An Atlas Worth of Movies Trivia Quiz

Answer: Wings of Desire

Damiel, an angel, lives in Berlin and watches over people by helping and comforting them. Over time, he becomes unhappy with his immortality and wishes to experience life. When he meets Marion, a circus artist, he falls in love with her and decides to become mortal for her sake.
This 1987 black and white and color movie (humans see color, angels only black and white) with Bruno Ganz and Solveig Dommartin became a huge success in Europe, which led to an American remake with Meg Ryan and Nicolas Cage.

Answer: The Gods Must Be Crazy

The Kalahari desert bushman Xi's first encounter with civilization is a coke bottle thrown from a small plane. The bottle becomes a magical object for his tribe but since it brings violence and unhappiness, Xi decides to return it to the Gods, where he thinks it came from.
The film can be controversial for some people but I found it funny, smart and very uplifting.

Answer: Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown

Pepa, a TV actress, becomes depressed and spikes her gazpacho with sleeping pills because her lover, Ivan, leaves her for her lawyer. Meanwhile, Ivan's son arrives to rent Pepa's apartment with his fiancee along with Pepa's friend, Candela who has a love affair with a Shiite terrorist.

A wild chase begins with Pepa chasing Ivan to the airport, Ivan's insane wife chasing Pepa, Ivan's son chasing his mother and the police chasing Candela's terrorist boyfriend who, as it turns out, has put a bomb in Ivan's flight to Stockholm. Nominated for an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in 1989, the movie is screwball comedy at its best, with unforgettable female characters.

Answer: Tokyo Story

The couple visits all their children one by one and they are met with coldness and indifference except for their widowed daughter-in-law.
This is a 1953 movie by director Yasujiro Ozu that is very calm and quiet in form, yet very strong in depicting the feelings of disappointment, ingratitude and finally love and acceptance.

Answer: The Secret In Their Eyes

Retired Argentinian federal justice agent Benjamin Esposito is writing a book on an old murder and rape case. As he researches deeper into the case his equally unresolved love for his former chief, Irene Menendez-Hastings, resurfaces.
Even though this film appears as a murder mystery, in reality it is an intricately woven canvas of hidden feelings and unresolved issues, a true masterpiece by Juan Jose Campanella.

Answer: The Full Monty

Six ex steel-workers from Sheffield, all in desperate need of money, decide to stage a Chippendale-style dance show and get the women of their area interested by advertising that they'll go "the full monty", meaning nude.
Peter Cattaneo directed this feel-good drama-comedy with a lot of respect for his heroes. Broken but never humiliated, these brave men both entertained and moved us.

Answer: In the Mood for Love

When Chow Mo-wan and Su Li-zhen realize that their spouses are having an affair, their first impulse is to avenge the infidelity by having an affair themselves. In their attempt to avoid being like them, they really fall in love, a love they deny in order not to become what they despised.
Shanghai born and Hong Kong raised, Wong Kar-wai is a master in unresolved love stories, emotions "in limbo", ambiguous endings, all very successful components of his stylized, intricate movies which include "2046", "My Blueberry Nights" and "Chunking Express".

Answer: Waltz With Bashir

The movie starts with Ari Folman having recurring nightmares where he sees he's being chased by 26 dogs, every night the same number of animals. When he discusses it with his friend at a bar, they both agree that there is probably some connection with their Army Mission in the first Lebanon war in the '80s. Ari realizes he doesn't remember anything and starts interviewing his old comrades. This documentary-animation-biography was the first animated film to be nominated for Academy's Best Foreign Film and to win a Golden Globe Award. Ari Folman made an ingenious artistic choice by narrating his strong and disturbing story in an animated documentary form.

Answer: Amarcord

Titta is a teenager who lives in the 1930s in the village of Borgo San Giuliano, surrounded by eccentric and grotesque characters. Fellini uses satire and a "juvenile" approach, a symbolism for Italy's continual adolescent ignorance during the fascist years.
The title is a phonetic variation of the phrase "mi ricordo" (I remember) in the Rimini dialect which is where Federico Fellini grew up. "Amarcord" is depicting many similarities to the director's childhood during the 1930s. As in all Fellini films, "Amarcord" is enveloped in Nino Rota's beautiful music.

Answer: The Year of Living Dangerously

Guy Hamilton is a young Australian foreign correspondent during the turbulent years of Sukarno's presidency in Indonesia. His friendship with photographer Billy Kwan and his affair with diplomat Jill Bryant make him understand the fragile state of Indonesia at the time.

His involvement in attaining information about the civil war nearly cost him his eye and his life. Peter Weir directed the movie in 1982 from the book by Christopher Koch. Part of the success of the movie is owed to the great on-screen chemistry between the protagonists. Linda Hunt won an Oscar for her role as the male photographer Billy Kwan.

Answer: Annie Hall

After breaking up with his girlfriend, Annie Hall (Diane Keaton), Alvy Singer (Woody Allen), a comedian from New York, traces their relationship through his memories and documents, in his very funny and neurotic way. This is an excellent account of the affairs of the heart in the 1970s. Woody Allen at his best!

Answer: Amelie ( Le fabuleux destin d' Amelie Poulain)

Amelie Poulain is a happy, naive girl who lives in Paris and works as a waitress in a typical Parisian cafe. Amelie had a very secluded childhood which led her to create a fantasy world in which she takes pleasure in helping others by rearranging their lives.

Her love interest is Nino, a collector of rejected photos at the Photomaton of Gare de l' Est.They romantically chase each other through the beautiful Parisian scenery. Director Jean-Pierre Jeunet created a fairy tale atmosphere in Paris, where Amelie and her circle of friends move as in a dream.

It is no wonder that it was nominated for five Oscars.

Answer: A Separation

Nader and Simin's ugly divorce is viewed as an allegory for present-day Iran; a modern nation that tries to live under Islamic law, a controversy in itself. Similarly, Simin wants to leave for a European country and provide her daughter with a better future, while Nader feels obligated to stay in Iran and look after his father.
The trademark of Farhadi is the twists in the plot that constantly introduce moral dilemmas and controversies. It is a very complex way of narrating and very powerful.

Answer: Stalker

A Stalker, who is a guide, leads two men into The Zone, where the laws of physics do not apply, in search of a Room that grants all innermost wishes. As they draw deeper and deeper into the Zone, the rules change and fear and doubt creep in, preventing them from moving on.
The movie was loosely based on the novel "Roadside Picnic" by brothers Boris and Arkady Strugatsky.
Andrei Tarkovsky, his wife, Larisa Tarkovskaya, and actor Anatoli Solonytsin all died from the same type of lung cancer which some say was triggered from being poisoned while shooting the movie at a chemical plant near Tallinn, Estonia.

Answer: An Eternity and a Day

Bruno Ganz plays the dying author Alexander who, in his final moments, is looking back at his life, in a very interesting reality-dream intertwine. His encounter with a little Albanian refugee boy helps him overcome his grief and makes him decide to accompany the boy back to his home country, as Alexander's own last ritualistic trip to Hades.
Angelopoulos died in a car accident while shooting his latest film in 2012.