Antonym and Cleopatra : Partners in Opposition Quiz

Answer: The Living Daylights

"Dead of Night" consists of a series of horror stories narrated by the guests at a country house party. One is loosely based upon an H. G. Wells story and he had an uncredited role in the screenplay. Another features Hugo, a dummy with a mind of its own, whose owner is played by Michael Redgrave. Curiously, the movie can also claim to have inspired the Steady State theory, a cosmological alternative to the Big Bang!

The spy series referred to was the James Bond movies. "The Living Daylights" was the first to feature Timothy Dalton in the lead role. Its plot includes Russians, drugs dealers, plenty of world travel, and a beautiful cellist with whom Bond, naturally, makes sweet music.

Dalton reprised the role in "Licence to Kill" (1989). He was in a relationship with Michael Redgrave's daughter Vanessa from 1971 until 1986.

Answer: Rain Man

I have to confess that "Little Miss Sunshine" is one of my favourites. It has a great ensemble cast that includes Steve Carell, Greg Kinnear, Toni Collette and Alan Arkin, who picked up an Oscar for his role. A second Oscar was won for Michael Arndt's original screenplay. The movie follows the Hoover family (and their yellow Volkswagen T2 Microbus), as they travel from Albuquerque to California for a beauty pageant.

"Rain Man" won four Oscars from its eight nominations, also winning for original screenplay and for Dustin Hoffman as Best Actor in a Leading Role. It, too, features a road trip to California, this time starting from Cincinnati and detouring via Las Vegas. Central to the film are the Babbitt brothers, yuppie Charlie (Tom Cruise) and his newly discovered autistic savant sibling, Raymond (Hoffman).

Answer: The First Wives' Club

"The Last Mistress" is based upon the novel "Une vieille maîtresse" by the Nineteenth Century French author Jules Amédée Barbey d'Aurevilly. It's the tale of two newly-weds and an old mistress who refuses to stay in the past. This is a bit of a bodice ripper, described as "a little like "Dangerous Liaisons", though its erotic interludes are more candid, its tragedy more heartfelt, and its dialogue more cerebral, even austere." (Source : UK "Guardian" April 11th 2008)

"The First Wives Club", likewise, tells the story of three ex-wives and their "involvement" in the lives of their former husbands and their new loves. It featurs a star-studded cast, which includs, in addition to Hawn, Bette Midler, Diane Keaton, Sarah Jessica Parker, Maggie Smith and Stockard Channing. It, too, is based upon a novel of the same name written by Olivia Goldsmith.

Answer: Coming to America

"Leaving Las Vegas" has alcoholism, prostitution, mobsters, rape, gambling and the death of a main character, yet it somehow comes together to make a great film. It failed in its nominations for adapted screenplay, direction and for Elizabeth Shue as best actress. Shue's portrayal of a hooker is a long way from her roles in "Adventures in Babysitting", "Cocktail" (supporting Tom Cruise) and the second and third "Back to the Future" movies.

"Coming to America" is the story of an African prince (Murphy), coming to the USA, working incognito and wooing an American girl (Shari Headley). It failed in its nominations for costume design and makeup. The movie features a young Cuba Gooding Jr in a very small and very early part. Gooding would go on to win an Oscar in 1997 supporting Tom Cruise in "Jerry Maguire".

Answer: The Man Who Knew Too Much

"Clueless" is set in a high school with a cast that includes Alicia Silverstone, Brittany Murphy and Paul Rudd. It is loosely based upon the Jane Austin novel "Emma", but with all the superficiality of modern day Beverley Hills. Central character Cher (Silverstone) experiences a voyage of self-discovery through the turbulent dynamics of teenage relationships.

"The Man Who Knew Too Much" was directed TWICE by Alfred Hitchcock. The first version, made in 1934 featured Leslie Banks and Edna Best in the lead roles supported by Peter Lorre. The 1956 remake changed some of the earlier details and starred Day alongside James Stewart. It won an Oscar in 1957 for the song "Que Sera Sera". The film takes Day and Stewart to Morocco where they innocently become embroiled in murder, kidnapping and an assassination plot.

Answer: Little Children

In "Big Daddy", Sandler plays Sandy Koufax, an immature loafer who does little of substance. His life is turned around when he "adopts" a young boy to try to win back his girlfriend. The plot fails and Koufax is stuck with the boy and some growing up to do. In my opinion, a better movie dealing with very similar themes is Hugh Grant's "About a Boy" (2002).

"Little Children" is altogether darker and is based on a novel by Tom Perrotta, who co-wrote the script with director Todd Field. Both received an Oscar nomination for the screenplay, as did Winslet and Jackie Earle Haley in the lead roles. It tells the story of dissatisfied wife and mother, Sarah (Winslet), her adulterous relationship with Brad (Patrick Wilson), a disgraced ex-cop (Noah Emmerich), a newly-released paedophile (Haley) and some skateboarders.

Answer: Easy Rider

"Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story" was directed by Judd Apatow who also directed "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" and "Knocked Up". These also all starred Paul Rudd, who has an impressive resume which includes "Clueless" and the role of Mike Hannigan in the sitcom "Friends". The movie follows Dewey's story through the history of popular music and, in so doing, pokes fun at the biopic genre.

"Easy Rider" was directed by Hopper and written by him, co-star Peter Fonda and Terry Southern. The writing received an Oscar nomination, as did Jack Nicholson for best supporting actor, his first Oscar nomination. This is another road movie and possibly the quintessential road movie of all time. It tells the story of Wyatt (Fonda) and Billy (Hopper) and their adventures on the journey from Los Angeles to New Orleans and, ultimately, Florida. The wonderful soundtrack features artists such as Steppenwolf, the Jimi Hendrix Experience and the Byrds.

Answer: Insomnia

"The Big Sleep" is a detective story adapted from the novel by Raymond Chandler. Philip Marlowe (Bogart) is approached by a new client and enters into a shady world of pornography, blackmail, plenty of deaths and a sexually-charged relationship with the client's daughter (Bacall). Bacall married Bogart three months after the film was completed, becoming his fourth wife. They remained married until his death in 1957.

"Insomnia" is another detective story, a remake of the Erik Skjoldbjærg directed, 1997 Norwegian film of the same name. It also features blackmail as a key element. The movie's central protagonists are Williams and Al Pacino (as L.A. cop Will Dormer). The real star, however, is the perpetual Alaskan Summer sunshine which, together with his inner demons, keeps Pacino awake. In case you missed it, 'Dormer' is a play on words. A dormer window is one placed in bedrooms or attics (where people are likely to be sleeping) and derives from the French verb dormir meaning 'to sleep'.

Answer: No Country for Old Men

"Babe Comes Home" was directed by Ted Wilde and starred Babe Ruth in his second movie role as Babe Dugan, a baseball player who has to choose between love and tobacco! It also starred a four-year-old Helen Parrish, as Babe Ruth's daughter. She went on to make many films as a child, teen and adult before sadly dying of cancer at the age of 35. Wilde was nominated for an Oscar at the first ever Academy Awards ceremony in 1929 for the movie "Speedy", but lost out to Lewis Milestone for "Two Arabian Nights".

"No Country for Old Men" built its story around a rather heavier narcotic, in heroin, and was based upon a 2005 novel by Cormac McCarthy. Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) is the huntsman who stumbles across two million dollars of drug money in a lonely part of Texas. Anton Chigurgh (Javier Bardem) is the assassin who, along with others, wants to get his hands on the money. Ed Tom Bell (Tommy Lee Jones) is the sheriff tracking both of them and yearning for a world of moral certainty. The movie won Oscars for best director, best picture, best adapted screenplay and best supporting actor (Bardem). Bardem had also started at a young age, appearing in the TV mini-series "El Picaro" at the age of six.

Answer: Cleopatra

So did you work out the link?

The name Cleopatra means something like "fame or glory (Kleos) of the father".
Cleo is the goldfish in the Walt Disney film "Pinocchio" so what better contrast than the cat from that film, Figaro?
Fraulein is the German for a young woman, traditionally one who is unmarried, so what better contrast than with a father who traditionally is a married man?

Don't look at me like that! I did promise you an obscure link and made up for it with a generous clue.

"Fraulein Figaro" is a German language film directed by Philipp von Zeska.

"Cleopatra" famously paired Taylor (Cleopatra) with Richard Burton (Antony), the man who would become her two times husband. The movie focuses on their romance against the backdrop of the historical struggle between Antony and Octavian (Roddy McDowall). It won four Oscars but was beaten to the honour by the Cecil B. DeMille movie of the same name, which triumphed in 1935. The cast also included Rex Harrison, Carroll O'Connor and Martin Landau who, coincidentally, voiced Gepetto for "The New Adventures of Pinocchio" (1999).

1999 was also the year that Timothy Dalton appeared in the TV movie "Cleopatra" playing Julius Caesar to Billy Zane's Antony and Leonor Varela's Cleopatra. And, to finish where we started, in the 1983 TV movie "Antony and Cleopatra", Dalton played Antony to a Cleopatra played by ... Lynn Redgrave, Michael Redgrave's other daughter.