Europe Re-Made in Hollywood Trivia Quiz

Answer: True

The renowned movie "Some Like it Hot", directed in 1959 by Billy Wilder, is indeed a remake of Pottier's "Fanfare d'amour", which was also remade in Germany in the early 50s as "Fanfaren der Liebe". In the French version, two jobless musicians disguised as women succeed in getting a job in a female orchestra heading to the French Riviera. This is beginning of many adventures...

Answer: Simone Signoret

"Diabolique", directed by Jeremiah Chechik in 1996, is a remake of "Les diaboliques", directed by Henry-Georges Clouzot in 1955, starring Simone Signoret (Sharon Stone in the 1996 version) and Véra Clouzot (Isabelle Adjani in the 1996 version). A school headmaster and his mistress (Signoret) conceive a diabolic plan to frighten the man's wife (Clouzot) to death: wife and mistress apparently kill the man, but he seems not to be dead at all...

Answer: I soliti ignoti

"Welcome to Collinwood" is a remake of the very popular Italian comedy "I soliti ignoti", directed by Mario Monicelli in 1958, featuring a fantastic cast including Vittorio Gassman, Marcello Mastroianni and Totò. Five wanna-be thieves organize an apparently easy theft in a pawnshop. According to the "scientific method" invoked by one of them (Gassman, playing the unemployed boxer Peppe) nothing can go wrong, but reality will prove to be much different. "Roma città aperta" (1946) was directed by Roberto Rossellini, "I vitelloni" (1953) by Federico Fellini, and "La Terrazza" (1980) by Ettore Scola.

Answer: Alain Delon

In "Plein Soleil" (René Clement, 1959), Alain Delon plays the role of Tom Ripley, the lie-hero sent to Italy to bring the spoiled Greenleaf boy back to the US, and eventually assuming his identity in a whirlwind of cover-ups and murders. The role is played by Matt Damon in Anthony Minghella's remake "The Talented Mr. Ripley" (1999).

Answer: La jetée

It is indeed a remake of the apocalyptic "La jetée", directed by Chris Marker in 1962 and set in Paris after a nuclear war, when the few survivors begin researching time travel in order to try and improve their situation. The protagonist is a man with vague childhood memories of witnessing a murder in an airport. "Trois hommes et un couffin" (Coline Serreau, 1985) was remade as "Three Men and a Baby" (Leonard Nimoy, 1987); "Abre los ojos" (Alejandro Amenabar, 1997) was remade as "Vanilla Sky" (Cameron Crowe, 2001), and "La chèvre" (Coline Serreau, 1982) was remade as "Pure Luck" (Nadia Tass, 1991).

Answer: Adrian Lyne

Adrian Lyne's "Unfaithful" is the 2002 remake of Chabrol's "La femme infidèle", starring Michel Bouquet, Stéphane Audran and Maurice Ronet. An insurance officer kills his wife's lover: both the police and his wife suspect him, but she decides to keep the secret.

Answer: USSR

It is the remake of "Soljaris" (starring Donatas Banionis in the role of Kelvin, played by George Clooney in the 2002 version), directed in 1972 by Andrej Tarkovskij, who used a science-fiction plot to evaluate not the mysteries of the cosmos, but those lying within ourselves.

Answer: Swept Away

"Swept Away" (Guy Ritchie, 2002) - starring Madonna and Adriano Giannini in the role formerly played by his father Giancarlo - is the remake of Lina Wertmuller's "Travolti da un insolito destino nell'azzurro mare di agosto", which portrayed the forced cohabitation (because of a shipwreck) of a tough sailor with a spoiled, rich woman: quarrels, love, and the final return to the status quo.

Answer: Francis Veber

Francis Veber was the director of "La chèvre" (1982, starring Depardieu-Richard), remade in 1991 by Nadia Tass as "Pure Luck"; "Les compères" (1983, starring Depardieu-Richard), remade in 1997 by Ivan Reitman as "Father's Day"; "Les fugitifs" (1986, starring Depardieu-Richard), remade by Francis Veber himself in 1989 as "Three Fugitives".

Answer: True

It is the remake of "Nikita", a 1990 movie directed by Luc Besson, starring Anne Parillaud in the role of Nikita, an outlaw girl who, instead of being sent to jail, is given a new identity, just to be trained as a spy and killer.