Shooting Films in Tunisia Trivia Quiz

Answer: George C. Scott

All four of these men had major roles: Karl Malden as the American Major General Omar Bradley, Michael Bates as the British General Bernard Montgomery, Karl Michael Vogler as German Field Marshall Erwin Rommel, and George C. Scott as Major General George Patton.

The early action of the movie is set during the Tunisian Campaign, with Patton pulling together the disarray that had been caused by defeat at the Battle of Kasserine Pass and proceeding to success in the North Africa. The actual filming location, however, was Spain.

Answer: Victor Spinetti - The Little Prince

The title role was actually played by Stephen Warner, while Victor Spinetti was The Historian. Any Beatles fans in the audience may have recognised him as the actor who portrayed the harassed director of the television show in 'A Hard Day's Night', the mad scientist Foot in 'Help!', and an army drill sergeant in 'Magical Mystery Tour'. Bob Fosse choreographed his own dance for the song 'A Snake in the Grass', a scene which many have suggested or influenced Michael Jackson's performance of 'Billie Jean'. Richard Kiley (the original Don Quixote in 'Man of La Mancha' on Broadway) took on the central role of The Pilot when Richard Burton (the producer's choice because of his recent success in the stage production of 'Camelot') wasn't interested.

The action takes place in the Sahara Desert, where The Pilot's plane had made an emergency landing, leading to his meeting with the Little Prince, whose stories of his travels provide the structure for the following scenes. Filming took place in Tunisia.

Answer: Les Magiciens

Vestar (Gert Fröbe) is a psychic magician, whose vision of a woman dying in the desert inspires Edouard (Jean Rochefort), who has more money and leisure time than sense, to try and make it come true. The machinations involve another group staying at the hotel, a triangular group composed of a man, his wife, and his ex-lover who wants to be less ex, and more lover.

Djerba is the largest island off the coast of North Africa, and a popular tourist destination. Aside from the climate and the cultural interest, some are attracted to it as the site where exterior shots of the Mos Eisley spaceport were filmed in the first 'Star Wars' movie.

Answer: Tatooine

(I am not going to try to recap the plot of this classic movie. If you missed it, and all the prequels and sequels, it won't make much sense anyway!) Alderaan is the home of Princes Leia, who has appealed for assistance in defending her planet from the Death Star. Hoth is the rebel base in the second film in the series, 'The Empire Strikes Back', and Endor is the home of the Ewoks, first seen in 'Return of the Jedi'.

The original vision of the planet where Luke grew up was a jungle world, but it was decided to change it to a desert world so that the shooting could take place in more congenial locations. Tunisia, with its desert landscape, was selected. Although the city of Tataouine was made world-famous when its name was adapted to be the name of the planet, it was not actually used for much of the filming. A number of sites that were used have been turned into tourist attractions, including the site for Mos Espa, which is actually just a set constructed in the desert for the movie, and which has been kept intact for tourists (and for shooting of several sequels). If you go to Matmata, you can stay in the Hotel Sidi Driss, whose interior was used for the Lars house.

Answer: Mandy Cohen

Brian Cohen (played by Graham Chapman), born in a stable next door to Jesus, finds their paths crossing a number of times during their lives. While he is listening to Jesus deliver the Sermon on the Mount, Brian meets a young radical named Judith Iscariot (played by Sue Jones-Davies), with whom he immediately falls in love, joining her in the People's Front of Judea, a group protesting Roman rule in the area. At one point, as part of his effort to escape some Roman guards, he pretends to be one of a group of mystics, and finds himself having converted a band of followers who won't leave him alone. The morning after Judith and he have stayed with his mother (played by Terry Jones), she delivers this line to the crowd outside her house, demanding that Brian come out to talk to them. When they do not leave, even after Brian has tried to tell them that he is not the Messiah, he sneaks out the back door and is captured. Subsequent events parallel both the Biblical account of the Passion of Christ and the film 'Spartacus', ending with Brian, left hanging on a cross, joining in with his fellow-sufferers in a rousing chorus of 'Always Look on the Bright Side of Life'. If this doesn't seem to make much sense, remember it is the product of the Monty Python team!

Most of the filming for this movie was done in the town of Monastir, a name meaning monastery, which is located on the coast of Tunisia about 150 km south of Tunis. The Sermon on the Mount and Crucifixion scenes were filmed in Matmata, the Roman ampitheatre was located in Carthage, and the scenes of the walls of Jerusalem were shot in Sousse.

One day during filming, the team learned that Spike Milligan was in the neighbourhood, during the course of revisiting some of the places where he had fought during World War II. He was invited to be part of the scene that was due to be filmed the next day, and played the minor role of a prophet who was upset that his followers were ignoring him to go chase Brian.

Less coincidentally, in 2007 Eric Idle wrote an oratorio called 'Not the Messiah (He's a Very Naughty Boy)' in conjunction with John Du Prez. The two had previously combined on 'Spamalot', the stage musical based on 'Monty Python and the Holy Grail', and thought a musical spoof of Handel's Messiah based on 'The Life of Brian' sounded like a good idea. The oratorio includes a wide range of musical styles, including a song ('Hail to the Shoe') sung in the familiar style of the 'Hallelujah Chorus', and finishing with a rousing version of 'Always Look on the Bright Side of Life'.

Answer: Indiana Jones

While Harrison Ford portrayed all of these characters, 'Raiders of the Lost Ark' featured Indiana Jones, the fedora-wearing whip-wielding man who made archaeologists as glamorous as secret agents. This film was the start of a franchise that has included multiple film sequels, and even more video games. In 1936, Indy is engaged in a race to locate the Ark of the Covenant before a team of Nazis can grab it and (theoretically, at least) make their army invincible.

Most filming took place in a studio in England, but location filming included France, Hawaii, California and Tunisia, where the canyon used to represent Tatooine in 'Star Wars' was used for the scene where Indy threatens to blow up the Ark. Some fight scenes were shot in the town of Kairouan.

Answer: Walter Matthau

The city of Sousse was chosen for filming, and an entirely new studio (Tarak Ben Ammar Studios) was constructed for the purpose. A full-scale galleon was built in a nearby shipyard, and placed in the harbour, where it was used for filming the sea fights. The movie is a swashbuckling tale, as you would expect. Captain Red and his cabin boy Frog, adrift on the ocean, are picked up by a Spanish galleon that is rumoured to be carrying a fabulous gold throne, looted from the Aztecs. Red wants the throne, Frog is in love with a beautiful young girl who is also on the ship. After many buckles have been swashed (swash being an archaic term meaning swagger with a drawn sword, and a buckler being a small shield held in the hand), Red and Frog end up on a raft in the ocean again.

Walter Matthau will probably be more highly regarded for his performances in a number of other films, especially his collaborations with Jack Lemmon, which include portraying Oscar Madison in 'The Odd Couple' (1968) and Max Goldman in 'Grumpy Old Men' (1993). Their first on-screen partnership was in 'The Fortune Cookie' (1966), for which Matthau won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance as "Whiplash Willie" Gingrich.

Answer: Sheherazade

Filming for this little turkey (the director's obituary in 'The Daily Telegraph' described it as being "best remembered for its enjoyable nude scenes") took place in France, Morocco and Tunisia. Based on the familiar story of '1001 Nights', it makes Sheherazade the central figure, with very little reference to the stories which formed the body of the original work, for which she merely provided the framework. She is assisted in her attempts to avoid having to marry the despotic caliph by Jimmy Genius (the Genie of the Lamp), an astrologer who has time-travelled to 20th century London, from which he can travel back to help her, using his television, when the need arises.

Catherine Zeta-Jones already had an established stage career in the West End, including a lead role in '42nd Street' in 1987, when director Philippe de Broca offered this role. She went on to much more screen success, including winning an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for the role of Velma Kelly in 'Chicago' (2002).

Answer: World War II

Almásy (Ralph Fiennes) had been part of an archaeological expedition in the Sahara that had to stop because of the Battle of North Africa. As they were leaving, he managed to avoid being killed by the jealous husband of the woman with whom he had been having an affair, but had to leave her, seriously injured, as he went for help. Of course the war got in the way, and she died before he returned. As he was flying her body out of the desert, their plane was shot down, and he was badly burned. After his rescue by Bedouins, he ended up in the Italian hospital where his memory recovery is occurring, along with other plot elements involving others in the hospital, both staff and patients.

Although the African scenes are said to be in Egypt and Libya, the Cairo scenes were filmed in Tunis, and much of the desert scenery was in the Tamerza Oasis, in the Atlas Mountains near the Algerian border of Tunisia. The Cave of Swimmers was actually filmed on a hilltop near the desert town of Degache.

Answer: Cigarette-Smoking Man

Since filming for this movie, set chronologically between seasons five and six of the television series, had to be completed in the break between shooting seasons four and five, there was less than three months available, and locations were mostly in Los Angeles and Vancouver (where the television series was filmed). So we don't really see Tunisia, but we are told that Cigarette-Smoking Man (William B. Davis) has gone to Tataouine to warn Conrad Strughold (Armin Mueller-Stahl), another member of an international conspiracy to cover up the presence of aliens known as The Syndicate, that the X-Files, which had been closed before the start of the movie, were about to be reopened. Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) had spent the film discovering more and more evidence of the cultivation of alien viruses.

The final scene takes place in a Tunisian cornfield like the one in Texas surrounding two mysterious domes containing bees capable of delivering the alien virus as they attacked humans.