Reading the Silver Screen Trivia Quiz

Answer: David Lean

"A Passage to India" was David Lean's last film, released after a 14-year break following the fiasco of "Ryan's Daughter". The movie starred Peggy Ashcroft (who won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress), Judy Davis, Victor Banerjee, James Fox and Alec Guinness; Maurice Jarre's original score also won an Academy Award. Forster's 1924 novel, based upon the author's own experiences in India, detailed the tensions between the country's British rulers and the native population. Lean directed a number of iconic literary adaptations, such as "Doctor Zhivago", "Great Expectations" and "Oliver Twist", as well as the epic "Lawrence of Arabia" and "The Bridge on the River Kwai".

The other three options are all award-winning English directors.

Answer: Italy

Directed by James Ivory in 1985, "A Room With a View" is a delightful romantic movie starring a veritable who's-who of British cinema: besides Bonham-Carter in her breakthrough role as Lucy Honeychurch, the cast includes Maggie Smith, Judi Dench, Denholm Elliot, Simon Callow, Julian Sands and Daniel Day-Lewis. Ruth Prawer-Jhabwala won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.

The first half and the ending of the film are set in Florence (Italy) and the surrounding countryside. Forster's 1908 novel is a critique of early 20th-century English society, whose staid, repressed mores are contrasted with the warmth and spontaneity of Italy.

Answer: Meryl Streep

"The French Lieutenant's Woman" (1981), directed by Karel Reisz, starred Meryl Streep in the title role, and Jeremy Irons as her lover. Like the novel it is based on, the film tells two parallel stories, one set in the Victorian era, and the other in modern times, with different outcomes. Streep, who had won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 1980 for her role in "Kramer vs Kramer", was nominated for Best Actress; British playwright Harold Pinter was also nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay.

All the other choices are American actresses who won an Academy Award.

Answer: Much Ado About Nothing

The 1993 adaptation of Shakespeare's "Much Ado About Nothing" (1598-1599) is a sprightly romantic comedy directed by Kenneth Branagh and filmed in in a gorgeous Tuscan villa by the name of Villa Vignamaggio. Thompson, who was married to Branagh at the time, plays Beatrice, a young woman with whom the nobleman Benedick (played by Branagh himself) has a love-hate relationship that will eventually lead to marriage. The British-American cast includes Denzel Washington, Keanu Reeves, Robert Sean Leonard, Kate Beckinsale and Michael Keaton.

All the other plays mentioned have also been adapted as films.

Answer: Edith Wharton

Though Martin Scorsese is more often associated with gritty, hard-hitting stories of crime and conflict, his adaptation of Edith Wharton's "The Age of Innocence" won almost universal acclaim for its gorgeous visuals and sterling performances. Italian designer Gabriella Pescucci won the Academy Award for Best Costume Design; Winona Ryder was awarded a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress. Edith Wharton's novel, set in the 1870s in upper-class New York, focuses on the unhappy love affair between a young lawyer and a woman with a scandalous past - who happens to be his fiancée's cousin.

All the remaining choices are famous American authors whose novels have been adapted into successful films.

Answer: The Great Gatsby

Luhrmann's "The Great Gatsby" was the fourth film adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's iconic novel, published in 1925 and set in the summer of 1922. The decadence of the Roaring Twenties, during which the characters lived in lavish houses and drank indulgently, was brilliantly translated onto screen. The film, starring Leonardo Di Caprio in the title role, Tobey Maguire and Carey Mulligan, won an Oscar for Best Costume Design for its luxurious period dress. It also won Best Production Design for its glittering sets and locations.

Of the remaining options, "The Last Tycoon" and "Tender Is the Night" are also by F. Scott Fitzgerald, and were both adapted as films. "Bugsy Malone" - also set in the 1920s, but not based on any novel - was directed by Alan Parker.

Answer: Richard Burton

Michael Radford's adaptation of "1984" was released in October of that year, after the director unexpectedly managed to secure the rights to Orwell's landmark novel. John Hurt stars as Winston Smith, and Suzanna Hamilton as his lover Julia, with Richard Burton - who passed away two months before the film's release, at the age of 58 - in the role of archvillain O'Brien. According to the end credits, the film was shot during the same months and in the same locales as those mentioned in Orwell's novel.

All the other options are famous deceased actors from the UK: however, none of them was Welsh.

Answer: The Leopard

Based on the 1958 novel of the same title ("Il Gattopardo" in the Italian original) by Sicilian author Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, "The Leopard" is probably Luchino Visconti's best-known film. Burt Lancaster stars as the novel's protagonist, Prince Fabrizio Salina, a 19th-century Sicilian nobleman caught in the midst of a time of dramatic social and political upheaval; the character was inspired by the author's own grandfather.

The film's full version is over three hours long, with the famous ballroom scene providing a fitting conclusion to the story. "The Leopard" also starred Alain Delon, Claudia Cardinale and a number of high-profile Italian actors such as Romolo Valli, Paolo Stoppa and Rina Morelli.

Answer: Colin Firth

Choderlos de Laclos' epistolary novel (1782), about a libertine and his lover scheming to corrupt a virtuous, recently married woman, has been adapted multiple times, but "Dangerous Liaisons" and "Valmont" are probably its best-known adaptations. "Valmont" was released in November 1989, less than a year after Stephen Frears' "Dangerous Liaisons" (which starred John Malkovich, Glenn Close and Michelle Pfeiffer); Colin Firth's co-stars are Annette Bening and Meg Tilly. Compared to Frears's movie, "Valmont" significantly diverged from the original novel - which led to mixed reviews. Firth won an Academy Award for Best Actor in 2011 for "The King's Speech"; his best-known roles, however, are those of Fitzwilliam Darcy in the TV adaptation of Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice", and Mark Darcy in the "Bridget Jones" film series.

Answer: David Copperfield

Charles Dickens' "David Copperfield" (1850) has been adapted as a film at least eight times. The best-known of these adaptations are George Cukor's (starring Frank Lawton, W.C. Fields, Basil Rathbone and Lionel Barrymore) and Delbert Mann's (starring Robin Phillips, Michael Redgrave, Ralph Richardson and Laurence Olivier).

A more recent adaptation was released in 2000, directed by Peter Medak, with Hugh Dancy in the title role. Of all Dickens' works, "A Christmas Carol" is the one that has been adapted the most times; "Great Expectations" and "A Tale of Two Cities" have also proved quite popular with filmmakers.