It's Official(ish)... Movie Posters ARE High Brow!
Monday nights are one of our favourites. Dinner in front of the tele watching quizzes on BBC 2!
19:30 - Mastermind - they never seem to have my specialist subject.
20:00 - Only Connect - fiendishly difficult. No, we have no idea what connects 'a fish', 'a turnip', 'Kidderminster' and 'a twelfth century Mongol dictator'.
20:30 - University Challenge - known in the U.S. as 'College Bowl', two teams of unfeasibly young looking students answer extraordinary questions on topics as diverse as Quantum Mechanics, Renaissance Art and Popular Music.
A few weeks ago, I nearly spilled my meat and two veg over the sofa as the varsity quiz took a really interesting turn...
University College, Oxford took on Magdalene College, Cambridge (five points if you can pronounce that right) in the last of the 2020-2021 first round heats.
With Jeremy Packman in fine form and the scores finely balanced...
... the modern day Inquisitor General launched in to another starter for 10...
"We are going to take another picture round. For your picture starter you will see the poster for a film. For ten points give me the film's title..."
WOAH!!
So, to work out if you are (still) University material, let's see how you do against the greatest minds the U.K. has to offer...
First up and worth 10 points is your 'Starter for 10'...
Got it? "Your picture bonuses are three more of Bill Gold's notable film posters."
Bonus Picture number 1 for 5 points...
Bonus Picture number 2, again for 5 points...
... and finally, Bonus Picture number 3. Your last chance for 5 points.
How did you do?
Here are the answers and for comparison, how the University teams fared too.
The Answers
The 'Starter for 10' was answered by 'Payne' from Magdalene College, Cambridge - "Deliverance."
CORRECT! - One of two fantastic Bill Gold posters for John Boorman's 1972 thriller.
For the first bonus question, Magdalene college guessed "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid".
Not a bad guess, but (putting aside it's not the complete poster) it is unmistakeably George Roy Hill's 1973 grifter movie "The Sting".
Magdalene fared better with their second bonus question...
"BULLITT?"
CORRECT!
For their final bonus, Magdalene guessed "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" (Again!)
WRONG! It is of course Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway in Arthur Penn's 1967 biographical crime flick, "Bonnie and Clyde".
So how did you do? With twenty five points on offer, did you beat the combined minds of one of the most prestigious Universities in the world?
I think perhaps my age and my job helped me a little. Perhaps.
We are off to swot up for next week. Maybe we'll get an 'Only Connect' answer right too (as long as it is on movie posters).
Adam and the Art of the Movies team.
Got all of them right like you Adam. Seemed rather easy for UC questions I thought, but I’m a movie nerd, and my age may have helped as well!