1. Identify X , Y , Z .
This actor couple is one of the few to have the rare distinction of having won
Academy Awards individually .
Historically , X happens to be the very first of his nationality to ever receive an Oscar
nomination as well the first to receive an acting Oscar.
In addition , Y happens to be the first woman of her nationality to receive both an
Oscar as well as a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame .
X and Y both starred in a critically acclaimed film Z by a Oscar winning director and
comedian that shares its name with a famous football club, and earned Y her Oscar .
You probably remember X for his role in a famous Coen brothers’ film which earned
him his Oscar as well as his villainous role opposite one of cinema history’s most
famous protagonists in the 50th installment of the film franchisee .
• X = Javier Bardem . Appeared in No
Country for Old Men and Skyfall
• Y = Penelope Cruz .
• Z = Vicky Cristina Barcelona .
Directed by Woody Allen .
2.
• The 1980 film , The Elephant Man received widespread critical
acclaim for Anthony Hopkins’ portrayal of the eponymous lead
character , as well as praise for the legendary work done by
Christopher Tucker in the film .
• However , the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences
attracted widespread criticism for failing to honor Tucker’s efforts
.
• This led to a change effected at the Oscars from the next year
onwards , something that has continued upto this day .
• What particular change ?
• The Academy Award for Best Makeup and Hairstyling , from 1981
onwards .
3 . Something Strange
• The Lion King went on to stamp itself as one of Disney’s , as well
as cinema history’s most legendary musicals .
• However , recent revelations uncover that the iconic lion roars
heard in the film are not what they really seem to be .
• What exactly is fishy about them ?
• The lion roars are actually tiger roars as the makers of the film
felt actual lion roars were not loud enough .
• Further effects were provided by using a hollow tin can .
• Not a single actual lion roar was heard in the film .
4. Fans of Nostradamus , anyone ?
(logical sitter)
• Following is an extract from a famous short story by Mark Twain
•
“As soon as the Paris contract released the telelectroscope, it was delivered
to public use, and was soon connected with the telephonic systems of the
whole world. The improved ‘limitless-distance’ telephone was presently
introduced and the daily doings of the globe made visible to everybody, and
audibly discussable too, by witnesses separated by any number of leagues.”
What modern day technology does this best correspond to ?
6. Versatile indeed
• Audrey Hepburn , Rita Moreno and Helen Hayes are among the
select few to have completed the famed “ELOT Grand Slam” .
• This basically means winning an Oscar , a Tony , an Emmy and a
Grammy award .
• All the three were actresses by profession .
• Which category did they win the Grammy in ?
• Audrey Hepburn – Best Spoken Word Album for Children
• Helen Hayes – Best Spoken Word Album
• Rita Moreno – Best Recording for Children
7. Tit for Tat
• X and Y faced off on two years , 2000 and 2002 at the Academy
Awards , both being nominated for the Best Actor category .
• Although critics favored X’s 2002 performance to be more
deserving , Y took home the award that year ; an exact opposite
of what occurred in 2000 where Y was supposed to deserve the
award more than eventual winner X .
• Identify both .
• X = Russel Crowe . Won in
2000 for his role in
Gladiator but lost out in
2002 for A Beautiful Mind
• Y = Denzel Washington .
Won in 2002 for Training
Day
• In the opening credits of The Matrix .
• The Wachowski brothers did so to protest against the studio
producers’ control on content and creativity
9 . Vintage stuff
• This 1964 Sunil Dutt film set a Guinness Record and is remarkable for
that very fact .
• The film is soliloquy of a man who comes home to find that his wife and
son are not at home, he assumes that they have left him and
reminiscences his life with them, and scared of his life without them, he
regrets his past indiscretions.
• Name the film and describe what exactly was so special about it .
• Film – Yaadein (1964)
• Its remarkable for having only a sinlge actor throughout the film ,
Sunil Dutt himself . The only other actor is a brief silhouette of
Nargis .
• It set the record for the Narrative Film with Fewest Actors .
10 .
• One of history’s most remarkable movies , X contained one of he
most unconventional elements of filmmaking ever .
• There were no female actors , the entire film except 3 minutes
was shot in a SINGLE room and featured just a single plot line .
• It currently ranks No . 5 on the IMDB Top 250 . Which film ?
AV - 1
• The following is a clip from the timeless classic song “Mere Sapno
Ki Rani” .
• Featuring Sharmila Tagore and Rajesh Khanna , the filming of the
video has some connection with Satyajit Ray .
• Rajesh Khanna and Sharmila Tagore were never even on the sets at
the same time when this song was shot .
• Sharmila had a role in a Satyajit Ray film and hence had her
sequences in the train shot much earlier .
• Rajesh Khanna’s jeep sequence was filmed separately and another
train was used for that .
• Which is why you never see both together in the same shot at any
time .
1. Dreams , anyone ?
This is a screenshot of
Inception as broadcast
in Japan .
What exactly have I
blocked out in the
picture , and why was
it included ?
• Japanese broadcasters included text in the upper left corner to
prevent viewers from getting confused as to which level of dream
a particular scene was occurring in
2. Words , words and words
• The following slide contains the “warning” shown along with the
regular official copyright warning of a cult film .
• Identify the film as well as the iconic character whose words these
are supposed to be .
3 . The Sound of Music
• X is considered one of the most remarkable songs to be ever recorded and
is frequently placed in lists of the greatest songs of all time.
• X was also famous for its promotional video , one of the first of its kind . Its
regarded as the band Y’s masterpiece and required use of several cutting
edge technologies during its studio recording .
• Given on the next slide is a description of how one of the most famous
segments of the song was recorded . Identify both X and Y .
• A rapid series of rhythmic and harmonic changes introduces a pseudo-
operatic midsection, which contains the bulk of the elaborate vocal multi-
tracking, depicting the narrator's descent into hell. While the underlying
pulse of the song is maintained, the dynamics vary greatly from bar to bar,
from only ______ voice accompanied by a piano, to a multi-voice choir
supported by drums, bass, and paino. The choir effect was created by
having ______ , _____ and ______ sing their vocal parts continually for ten
to twelve hours a day, resulting in 180 separate overdubs. These overdubs
were then combined into successive submixes. According to _______ the
voices of ____, _______ and himself combined created a wide vocal range:
“______ could get down quite low, _______ had a powerful voice through
the middle, and I was good at the high stuff." The band wanted to create
"a wall of sound, that starts down and goes all the way up". The band used
the bell effect for lyrics "Magnifico" and "Let me go". Also, on "Let me go",
_______ singing the top section carries his note on further after the rest of
the "choir" have stopped singing.
4.
• Following is a prop used by one of history’s most legendary actors
in his best remembered role .
• Explain what the prop is and where exactly was it used .
• Marlon Brando’s mouthpiece that he
wore for his role as Don Vito Corleone
in The Godfather .
• Brando won the 1972 Academy Award
for Best Actor for this role .
5 . Identify X , Y and Z
• X is often called as South India’s biggest director as well as one of India’s best .
His masterpiece is regarded to be the 1987 , Godfather inspired film , Naayakan ,
that was voted by Time magazine as one of the world’s 100 greatest films .
• His biggest popular success came with the film Y , released in 1992. Set against
the backdrop of Kashmiri terrorism , it was a patriotic love story that achieved a
very rare feat of being officially endorsed by the then election commissioner of
India,the much admired T.N. Seshan .
• Interestingly , Y also became the Launchpad of Z , who is often regarded as one
of India’s foremost music composers . His work in Y is still regarded as among his
best . ( Bonus points if you can give his unofficial title )
• X – Mani Ratnam
• Y – Roja
• Z – A.R. Rahman , also called as
the Mozart of Madras
6 . Cruelty reigns
• Said to modeled after the barbaric , pleasure loving and whimsical Roman
Emperor Caligula , this on screen character from a wildly popular TV series
polarized audiences so much that he actually received a letter from the
creator of the series , stating
“ Congratulations on your marvelous performance . Everyone hates you “
• Identify the character . ( Bonus points for naming the real life actor)
• King Joffrey from Game of Thrones .
• Played by Jack Gleeson
7. After they fall …. (total sitter)
• Heath Ledger never even knew he would get one , whereas ,Peter
Finch never actually got his hands onto one
• What exactly am I referring to ?
• Oscar award for Best Supporting Actor
• Heath Ledger for The Dark Knight
• Peter Finch for Network
8 . Quiz mey darna kya
• The much beloved song “Pyaar Kiya toh Darna Kya” from the classic Mughal-e-
Azam has an incredible history attached to it .
• it cost Rs. 10 million at a time when a film would be made for less than a
million; it was written and re-written 105 times by the lyricist, Shakeel
Badayuni, before the music director, Naushad, could approve of it; it was shot in
the renowned Sheesh Mahal (Palace of Mirrors) which was a cinematographic
challenge .
• The actual sound recording ran into trouble as there was no technology at that
time to bring about a reverberation effect . How did Lata Mangeshkar and
Naushad overcome this ?
• In those days of sound recording, editing and mixing, as there was
no way to provide the reverberation of sound, Naushad had
playback singer Lata Mangeshkar sing the song in a studio
bathroom.
9. FITB (absolute sitter)
• When plans for the film were announced,____X____ held a press
conference in Delhi for the Indian media. There was much
concern expressed about how such a revered figure as __Y_____,
a virtual deity to many Indians, would or should be portrayed on
screen. One female journalist seriously suggested that ___Y___
should only be shown as a brilliant white light moving across the
screen(!) An exasperated ____X____ snapped back:" Madam, I am
not making a film about bloody Tinkerbell! "
• X – Richard Attenborough
• Y – Gandhi
This was for the 1982 Academy Award winning flim , Gandhi
10 . The Jewel in our crown
• Probably the best reviewed film to ever come out of Bollywood , and the one to
receive the highest level of International adulations , X was produced , directed
and starred in by Y himself.
• In 2002, X was ranked at No. 160 on the Sight & Sound critics' and directors' poll
of all-time greatest films. In 2005, X was rated as one of the 100 best films of all
time by Time magazine, which called it "the soulfully romantic of the lot."
Indiatimes Movies ranks the movie amongst the Top 25 Must See Bollywood Films.
On the occasion of Valentine's Day 2011 Time magazine has declared it as one of
the top 10 romantic movies of all time.
• Identify X and Y .
• The only two people to have won both the Academy award as well
as the Nobel Prize for Literature .
• George Bernard Shaw – Academy award for the screenplay of My
Fair Lady
• Bob Dylan – Oscar for Things Have Changed
• The 1997 film Contact was based on Carl Sagan’s storyline and
Interstellar was based on theories by Kip Throne .
• Matthew McConaughey starred in both the films in the lead role .
• Cameos by directors in their own films –
• James Cameroon in Terminator
• Martin Scorcese in Taxi Driver
• Steven Speilberg in Jaws
• Stan Lee in Avengers Age of Ultron
5. Identify all 4 pics and
the connect . (double points) 1.
2.
4.
The scene from The Godfather where Vito Corleone gets shot . The signboard
shown reads Jake LaMotta .
• Marlon Brando previously won the Best Actor Academy Award in 1972 for his
own portrayal of Vito Corleone . Later , Robert De Niro won The Best
Supporting Actor Award for portraying Vito Corleone in The Godfather Part 2 .
•
• Robert de Niro won the Best Oscar for his role as Jake LaMotta in Raging Bull,
the same boxer whose name was on the signboard .
AV – 3
• Pulp Fiction turned out to be one of cinema history’s watershed
moments , breaking ground both for its innovative method of
filming as well as its screenplay , often called one of the best
written films of all time .
• What's the special way in which Quentin Tarrantino filmed the
following scene ?
• The entire scene wherein John Travolta strikes Uma Thurman with
the syringe was filmed by making him pull out an already
embedded syringe and then running the film backwards .
• The popular belief that Led Zep sold
their souls to the Devil in exchange
for the success of Stairway To
Heaven
• Led Zep’s original name was The New Yardbirds .
They changed to Led Zeppelin after signing up with Atlantic
Records .
• The albums of Led Zep in order are –
• Led Zeppelin I , Led Zeppelin II ,
Led Zepellin III , Led Zeppelin IV ,
“Houses of the Holy” and finally
“Physical Grafitti”
• The band split up in 1980 following the death of drummer John
Bonham , who was 27 years old .
• Led Zeppelin was honoured at the
2012 Annual Kennedy center
honours .
• At the official function , Heart , Kid
Rock and the Foo Fighters
performed Led Zep songs
• Live performance by Led Zeppelin
.
• Jimmy Page on the guitar and
Robert Plant with the vocals.