I promised a few days ago that I would post about my own favourite film scenes. And I feel it is time to push back the boundaries, to embrace new genres, to boldly go where no blogger with any self-respect has gone before. So here is my first quiz.
Here are the fifteen greatest scenes from the fifteen greatest films of all time (in my humble opinion). The clues are not cryptic – they are more-or-less factual descriptions of what goes on. So you either know them or you don’t.
If you think you know a few answers, then post them in the comments section below. I will leave the comments secret for the first week, just to give everyone a chance to compete with a level field. Then I’ll make them public and anyone clever can try and fill in the gaps. There is a major prize for anyone strange enough to recognise all fifteen films in the next week (the prize being: public recognition on the comments pages of this illustrious blog).
Here they are:
[FINAL UPDATE, 16 April 2010: So I have added the answers in below. Congratulations to Neil for getting the best score (10/15), to Berenike for giving the Polish language version of no. 1 (although was it first screened under the French title at Cannes? – only nerds need reply), and Radha and Fr Martin for mopping up the more obscure auteur films at the end.]
- A woman catches a glimpse of her double in a Polish square. (The Double Life of Véronique)
- A boy pretends he knows how to cast a bell. (Andrei Rublev)
- A spaceman discovers he’s not who he thought he was. (Toy Story)
- The mother of the saviour escapes from a psychiatric hospital. (Terminator 2)
- A man catches sunburn in the night on one side of his face. (Close Encounters of the Third Kind)
- An early hominid flings a bone into the sky. (2001: A Space Odyssey)
- A woman deals with the cops and escapes down a phone line. (The Matrix)
- Two men flee into the rush hour chaos of Waterloo Station. (The Bourne Ultimatum)
- A woman is transformed into the woman he once loved. (Note: I had scruples about giving this clue after I had posted it. As regular readers will know, I hate it when people give away twists and crucial bits of plot; and although this isn’t a direct piece of plot information, it could ruin what is one of the greatest ever moments in cinema. I count it as one of the great blessings of my life that when I saw this film at the NFT I had no prior knowledge about the twist and didn’t twig it until the last moment when it is revealed. And it blew me away with the force of an almost existential revelation. This is my convoluted way of saying that, in conscience, I can’t tell you which film this is! But if you have really never seen it, and really want to ruin it then go to this website and look for film number 65 . Yes, I’m making it difficult on purpose – to help you save your cinematic soul.
- Snow falls on snow at the end of the evening as the carriages pull away. (The Dead)
- A camera falls from the sky and a radio programme announces that it’s just some aircraft debris. (The Truman Show)
- A man wakes up to discover that today is yesterday. (Groundhog Day)
- A woman weeps on the top deck of a night bus as it takes her back to South London. (Wonderland)
- A French chef in exile delights the taste buds and lifts the hearts of her Puritan hosts. (Babette’s Feast)
- A hermit leaves his cell after his fall and finds redemption. (See note from no. 9. Click here and look for film no. 7 if you are desperate to know).
[UPDATE at 15 April: I’ve unhidden the replies in the comments section. Neil gets the prize with ten answers. I’ll put all the answers together in a few days, but just to see if there are any film geniuses out there: No one has got the following four films yet (very difficult, so I have added some clues) – 9 (not Orlando; a classic, always in the Top Ten), 10 (not It’s a Wonderful Life; the swan song of one of the great directors, who also has a daughter who is a famous actress), 13 (by a prolific contemporary British director with a film coming out soon), 15 (Italian directors).]
14 is definitely Babette’s Feast – will work on the others!
1) Podwójne Życie Weroniki [:)]
7) Matrix (one of)
9) ???Orlando (but I don’t recall the woman he loved bit, and if you haven’t put “woman” once by mistake in that sentence, then I think I don’t know)
14) Babette’s Feast (is that the right title? The one with the Frenchwoman in a Danish village somewhere that looks like that scene out of Kierkegaard with the wee boy cursing God!)
15) Don’t know, but screenplay definitely not by a desert father …. :)
You get the bonus prize for original language title on No 1!! I bet the hermit film is based, ultimately, on a desert father story…
Not a clue on some :-) but here’s my punt on a couple… and fascinated to see what others come up with !
4. The mother of the saviour escapes from a psychiatric hospital – Terminator 2
7. A woman deals with the cops and escapes down a phone line – The Matrix
8. Two men flee into the rush hour chaos of Waterloo Station: The Bourne Ultimatum
11. A camera falls from the sky and a radio programme announces that it’s just some aircraft debris – The Truman Show
12. A man wakes up to discover that today is yesterday – Groundhog Day
14. A French chef in exile delights the taste buds and lifts the hearts of her Puritan hosts – Chocolat
Not 14…
Right, tricky bunch of film scenes, but think I have 13 out of the 15 …
1. The Double Life of Veronique
2. Andrei Rublev
3. Toy Story
4. Terminator 2
5. Close Encounters of the Third Kind
6. 2001: A Space Odyssey
7. The Matrix
8. The Bourne Ultimatum
9. ?
10. It’s a Wonderful Life
11. The Truman Show
12. Groundhog Day
13. ?
14. Chocolat
15. Star Wars: A New Hope
Can’t wait for the results and to see what the missing two are.
Neil – I think you win the prize for the most answers without any help. Congratulations! But you are wrong on 10, 14 and 15…
Hi – Happy Easter!
I only know two – one is my favourite film – 14, Babette’s Feast – and the other is certainly among my favourite films – 12 – Groundhog day. I wonder what 15 is? That sounds up my street!
1.
2.
3. spaceballs
4.
5.
6. 2001 a space odyssey
7. the matrix
8.
9.
10.
11. the truman show
12. groundhog day
14. Julia and Julia
15.
3 and 14 wrong unfortunately…
“10.Snow falls on snow at the end of the evening as the carriages pull away”
– Yes, the newspapers were right: snow was general all over Ireland. It was falling on every part of the dark central plain, on the treeless hills, falling softly upon the Bog of Allen and, farther westward, softly falling into the dark mutinous Shannon waves. It was falling, too, upon every part of the lonely churchyard on the hill where Michael Furey lay buried. It lay thickly drifted on the crooked crosses and headstones, on the spears of the little gate, on the barren thorns. His soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe and faintly falling, like the descent of their last end, upon all the living and the dead.
(?!)
Too difficult for me! Must get out more …
Feeble try:
1. Double Life of Véronique.
2. Andrei Rublev
6. 2001: Space Odyssey
8. 39 Steps?? Lavender Hill Mob??
9. Babette’s Feast
10. Brief Encounter?? (Can’t remember snow, though)
15. Shawshank Redemption??
Not 8, 10 or 15…
is 13 Secrets and Lies??
no
Okay some more guesses/questions …
9) Is it Casablanca?
10) Is the director Francis Ford Coppola?
13) Struggling with the contemporary British Director … Paul Greengrass?
15) not a clue … although still think Star Wars: A New Hope fits :P
Thanks
Neil
No, no, no, and no…
15 [xxxx] Taviani brothers?
9 – [xxxx]
Yes to both – but I have hidden your answers – see note above in the article now.
Very clever to get the Taviani brothers’ film – I don’t know anyone else who has seen the film apart from the friend I went with to the Renoir years ago, and my family who were forced to watch the video again and again.
Taviani brothers are great! if you havent seen them already, you MUST watch Kaos and San Michele aveva un gallo
I hardly know them – I’ll try and catch up
and John Huston – The Dead?
Yes
9. ?
10. The Dead – John Huston?
13. Wonderland – Michael Winterbottom
15. Taviani Brothers??? No idea what the film is
Yes
think i’ve got it…of course
9. [xxxx]
Yes, you got it; but I had scruples about my clue and didn’t want to ruin it for readers – see my note above in the main post on this film clue