And speaking of fountain pens in movies, I'm almost certain the fought after fountain pen in King Kong was a c/c Waterman Phileas!

 

Point being, I think you guys are spending hundreds of times more energy trying to figure out what the pen is than the producer spent picking out the fountain pen, itself. I'm just sayin' ...

Edited August 27, 2009 by offbase

[Ernst Bitterman]

  Quote

The shiny armor looks cooler than leather and chainmail!

 

I don't know... the evolved Auxiliary Cavalry helmets were pretty spiffy looking, and it's hard to be a nice lorica squamata for looks.

[LouisA]

  waznojake2001 said:

However, I don't think German soldiers would have been writing with a Parker at that time, or would they?

 

Don't tell me you expect the movie to be historically correct.

 

[ZeissIkon]

  johnnyies said:

I think it was dry to begin with. Always keeping it dry then filling it when you need it seems of an inconvenience. Maybe showing him filling the pen through the ink bottle contributes to the character's exquisiteness?

 

Or maybe that served to remind everyone that, during WWII, the only pens were fountain pens and they had to be filled from bottles -- a few seconds gesture that serves more as scene setting than as plot or characterization.