{"id":23915,"date":"2024-01-17T16:30:53","date_gmt":"2024-01-17T16:30:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/?p=23915"},"modified":"2025-09-20T18:46:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-20T17:46:10","slug":"forbidden-reproductions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/2024\/01\/17\/forbidden-reproductions\/","title":{"rendered":"Forbidden reproductions"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"magritte2.jpg\"<\/p>\n

La Reproduction Interdite (1937) by Ren\u00e9 Magritte.<\/em><\/p>\n

English translations of the title of Magritte’s painting vary, with Not to be Reproduced<\/em> and Reproduction Prohibited<\/em> being two of the most popular. I prefer Reproduction Forbidden<\/em>, a title that sounds more serious, and with a use reinforced by Forbidden Games<\/em>, the English title of a Ren\u00e9 Clement feature film, Jeux Interdits<\/em>. Whatever the translation, this is one of Magritte’s most popular inventions, one that people like recreating.<\/p>\n

\n

The Flat<\/em> (1968).<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"flat.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Jan \u0160vankmajer’s short has more justification for copying the painting than some of the examples which follow. \u0160vankmajer and Eva \u0160vankmajerov\u00e1 were members of the long-running Prague Surrealist group, and The Flat<\/em> is very much a Surrealist piece, with a man trapped inside a room where none of the mundane objects behave as he expects. In addition to the overt Magritte quote there’s an appearance by \u0160vankmajer’s film-directing friend, Juraj Herz, as a bowler-hatted man carrying a chicken.<\/p>\n

\n

Sabotage<\/em> (1975) by Black Sabbath.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"sabotage.jpg\"<\/p>\n

The front cover is the Magritte idea but with them all facing away from the mirror.<\/p>\n

\n

One Of The Boys<\/em> (1977) by Roger Daltrey.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"daltrey.jpg\"<\/p>\n

One of the things that makes Magritte’s original work so well is the blank space in the mirror which directs attention to the impossible reflection. I suspect that if design group Hipgnosis had been asked to imitate the painting they would have done something similar, avoiding the lacklustre effect achieved here by\u00a0photographer Graham Hughes. Hipgnosis acknowledged their own debt to Magritte in the title of their first book, Walk Away Ren\u00e9<\/em> in 1978, and often constructed whole sets for photo shoots. Hughes tried another Magritte-like effect for the back cover of the Daltrey album<\/a> but with diminished success.<\/p>\n

\n

Dolores Claiborne<\/em> (1995).<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"dolores.jpg\"<\/p>\n

The following images are from films (and a TV series), two of which are coincidentally based on Stephen King stories. To date I’ve only seen Secret Window<\/em> which isn’t one I’d recommend. Are there any more forbidden reproductions out there?<\/p>\n

\n

Secret Window<\/em> (2004).<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"secret.jpg\"<\/p>\n

\n

The Double<\/em> (2013).<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"double.jpg\"<\/p>\n

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Us<\/em> (2019).<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"us.jpg\"<\/p>\n

\n

Euphoria<\/em> (2019).<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"euphoria.jpg\"<\/p>\n

\n

Update:<\/strong> Added Sabotage<\/em> and Euphoria<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere on { feuilleton }
\n\u2022 The Surrealism archive<\/a><\/p>\n

Previously on { feuilleton }
\n\u2022 Ren\u00e9 Magritte, Cin\u00e9aste<\/a>
\n\u2022 Magritte: The False Mirror<\/a>
\n\u2022 Magritte, ou la lecon de chose<\/a>
\n\u2022 Ren\u00e9 Magritte album covers<\/a>
\n\u2022 Monsieur Ren\u00e9 Magritte, a film by Adrian Maben<\/a>
\n\u2022 George Melly\u2019s Memoirs of a Self-Confessed Surrealist<\/a>
\n\u2022 The Secret Life of Edward James<\/a>
\n\u2022 Ren\u00e9 Magritte by David Wheatley<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

La Reproduction Interdite (1937) by Ren\u00e9 Magritte. English translations of the title of Magritte’s painting vary, with Not to be Reproduced and Reproduction Prohibited being two of the most popular. I prefer Reproduction Forbidden, a title that sounds more serious, and with a use reinforced by Forbidden Games, the English title of a Ren\u00e9 Clement … Continue reading “Forbidden reproductions”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2,7,22,3,44,18],"tags":[1464,13268,430,375,5097,115,13267,668],"class_list":["post-23915","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art","category-film","category-horror","category-music","category-painting","category-surrealism","tag-eva-svankmajerova","tag-graham-hughes","tag-hipgnosis","tag-jan-svankmajer","tag-juraj-herz","tag-magritte","tag-roger-daltrey","tag-stephen-king"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pq7rV-6dJ","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23915","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23915"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23915\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johncoulthart.com\/feuilleton\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}