The Results for The Sequel to The Return of the Summer Name That Movie Quiz
Here's the first batch of answers to my latest Name That Movie Quiz, where you had to identify movies based on a single still. Most -- but not all -- of the stills were from well-known movies -- and two or three might be considered impossibly hard. I thought of encouraging everyone to not cheat by googling the images, but thought that might actually remind or encourage more people to do so. But if I ever do another movie quiz again, I'm going to have to grab my own stills from films, as one friend did check and found that 17 of the 20 films could be ID'd by a google search.
16 readers tried their hand at the quiz. To play along as you read, click through, then scroll down slowly.
1.
The original still:
Good (but wrong) guess:
Ragtime
Another clue:
Answer: Hugo, directed by Martin Scorsese, 2011
If you recognized the director in a cameo of his own movie, it would've helped you identify the movie. I think they trimmed his eyebrows back for this scene.
2.
The original still:
Good (but wrong) guesses:
It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, Bye Bye Birdie
Another clue:
Answer: Boy, Did I Get a Wrong Number!, directed by George Marshall, 1966
A mild-mannered bedroom farce, this was the first of three comedies featuring Phyllis Diller and Bob Hope (followed by Eight on the Lam and The Private Navy of Sgt. O'Farrell.
3.
The original still:
Good (but wrong) guesses:
A Christmas Story, Simon Birch, Foster
Another clue:
Answer: Everything is Illuminated, directed by Liev Schreiber, 2005
The popularity of the visual trope of young boys in heavy horn-rimmed glasses is borne out by the numerous wrong guesses (and many other movies one could name). Based on the novel by Jonathan Safran Foer, while not a critical or popular hit, I loved the visual stylization, oblique narrative, wild musical scoring, and just about everything else in Everything is Illuminated, and if you haven't seen this little-known gem, I urge you to rent it.
4.
The original still:
Good (but wrong) guesses:
Stardust Memories, Beautiful Creatures, The Others
Another clue:
Answer: The Night Porter, directed by Liliana Cavani, 1974
It looks like everyone identified Charlotte Rampling, but couldn't place in which movie she plays a younger self in a flashback.
5.
The original still:
Interesting (but wrong) guesses:
Nuns of the Run, The Life of Brian
Another clue:
Answer: The Three Stooges, directed by Bobby and Peter Farrelly, 2012
More people guessed this one correctly that I would have thought given the movie's box office!
6.
The original still:
Fun (but wrong) guesses:
Bondage Your Mother Could Get Out OF: The Movie, The Smurfs 2, Shock Treatment, Labyrinth of Passion
Another clue:
Answer: Preaching to the Perverted, directed by Stuart Urban, 1997
This was one of the harder ones, but if you have seen it, the additional clue here was the pink background. The director tried to have one pink element in every shot. This British comedy about kinky sex has been featured in my S/M and the Movies film programs, and although by no means a perfect film, when asked to names movies that are actually sex-positive (kinky or vanilla), this is one of the few that make that short list, and is recommended for that reason.
7.
The original still:
Interesting (but wrong) guesses:
The Fall, Black Swan
Another clue:
Answer: The Cell, directed by Tarsem Singh, 2000
I thought that this might be a near-impossible one to guess from the first image, and was shocked at how many people identified the work of Tarsem Singh and/or costume designer Eiko -- even if they guessed the wrong film they both worked on.
Here are the leading scores so far:
1 correct:
boymeat
mark_shutterbug
soundbear69
goreyboy
wrascalism
2 correct:
heypyro
progbear
pink_halen
3 correct:
kukla_red
tonethbone
4 correct:
mudcub
albadger
5 correct:
tycho_anomaly
7 correct!:
zbear20
Check back tomorrow for more results!