Tarot in literature and movies

[Nemia]

I didn't know where to put this topic so I put it here :-) If anyone has a better idea, I'll move it. (Do we have this topic already???)

Let's talk about tarot readers/cartomancers in literature and in movies.

Books.

I'm right now reading Jodie Picoult's Vanishing Act, and all of a sudden there's a woman who reads the cards! Oh no, of course not the cards but "los Naipes". She's a mysterious Mexican, and of course her reading is spot on in a vaguely brooding way, and her card interpretation and the spreads she uses are unknown to me.

I think it's quite remarkable that Picoult researches her stuff quite thoroughly - so thoroughly that she switches into lecture mode from time to time. In the case of tarot, hm, I don't know, I have the feeling she was a bit uncomfortable with the topic and the tarot reading only serves to make the reader think: oh this woman is a witch and has some dangerous power.... I didn't finish the book yet, I'm curious whether there will be more readings. And I wonder where she took the card meanings from.

I know there are more books where tarot plays a role.

The only time I met a card reading scene in literature before was in Theodor Fontane's great novel Vor dem Sturm when old Hoppenmarieken, a real witch, reads the cards for herself. She uses German cards (with acorns, bells etc) and is frightened because the Jack of Leaves (Spades) keeps returning and that's a bad sign.

If you read German - Huck brought some very interesting old texts about cartomancy at Hoppenmarieken's time to our attention on AT, and it's likely that Fontane either read something about the card meanings or just knew it. Indeed this Jack brings Hoppenmarieken misfortune later on. (Here you have a picture of the German Jack of Leaves).

Movies.

I remember the great scene in Things you can tell just by looking at her. The tarot reader gives a good reading but the querent only wants to hear ONE thing.



I didn't find the whole reading but in the end, when the reader doesn't satisfy the querent's expectations, she simply discards the whole reading, it doesn't interest her, she doesn't want to hear anything.

That's really a great scene because if you ever read for others, you know the scenario ;-)

Then there is, in German, an old boulevard comedy in the Hamburg dialect. Heidi Kabel plays a fortune teller - after 24.04 you can see her read playing cards with old fashioned counting methods. I guess the actress looked at fortune tellers and exaggerated their methods a bit for laughs. It's a short scene and not a serious reading.



Mary Greer collected in her blog movie scenes with cards and I brought Kabel's scene to her attention and also the one with Glenn Close (under another nick).

There are so many more, but I know only those two.

[Charlie Brown]

Well, James Bond "Live and Let Die" has some tarot.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVISxAcxDxU

[Joan Marie]

One of my favourite films of all time, really in my top 10 is Agnes Varda's Cleo from 5 to 7.

I first saw it long before I was into tarot, and this opening scene stayed with me:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7lk76JDrpdE

Not only does the film open with a beautifully filmed card reading (beautiful cards too, 2 decks) but Varda actually runs the opening film credits over the cards. (I wasn't able to find this clip with english subtitles, however it does have french ones which actually kind of help even if you don't speak french)

The reading, which most viewers soon forget as the film goes on, turns out to tell what happens to Cleo over the next couple of hours, the people she will meet, and also predicts the outcome of her medical test results, although the reader stops short of telling her exactly what she sees. The film goes on to cover, almost in real time the following 2 hours while Cleo has to occupy herself until she can see her doctor and get her test result.

I've seen the film many times and am always struck by the genius way this opening scene is used.

I just watched that scene again and now I want to see the whole film, again!

[Charlie Brown]

And, of course, who could forget Miss Cleo. The second one is amazing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYr1MVynCuU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxopPDMq7rs

[Seldes Katne]

More tarot appearances in books:

Marvel Comics published a Mystic Arcana mini-series several years ago. It included four short stories about characters from the Mystic Marvel area of the comics; the four were loosely tied together by a set of "bookend" stories, in which another character gathers four magical items needed to supposedly stabilize magic, but which actually will empower one of the evil personalities of the Marvel universe.

Many years ago, I read a series of book by George C. Chesbro about Dr. Robert "Mongo" Frederickson, who is a former circus performer turned private investigator. He is also a dwarf. The book is An Affair of Sorcerers, and it includes a full Celtic Cross reading, which guides the rest of the novel.

[BrightEye]

The Promethea comics by Alan Moore.

Keri Hulme’s The Bone Poeple uses Tarot imagery.

And there’s a Tarot reading towards the end of The Hour of the Star by Clarice Lispector. Lispector was a great admirer of card readers.