I have a minor obsession with noting, inspecting, and capturing stills of fountain pens appearing on TV and in movies, and trying to identify them.
This particular fountain pen’s appearance in a film is pretty easy to ID:
Partly because this pen such an icon in the world of fine writing instrument collectors, but also because the brand is actually written into the dialog and spoken aloud when a character played by Seth Green corrects someone else who misidentifies the pen as a Parker (which it certainly is not).
I want *so much* to dedicate a whole page and category of posts to identification and sightings on big and small screens of fountain pens. Really ALL/any writing instruments and accoutrements (for instance the number of times this pen in its rollerball format appears in different Roman Polanski movies). I would love to have a whole catalog of these prop-detailing moments.
We’re probably nearing the point where AI could do this for me, but it’s way more fun (and wastes way less water and power resources) to manually create such a catalogue. I mean, part of it for me is noting the intensity of pleasure writing vibes, level of prominence in the movie/show, attention to detail, and level of aesthetic and factual excellence associated with the appearance of pens and office supplies in media; a lot of that is really subject to personal taste. Besides: it’s not really that I want to have a complete database of pens in movies and tv for reference. It’s more that I want to have a log of my favorite aspects of my personal experiences of watching particular movies and tv shows. Spotting props that I love and having time to zoom in and look closely at them is just one component of being totally immersed in my favorite parts of movies and stories: I LOVE *setting* and world-building and characterization. I’m not so much into plot and conflict and resolution unless it involves a lot of car chases, hand-to-hand-combat, etc.
The whole reason I picked out this movie (Enemy of the State) to (re)watch today was, in fact, to enjoy one of the best foot chase scenes made in my lifetime. It’s interesting to me that I’ve watched this movie two or three times prior to today (I actually think I saw it on the big screen when it was new), but I did not recall the pen. It was like seeing it for the first time today. Kind of strange, since Parker was the first pen brand I developed loyalty to (the Vector being my first fountain pen at the end of the 80s/early 90s). I was not at all into luxury brands like Mont Blanc though, so since the movie does not, in fact, feature a Parker (that I can see) maybe I just dismissed it from my mind. Or maybe I’ve only become sensitized to pen appearances in movies since I began this blog. Or maybe the initial foot chase scene (and lingerie buying scene) is just SO BIG in my mind that very little else made a sticky impression on me.
Anyway. Enemy of the State is a delight for a lot of tech and gadgetry dorks. Not that all of it is on this level of finery (OMG the mugs of pens and UNSHARPENED PENCILS on the bad guys’ desks are so terrible … but maybe that is intentional to differentiate the heroes from the villains? Hmmm….). Like … the more analog the instruments, the higher the marks of excellence and virtue?
Hope to collate these movie-and-media related posts onto a dedicated page SOON. I’ve got scads more GIFs, clips, stills, and overthinky enthusiasm on the subject!
