Fountain Pens In Movies And Tv

[inkstainedruth]

It's a look. I know for certain that movie people are not sticklers for historicity.

 

What gets up my nose is the way they use quill pens in historical documentaries: can't they find a proper calligrapher to do those close-ups of Nostradamus or Anne Boleyn or whatever?

Yeah, and they also have them with the big billowing plume, which is apparently is also not historically correct. Years ago my mom saw a segment on The Today Show with Donald Jackson doing calligraphy -- something involving the Royals, I think, maybe Charles and Di's wedding -- and he very carefully cut off most of the plume, just leaving a smallish triangle near the base (IIRC, that's to sweep up the excess pounce with).

Movies? Historical accuracy? That's a laugh. I used to have a friend in the Boston area and she would just go berserk whenever the movie Braveheart got mentioned: "It's the Battle of Stirling Bridge! Where's the damned bridge?"

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[missphoenix]

Angel: The Series (a spinoff from Buffy the Vampire Slayer) -- Angel signs a contract nullifying the possibility that as a vampire, he may become human one day. Alas, it's not easy to make out distinct characteristics of the pen, other than that it is indeed a fountain pen.

[flipper_gv]

In the zoolander 2 trailer there seems to be some limited edition something in there.

 

http://i.imgur.com/Gn9rtg0.png

[Charles Rice]

What ever it is in "Zoolander", it ain't no Esterbrook. I gotta have one.

[Ink Stained Wretch]

I just saw another episode of The Avengers in which writing instruments play a role. This one had not a fountain pen, but a rack of dip pens in it.

 

The title was "Mission... Highly Improbable" Season 6, Episode 8.

 

The episode is about a scientist who's using a shrinking ray to steal military secrets. Steed is unknowingly shrunk down to a few inches in size by the bad guy, and Steed's on the desk of a Soviet intelligence officer. On the desk is one of those multi-pen holders for dip pens, and it's totally populated with them. At one point Steed uses a dip pen to stab some Soviet henchmen in their ankles.

 

Of course there are real dip pens in the episode and there is a large dip pen prop that's about six feet long, which is what Steed wields against the Soviets. I do wonder if the normal sized dip pens were real or if even they were props?

 

I'd previously posted here about an episode where fountain pens are used to vector a killer robot in on victims.

 

The really interesting thing is that both episodes were written by the same writer, Philip Levene! I guess that Mr. Leveine had a writing instrument thing going on. Were he alive today I suspect that Mr. Levene would be here on FPN with us.

[Ernst Bitterman]

What ever it is in "Zoolander", it ain't no Esterbrook. I gotta have one.

 

It looks somewhat like one of Delta's "indigenous people" efforts, but I can't say I know what it is.

[flipper_gv]

 

It looks somewhat like one of Delta's "indigenous people" efforts, but I can't say I know what it is.

 

It's not it.

 

I looked REALLY hard for it but couldn't find it.

[Erik Dalton]

Every clip of MacArthur signing the articles of surrender in Tokyo Bay shows him using a Parker Duofold.

[sidthecat]

The "Nova" documentary "Inside Einstein's Mind" gives his fountain pen almost as many close-ups as the actor playing the physicist in 1905 (his ink bottle gets some attention as well), and it's a very handsome pen, but it's NO WAY a 1905 pen.

 

Anyone know what it is? It looks modern.

[GordonB]

Back in around 2003 I supplied the fountain pens for the tv series "The Royal" set in a ficticious hospital somewhere Yorkshireish. The timeline for the series was also vague, 1950s to 1960s, so I supplied some beat up English pens of the 1950s. For the life of me I can't remember what I supplied, probably Conway Stewarts or Mabie Todds, but as most of them didn't need to write they weren't in terribly good condition. I never watched the series so don't know how they looked in practice. Anyone seen the series and the pens?

[Tasmith]

In Dr. No, in the scene where James Bond is in the office of Pleydell-Smith in Government House, there is a Parker 51 on Pleydell-Smith's desk.

[Dragonmaster Lou]

In the recent NOVA episode on Einstein and General Relativity, the actor portraying Einstein is shown to use several different fountain pens through his life. No idea what makes of pens they were, though.

[Tasmith]

Looks like there are two scenes is the James Bond movie From Russia with Love that have Parker 51s. First when Soviet clerk Tatiana meets with ex KGB and now SPECTRE agent Rosa Klebb, a Parker 51 on Rosa Klebb's desk. Second, looks like two Parker 51s on "M's" desk when he's showing James his new brief case.

[lurcho]

 

I haven't seen the movie, however whenever you see the writing in a movie it always has to be pretty bold looking, to those of us who are familiar with handwriting, so that the camera can capture it, if the movie watcher is supposed to be seeing it.

 

When I was a kid watching old black & white movies on TV I was always intrigued by how darkly the characters pencils wrote. I wanted my pencils to write that darkly, but all I ever got was the ordinary, sort of grayish graphite of a #2 pencil. I suspect that for the movies they used either something like an 8B lead or a grease pencil for written things that the audience was supposed to read.

 

And most of the time when you see just a hand writing something on paper in a movie, and you don't see the actor's face, you're actually watching a hand double who has been trained to write legibly for the screen.

 

Yeah, you're right. I always, always notice that too: The darkness of pencil-marks in th 40s and 50s! Like you, it annoyed me that real-life pencils weren't up to par. I think your conclusions are likely right.

[sidthecat]

Ask an animator: Tombow makes some soft-leaded pencils that make very dark marks. Look for 4B-to-6B.

There's also the Prismacolor, which uses a sort of pastel material that's hard to erase but makes a very dark mark indeed.

 

The classic #2 pencil is relatively hard...it's for writing down numbers or taking shorthand. For art purposes you want something softer.

[jdllizard]

I'm not a big fan of Disturbed (the rock band), but a friend sent me their video of a "The Sounds of Silence" cover. Turned out it was pretty good video as well as a great cover.

 

And, if you're a fountain pen person like ourselves, you'll probably enjoy the bit around 2:12.

 

[Ernst Bitterman]

I'm not a big fan of Disturbed (the rock band), but a friend sent me their video of a "The Sounds of Silence" cover. Turned out it was pretty good video as well as a great cover.

 

And, if you're a fountain pen person like ourselves, you'll probably enjoy the bit around 2:12.

 

 

I never suspected you could get a music nib for the Varsity.

Edited December 11, 2015 by Ernst Bitterman

[inkstainedruth]

I'm not a big fan of Disturbed (the rock band), but a friend sent me their video of a "The Sounds of Silence" cover. Turned out it was pretty good video as well as a great cover.

 

And, if you're a fountain pen person like ourselves, you'll probably enjoy the bit around 2:12.

 

Thanks for posting the link.

I wasn't familiar with the band but I liked this. Interestingly enough, it made me actually pay attention to the lyrics, something I had never really done in all these years; when I was in 6th or 7th grade we did a 3 part SSA) a cappella version of the song in chorus, and every time I hear it even all these years later I find myself singing the second soprano harmony.... But this is the first time (and we're talking since the *early* 1970s, mind) that I actually started to think about the words and what the song was actually saying.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Larry Barrieau]

What were the pens in the Backstory of Disney's Snow White?

[jameswatts]

In "Mr. Holmes," Ian McKellen as an elderly Sherlock Holmes is trying to write down the particulars of his last case. The pen he uses in a modern Waterman Lauret -- there are a few close-ups that show the posted cap and the ribbed section. I did almost chuckle at the moment when, having finished the story, Holmes carefully screws the cap back on -- and then pushes it closed with a snap (The Lauret, like a lot of modern Watermans, has a snap closure). Enjoyable movie, especially if you are in the mood for a leisurely paced, poignant tale of memory and loss, hope and bees.