Cinematic Connections Trivia Quiz

Answer: Sleepless in Seattle

"Sleepless in Seattle" features the phone call that stops a nation, late one Christmas Eve. Annie Reed (Meg Ryan) is listening to a late night talk show when she hears young Jonah Baldwin call Dr Marcia Fieldstone, worried about his father's unrelenting grief after the death of his wife. Sam Baldwin (Tom Hanks) reluctantly takes the call from his son and begins a stilted conversation with the radio doctor. Annie hears this poignant conversation and is struck by Sam's heartfelt description of the first contact he ever had with his wife.

Nannanut travels back to the '90s to relive this memorable movie moment.

Answer: "Il postino" ("The Postman")

"And it was at that age... Poetry arrived in search of me. I don't know, I don't know where it came from, from winter or a river. I don't know how or when, no, they were not voices, they were not words, nor silence..." wrote Chilean poet Pablo Neruda in one of his most famous poems.

Poetry arrives in search of Mario Ruoppolo when he is hired as a postman with the special duty of delivering the hundreds of letters sent, from all over the world, to the political exile Neruda. The acquaintance and later friendship with the poet disclose to him unknown, lyrical horizons. He first uses Neruda's passionate love poems to approach the beautiful Beatrice, then makes his first timid attempts to compose his own verses.

As unlikely a cinematic subject as this might seem, our technological world's undimmed need for poetry is proved by the overwhelming success achieved by "Il postino". Directed by Michael Radford, this wonderfully quiet, touching and witty film stars Massimo Troisi (also credited in Italy as co-director) as the postman, French actor Philippe Noiret as Pablo Neruda, and Maria Grazia Cucinotta as Beatrice. A candidate for five Academy Awards, it won the Oscar for Best Original Score.

A tragic note: Massimo Troisi, one of the most beloved Italian comedians, died the day after the film shooting was completed, aged 41. Affected by congenital heart defects, he had deferred a necessary heart transplant to realise his long coveted film project.

Trivia maven Arlesienne finds inspiration from the world of foreign cinema for this beautiful contribution.

Answer: Peter Lorre

The film is "The Maltese Falcon". Sadly, Peter Lorre passed away in 1964, at the relatively tender age of 59. He has often been imitated and parodied in popular culture. His film career extended well beyond thirty years.

Classic movie buff christopherm turns to the best of 1940's film noir for this memorable movie quote.

Answer: Terminator 2: Judgment Day

In the "Terminator" movie series, Arnold Schwarzenegger plays a cyborg killer (model T800) who is sent from the future by artificial intelligence centre Skynet to kill Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton), mother of the Resistance leader. In "Terminator 2: Judgment Day", another copy of the T800 cyborg is sent back from the future to save her son, John. Even though Sarah doesn't trust the machine, her son does and she decides to go along with him when he says "Come with me if you want to live".

Sarah tries to kill Miles Dyson who, as a researcher at Cyberdyne Systems, is destined to build the microprocessor that eventually becomes Skynet. Her common sense doesn't allow her to kill, so the T800 decides to sacrifice himself so as to destroy the first T800 and the research. Just before he sacrifices himself, Sarah offers her hand in friendship to a comrade and fellow warrior.

Quiz author Soozy_Woozy delves into this action packed science-fiction film for her movie connection.

Answer: The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!

Released in 1988, "The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!" starred Leslie Nielsen (Frank Drebin) and Priscilla Presley (Jane Spencer). Frank Drebin is assigned to solve an attempted murder case, in which he bungles one covert operation after another. Amidst his slapstick detective work, he begins to develop deep feelings for his ex-girlfriend, the beautiful Jane Spencer. The couple overcomes past conflicts, jealousy, and even hypnotism. Jane dreamily murmurs, "I wanted you to know, now, I've loved you since the first day I met you, and I'll never stop. I'm a very lucky woman". Frank promptly responds, "So am I..." A truer love connection was never made (sigh).

Pagiedamon, a romantic at heart, also reveals her comedic side with this hilarious movie quote.

Answer: You've Got Mail

"You've Got Mail" tells the story of an internet connection made between Kathleen Kelly and Joe Fox, played by Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks. Every day Kathleen looks forward to those three magic words, "You've Got Mail", which connect her to a man she has never met, but who provides her with tremendous support and wisdom. Unbeknownst to either correspondent, the two are actually antagonists in real life, as Joe's chain of bookstores put Kathleen's little shop out of business.

Joe learns that Kathleen is his correspondent before she does, and sets about trying to woo her, rather successfully, despite the fact that she does not like the things he stands for. The above line is spoken by Kathleen, to Joe, when they meet and she finally realises that he has been her online friend, and soul mate, all along.

"You've Got Mail" was the third romantic comedy that Ryan and Hanks starred in together.

This touching movie moment was brought to you by movie buff skunkee.

Answer: Before Sunrise

American tourist Jesse (Ethan Hawke) meets a French woman, Celine (Julie Delpy), on a train heading for Paris via Vienna, and they immediately hit it off. When the time comes for Jesse to disembark, he makes a surprising proposition to Celine - he only has one day left in Europe and he would like to spend that time continuing their conversation, so he says the quoted line to Celine, to persuade her to get off the train with him. The strategy pays off, and the rest of "Before Sunrise" follows the pair as they wander around the Austrian capital, and exchange their views on religion, reincarnation and the nature of love.

This magical movie demonstrates that sometimes the most memorable and profound relationships are never meant to last for longer than a day, and serves as a reminder that real connections are truly a rare and wonderful thing. Celine says it best with a line of her own that occurs later in the film: "If there's any kind of magic in this world it must be in the attempt of understanding someone, sharing something. I know, it's almost impossible to succeed, but who cares really? The answer must be in the attempt."

This quiz provided jmorrow with the perfect excuse to re-watch this enchanting movie.

Answer: Harvey

This wonderful film is entitled: "Harvey." The film is particularly delightful in the fact that it leaves the audience to imagine whether Harvey is, in fact, real or imaginary.

Hats off to christopherm for pulling double duty on this quiz with his second classic movie quote.

Answer: "That was very romantic."

The speech, in all its Grantian glory:

Charles: Ehm, look. Sorry, sorry. I just, ehm, well, this is a very stupid question and... , particularly in view of our recent shopping excursion [buying a wedding dress for her marriage to another man], but I just wondered, by any chance, ehm, eh, I mean obviously not because I guess I've only slept with 9 people, but-but I-I just wondered... ehh. I really feel, ehh, in short, to recap it slightly in a clearer version, eh, the words of David Cassidy in fact, eh, while he was still with the Partridge family, eh, "I think I love you," and eh, I-I just wondered by any chance you wouldn't like to... Eh... Eh... No, no, no of course not... I'm an idiot, he's not... Excellent, excellent, fantastic, eh, I was gonna say lovely to see you, sorry to disturb... Better get on...
Carrie: That was very romantic.
Charles: Well, I thought it over a lot, you know, I wanted to get it just right.

This is one of my favourite movies ever, despite the fact that I just can't stand Andie MacDowell as an actress, and the character of Carrie is an out and out... not very nice person. I have to agree with a review of her work I once read which described her screen impact as that of a 'giant valium'.

Quiz author ing put aside her feelings toward Andie MacDowell to present you with this unforgettable movie moment.

Answer: "La vita è bella" ("Life is Beautiful")

"La vita è bella" won three Oscars and was nominated for Best Picture as well. The film is in two parts. Guido, played by Roberto Benigni, comes to the Italian city of Arezzo in the hopes of setting up shop. Dora, played by Nicoletta Braschi, literally falls into his hands and Guido sets out to woo her. In the dark times in Fascist Italy, it isn't easy, especially since Guido is Jewish. "Buon giorno principessa!" is his opening line to her; who said that pick-up lines don't work?

The second part of the movie happens when Guido and Dora are married and have a young son. They get carted off to a concentration camp, and Guido uses all his facilities to keep his family alive and full of hope. The use of humour and wit in a Nazi concentration camp is ironic, yet, this is how Roberto Benigni's character manages to protect his son from being scarred by the atrocities the Nazis commit in the camp.

Thanks to LeoDaVinci, for a touching reminder of this bittersweet foreign film.