Exacta in Bertolucci's The Last Emperor

[Georgeboosh]

In The Last Emperor there is a scene in which a man photographs Puyi's coronation as Emperor of Man-Chu-Quo in the early 1930s using an Exacta. The camera appears to have a waist level viewfinder but the man holds the camera to his eye to take the photo.

I know little about Exactas. Is there anyone who knows this movie that can verify if it is a waist level viewfinder, or am I mistaken?

 

[ZorkiKat]

In The Last Emperor there is a scene in which a man photographs Puyi's coronation as Emperor of Man-Chu-Quo in the early 1930s using an Exacta. The camera appears to have a waist level viewfinder but the man holds the camera to his eye to take the photo.

I know little about Exactas. Is there anyone who knows this movie that can verify if it is a waist level viewfinder, or am I mistaken?

There is indeed one, and it is out of date, for the period represented in that scene. The Exakta shown is from the 1960s, a VX1000 or perhaps a late version of the VX500. How so? The logo on the camera is in Block letters, which indicate that the camera was one from the early 1960s(?) when the old cursive (beautiful) text logo was replaced by the "modern" all caps, block type.

 

[Arjay]

I don't recall that scene, but a historical search indicates that at this time, only one Exakta camera existed:

Since the inthronization as Emperor of Man-Chu-Quo took place in 1934, it must have been an Exakta VP MF camera (the 35mm film 'Kine Exakta' was only introduced several years later). The Exakta VP had a waist-level finder, but - like most cameras with this type of finder - it also had a sports finder, for which one could flip up a door in the opened finder top cover.

Here are some pictures of the camera. The second photograph shows the camera with opened waist-level finder, and you can see the eye opening for the sports finder at the back of the light well.

 

[Georgeboosh]

Thanks for the replies. Here is a link to a still image of the scene/camera in question:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/11384935@N03/5067810780/

 

[petronius]

Have a look here:
http://www.exakta.org/inmoviesb.html

 

[Georgeboosh]

Thanks for the link Petronius. Some good info there.