Actually she was born Vesper Lynd-o, heir to a coffee business. But as the company had already appeared in a rival spy series, she decided to go by Lynd.
(Oooh, Monday trivia question…! Name that movie?! 
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Agreed, there are such examples. My aunt’s first husband was French, of Italian descent. The surname originated from Poland 
Or if you take this example: until a few years ago there was a well respected Hungarian football referee named Viktor Kassai. Others may remember Japanese ski jumper Noriaki Kasai, or former Afghan president Hamid Karzai. Of course, the written forms differ a bit, but in spoken word they almost sound the samt, despite the men coming from three completely different areas of the world.
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If you guys are right about it being a family mausoleum (side note: not a crypt) that would effect how we see Bond’s reading of her on the train in CR:
“Now I’d have normally gone with only child but um… you see the way you ignored the quip about your parents… I’m going to have to go with orphan.”
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On an early visit to Jamaica Fleming and Ivar Bryce had evening drinks at the house of an elderly couple whose butler announced “Vespers are served.” The cocktail in this case was a frozen rum drink with fruit and herbs, punctually served at Vespers–a.k.a evensong, the penultimate canonical hour for prayer, observed at sunset. I don’t know if there’s any documentation proving the West Berlin theory.
The question of Vesper’s burial is answered by Mark Salisbury, who wrote the official book No Time To Die: The Making of the Film, in this article:
Given Daniel Craig’s Bond had already visited Venice, Siena and Rome, director Cary Fukunaga was looking for somewhere mysterious and unique for Vesper’s tomb. He picked the ancient hilltop city of Matera in southern Italy, said to be the third oldest continually habited settlement in the world, for its ‘haunted quality’. Both the tomb and cemetery were fake, however, built by the production on the hillside across from the city. And the bridge Bond leaps off is actually in nearby Gravina, but, via the magic of movies, was ‘relocated’ to Matera.
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When I saw that scene in the theatre I was actually wondering how they arranged for permission to stage this explosion on an ancient cemetery - glad to hear no deceased were hurt in the making of NO TIME TO DIE.
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In the book her grave is at Royale-Les-Eaux, also a fictional place, and in the book OHMSS Fleming writes that Bond visits her grave every year.
Where better to bury a British double agent for the Soviets than in France? And the scandal of her suicide and treason…
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Explosion in scene set in a cemetery in the 25th Bond film, hundreds dead.
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I am so pleased to read this - I have been to Matera and was certain there was no bridge over the gorge. I had a huge argument with a friend when I blithely said “they must have CGI-ed in the bridge” and he said “no, no, no etc etc.” Didn’t seem to matter to him I had pictures of the bloody place. Personally, IMO Matera has now been spoilt by its inclusion in a Bond film. It’ll probably have people crawling all over it looking for a bridge to the other side…
Great review BTW 
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I think at this point Matera’s only significant source of income is tourism, so the townsfolk will probably welcome more visitors. The tourists on the other hand will probably encounter higher prices and see more travelers than townspeople.
I’ve never been to Matera, but I recently returned from another visit to Naples. I’m surprised no Bond film has been set in that area, considering all the photogenic sights: Capri, Baia, Paestum, the Amalfi coast, the Cilento coast, etc. Too familiar at this point I guess.
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Matera is utterly glorious, a photogenic city whose walls and paths make it impossible to take a bad picture.
I have recently returned from a short stay to launch a Bond book on Italy and Matera, in Matera and Gravina, and the thrust of the questioning during interviews and presentations very much included both the content of the book and how it may help, if not tourism, then the tourist.
Needless to say, I was very sad to leave the place.
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Actually, I find it quite a beautiful name (if one is a latinist). Vesper means ‘evening’, or ‘evening star’ in Latin. It’s not weirder than naming a child ‘Dawn’. About the bat I guess you are thinking of ‘vespertilio’, Latin for ‘bat’ indeed, which uses the ‘vesper’ root to express that it’s a night-flying animal.
I could totally understand someone naming a child Vesper (before Casino Royale at least). If anything, it would point to an educated, Latin-savvy family background, and that’s something Bond could have deducted in their train ‘reading’ scene.
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It certainly is glorious. I enjoyed wandering the lanes and investigating the sassi. I had one of my cheapest and most memorable south Italian lunches in the Materan sun accompanied by two black scarfed widows smoking roll ups! A plate of cold cuts, with local cheeses, olives and sundried tomatoes, with hunks of stiff granary bread. The simplicity of it! The local vino certainly helped. It came in a carafe so I’ve no idea what brand it was.
It is disappointing to read sections of the what we saw in the movie are not there, but I suppose it’s only the kind of poetic licence authors use when they invent hotels, restaurants, whole islands, etc.
And yes, the city is predominantly a tourist hub. I didn’t feel it was overrun with visitors. The balance was about right and I had time to spend alone, reflecting on the past and even discussed a renovation project with a local builder who showed me around his cave house, explaining the old water channels, the stone bed cut in the walls, the open-fire kitchen, the animal pen, etc, all being retained as features while he installed mod cons. I don’t know how generous he will continue to be with his time.
Fascinating. What’s your book called: Bond Stopped at Matera ?
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No cemetery on that spot, but there is one of these. Mrs Jim took the photo and sent it to me. Might be a message.
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I’ve watched NTTD three times now; IMAX for the first viewing, standard cinema screen and then finally in 4DX.
During the third viewing I noticed two things from the PTS that passed me by the first time.
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After Bond returns to their hotel in Matera and places Madeleine in the DB5 she says to him ‘There’s something I need to tell you’. Now we later learn that Madeleine did not betray Bond and would not have had anything to tell him in relation to SPECTRE finding them in Matera etc. Could she be alluding to being pregnant? Timeline appears as though this is a possibility.
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Shortly after the above, when Bond leaves Madeleine on the train she grips her stomach. I initially interpreted this as though her heartbreak is felt physically in her gut… but with the above in mind could it be another sign of baby Bond?
Maybe I’m just looking too deeply into this, but it does certainly keep me pondering and searching for hidden messages throughout.
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No you’re not. But the discussion on it took place about 500 posts above 
I’ve clearly been gone too long…
From the reference thread…
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