Real to Reel: Real People on the Silver Screen Quiz

Answer: Joan of Arc

Something about Joan of Arc's martyrdom has long captured artists' imaginations and references to her are found scattered across the ages and genres.

On screen, I'd say Carl Th. Dreyer's "The Passion of Joan of Arc" is the ne plus ultra of Joan of Arc films. Renée Jeanne Falconetti played Joan in what has to be one of the most astonishing film performances of all time. The whole thing is exquisite.

In stark contract to Dreyer's highly emotional picture, Robert Bresson made the sombre, stoic, undemonstrative "The Trial of Joan of Arc" in 1962. Florence Delay's performance of Joan is much more low-key than Falconetti's was, but praiseworthy in its own right.

Answer: Ivan the Terrible

"Ivan the Terrible" was supposed to have been a film in three parts but Stalin, who had originally backed the project, took offense at director Eisenstein's allegedly negative portrayal of the great Russian in "Part Two" and not only halted the project but also banned the finished "Part Two".

The two parts we do have are fabulous. Some critics have lauded the technique but drubbed the film as a whole claiming you would never want to see it more than once. I have to disagree and think the film deserves multiple viewings since the imagery is so powerful. Eisenstein's use of close-ups on underlit faces is nightmarish, and his symbolic use of profiles, flapping costumes, and warren-like sets creates such an oppressive atmosphere that the dirty dealings and political intrigues are all the more sordid.

Answer: T. E. Lawrence

I'm not a huge fan of "Lawrence of Arabia" since there are so many things which I don't think work, but the real-life story is so compelling and O'Toole's performance so mesmerizing that I have to admit it's a classic. The scenery shot on location in Jordan, Morocco and Spain is amazing too, as is the orchestration of very complicated scenes involving camels, horses and large numbers of actors. In many ways David Lean's direction reminds me of John Ford's classic Westerns.

The film was criticized by several T. E. Lawrence experts for its portrayal of the enigmatic figure, as well as some historical inaccuracies. In particular, some of the dates and sequences of events concerning the Arab Revolt and World War I are inaccurate, no doubt to facilitate the narrative.

D.H. Lawrence (1885 - 1930) was an English author who wrote novels such as "Sons and Lovers", "Women in Love", and "Lady Chatterley's Lover". Lawrence Dallaglio is a retired English rugby player who was part of the 2003 Rugby World Cup team. Lawrence Welk (1903 - 1992) was a multi-talented musician who hosted "The Lawrence Welk Show".

Answer: Burt Lancaster

Burt Lancaster had a prolific and varied career. His first film role was in the excellent 1946 film noir "The Killers". He appeared in a fair few film noirs such as "Brute Force" and "I Walk Alone" through the late 1940s and early 1950s before landing a huge role in "From Here to Eternity" in 1953. Just prior to playing Robert Stroud in "Birdman of Alcatraz", Lancaster had played a Nazi doctor in "Judgment at Nuremberg" (1961). In his later career Lancaster was bold enough to work abroad and became something of a favourite of Italian cinema, working several times with European cinema luminary Luchino Visconti.

Robert Stroud spent most of his life in solitary confinement. In 1920, after 11 years in prison, Stroud rescued some injured sparrow chicks and reared them. This led to a fascination with birds, an interest which a progressive Prison Governor encouraged. Stroud eventually became a published expert on bird diseases.

In the film, Burt Lancaster's portrayal of Stroud renders him a sympathetic character who is frustrated and thwarted by the system. Nothing could be further from the truth. Apart from the fact that Stroud was diagnosed as a dangerous psychopath, and feared as a vicious killer by fellow inmates, he was also lucky to avoid the death sentence, and he flagrantly abused the privileges he was granted.

Telly Savalas played fellow inmate Feto Gomez in the film. The author of the book "Birdman of Alcatraz", Thomas E. Gaddis, also edited mass murderer Carl Panzram's autobiography "Killer: A Journal of Murder". Stroud was imprisoned at Leavenworth Penitentiary when Panzram was executed there in 1930. Clint Eastwood played prison escapee Frank Morris in "Escape from Alcatraz" (1979).

Answer: Papillon

"Papillon" was a best-selling book before being turned into a film. Author Henri Charrière's claim that it was autobiographical has been widely refuted. One of the greatest discrepancies is that there is no record of Charrière actually serving time on Devil's Island, French Guiana. It would appear that Charrière wove dramatic tales he was told by fellow convicts into his own story. Charrière quipped it was 75% true, others have made estimates as low as 10%.

Notwithstanding the controversy, "Papillon" is a thoroughly enjoyable prison film. Critics at the time of its release weren't effluent in their praise and were critical of the lack of interplay between Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman, but I think the slightly awkward, disinterested way they get on is quite recognizable as how males interact.

Answer: Crumb

"Crumb" is an incredible documentary. It somehow manages to avoid the usual pitfalls and gives us a painfully frank look at Robert Crumb. What it reveals about him and his background tells us as much about families generally as about his specific case. Crumb's two brothers, Maxon and Charles, are both outsiders who didn't manage to find their way in life like Robert did through his art.

Another fascinating thing about "Crumb" is various people talking about Robert Crumb's controversial work. Art critic Robert Hughes gives engrossing insight into Crumb's work in the context of the history of art, even comparing him to Bruegel and Goya. Offering a different perspective is Crumb's one-time cohort cartoonist Trina Robbins who lambasts Crumb's depictions of women. Crumb himself talks about one of his most shocking Mr Natural stories and how he was feeling unsure whether to go to such a dark, bleak place in his work. He consulted his wife who urged him to finish it, believing these disturbing demons have to be examined rather than hidden away.

Lastly, as a Crumb aficionado I found it really interesting to hear how he hated much of the whole San Francisco counterculture scene, especially the music and clothes. He admits he was drawn to it to "get some of that free love action". He explains that it was due to dropping LSD in the mid-60s that his drawing became very weird. He says his brain was fuzzy, and he really let himself go with a sort of stream of consciousness. Key to understanding Crumb is that while the hippie audience saw his visions as "cute", for him they showed "the horror of America".

Answer: Lee Krasner

Apparently, "Pollock" saw Ed Harris fulfill a long-held ambition to bring the life of a painter he deeply admires onto the silver screen. Jackson Pollock isn't the easiest of subject matters since not only was he a complex character, but also rather taciturn. Since Pollock wasn't a particular winsome type, Harris does a sterling job at making the viewer take an interest in him. He's helped enormously by the wonderful Marcia Gay Harden as Pollock's long-suffering (well, 11 years) wife.

Krasner's own career as a painter is inevitably intertwined with Pollock's. Krasner sacrificed a great deal artistically and personally for Pollock, while he was alive and after his death. Although the pair influenced each other enormously, Krasner as a separate identity is hard to pin down since she's overshadowed by such a huge name.

Answer: Katharine Hepburn

Prior to Scorsese's film, there had been several portrayals of the eccentric tycoon, entrepreneur, and filmmaker Howard Hughes on the silver screen, but never a real big-budget biopic. His fascinating life was begging to be made into an epic historical drama and Scorsese succeeds to a certain degree, although the film is far from flawless.

One of my bugbears is Cate Blanchett's performance as Katharine Hepburn, in particular her speech. Comparing footage of Hepburn off-screen and her portrayal in "The Aviator", I struggle to see any resemblance. Scorsese undoubtedly recognized how important a figure in Hughes' life Hepburn must have been to the extent that in "The Aviator" their rather brief relationship (two years) appears to have lasted a large chunk of Hughes' life. Leonardo Di Caprio isn't brilliant as Hughes in the early stages of the film, although he does improve as the character mentally unravels.

Hepburn went on to have a relationship with Spencer Tracy which lasted over 20 years and ended with his death in 1967. However, unlike the plot of "The Aviator", she hadn't met Tracy when she left Hughes.

About the red herrings: Tracy had a relationship with Ingrid Bergman just before he met Hepburn. Ella Rice was the first of Hughes' three wives. In "The Aviator", Gwen Stefani plays Jean Harlow. Harlow starred in one of Hughes' greatest film productions, "Hell's Angels".

Answer: A hangman

The film was called "Pierrepoint: The Last Hangman" for its American release, I suppose in an attempt to capture cinema-goers' attention. The title is, however, fallacious. Not only have there been countless hangmen around the world since Pierrepoint, he wasn't even the last British hangman. Nevertheless, he was one of the longest-serving and most prolific.

Pierrepoint entered the public consciousness for some of his high-profile executions, making him something of a grisly celebrity. One job it would take a saint not to admire him for was hanging 200-plus Nazi war criminals. These included notorious SS guard Irma "Hyena of Auschwitz" Grese, Josef "the Beast of Belsen" Kramer, and infamous traitor William "Lord Haw-Haw" Joyce.

The film adeptly manages to avoid sensationalizing such a gruesome topic and instead deals with the prosaic part of his job from a logistical point of view, and the profound emotional effects it had on him as a man. Timothy Spall, who played Pierrepoint, got all of this brilliantly.

Answer: To assassinate Adolf Hitler

Claus von Stauffenberg planted and detonated a bomb in Hitler's so-called "Wolfsschanze" ("Wolf's Lair") headquarters in Poland during a meeting attended by the Führer. Unfortunately, the original plan to hold the meeting in a bunker, which would have meant much more concentrated blast, was changed at the last minute and it was shifted to a better-ventilated conference room due to stifling weather. Hitler wasn't seriously hurt.

Such a thrilling story, despite the fact that we all know the attempt failed prior to watching the film, should have been silver screen gold dust. However, casting Tom Cruise as an aristocratic German officer was never going to work. Furthermore, the film is littered with British actors such as Kenneth Branagh, Bill Nighy, and Terence Stamp when it would have made much more sense to cast German actors. Even Hitler is played by a Brit.

Nevertheless, the film did do justice to an interesting saga in the fall of the Third Reich and did introduce the name Claus von Stauffenberg to a wide audience.