From the May 10 – May 16, 2001 issue

Film

Ace Quiz, Win SIFF!

Hey Movie Dorks, Wanna Win a Full-Series Pass to the Seattle International Film Festival?

Everybody knows everything about movies. That's the impression you get from standing in line at the Seattle International Film Festival, anyway. No matter what film you're waiting for, fellow line-waiters seem to know all the right names to drop, all the right films to have seen (or not to have bothered to see), and all the right directors to be "over." This year should be no different. The 27th Annual SIFF opens Thursday, May 24. And what better way to warm up those cinephile muscles than with a test?

In anticipation of four weeks of ostentatious public knowledge-kicking, The Stranger is sponsoring a Know-It-All Movie Quiz, which will take place on Wednesday, May 23, at 10 p.m. The top-secret location will be announced in the Stranger that hits the streets that same evening. Watch next week's issue for more specific details about the best places to find papers when they're first delivered. Doors will close at 10 p.m. sharp and no latecomers will be admitted. The quiz itself will consist of multiple-choice questions and one essay, and will be graded that very same night by The Stranger's crack squad of film-snob judges. No discussion and no contesting of grades, will be allowed. Winners will be announced by midnight.

PRIZES GALORE!

The top scorer will receive a prize package that staggers the imagination, including two full-series passes to this year's SIFF, and dinners for two at some of Seattle's poshest restaurants. Three runners-up will also receive a full-series pass to this year's SIFF and a $50 gift certificate to Video Vertigo. The person with the lowest score will receive a full-series pass, a used copy of Syd Field's Screenplay, and a Stranger dunce cap. In the event of a tie, the essay will be the deciding factor.

Because we want you to win, we have attached a handy cheat sheet to the end of this introduction. Readers are encouraged to memorize every piece of information below; everything you need to ace the quiz is on this cheat sheet.

Good luck, and Godspeed.

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In the Alleys of Love (1991), directed by Khosro Sinaie, was the only Iranian film at SIFF in 1992; the following year there were none, but there were two from Hungary, and two from South Korea. "Well to do as others do."--Alec Guinness, Damn the Defiant. The Northwest Film Forum was incorporated September 1, 1995. BBS' Easy Rider (1969) was partially financed with profits from the Monkees' TV show and records; Phil Spector plays the coke dealer. Initially charged with five felony offenses, only one of which (unlawful sexual intercourse) was not dropped, Roman Polanski served three months in Chino for mandatory psychiatric review of potential sex offenders in 1977-'78. Jean Eustache (director/ writer of The Mother and the Whore, 1973) committed suicide 11/4/81, exactly 47 years after the birth of Czech cinematographer Miroslav Ondricek. Brendan Fraser and Jean-Luc Godard share a birthday (12/3), 38 years apart. William Cameron Menzies was the first person to receive a production design credit, for Gone with the Wind. Peter Hyams and Steven Soderbergh have both acted as cinematographer on films they have directed. Moshen Makhmalbaf. Volker Schlöndorff. The soundtrack of Antonioni's Zabriskie Point contained a song by the late John Fahey (as well as music by Pink Floyd and the Grateful Dead). Jean-Pierre Leaud starred as Antoine Doinel in five films: Les Quatre Cents Coups (400 Blows) (1959), Antoine et Collette (1962), Baisers Volés (Stolen Kisses) (1968), Domicile Conjugal (Bed and Board) (1970), and L'amour en Fuite (Love on the Run) (1979). "I encourage you to support the companies who appear in the program guides."--Nancy Kennedy, SIFF marketing director, 1988-1999. "Bicycle Thieves" is the accurate translation of Ladri di Biciclette. Aki Kaurismaki directed La Vie de Boheme, Leningrad Cowboys Go America, and the latter film's sequel, in addition to 18 other features. "Queer bird, even for an American."--Alec Guinness, Bridge on the River Kwai. The Neptune theater opened in 1921. Stranger Film Editor Andy Spletzer was once barred from the Secret Festival. The Stranger's first film editor was named Matt Cook. Matty Rich has had only one film at SIFF. Julia Sweeney was in Pulp Fiction, directed by Quentin Tarantino, who co-wrote It's Pat, starring Julia Sweeney, who later wrote and starred in God Said, Ha!, which was executive produced by Quentin Tarantino, who later directed Jackie Brown, which featured Michael Keaton, who was born Michael Douglas, who starred in Disclosure, which was set in Seattle, where Julia Sweeney used to live. Bert Lahr, the Cowardly Lion, was in the original Broadway cast of Waiting for Godot; Wallace Shawn plays John Lahr, Bert's son--who writes for The New Yorker, which Shawn's father, William, used to edit --in Prick up Your Ears, which is an anagram for Prick up Your Arse. Brian Dennehy has been in 109 films; Charles Durning has been in 126 films. Only one of those 235 films features them both --Girls in Their Summer Dresses--and it was made for television (starring Jeff Bridges). Chantal Akerman's Window Shopping (also known as Golden Eighties) is set in a hair salon. According to the American Film Institute, Forrest Gump is the 71st greatest American film of all time. "You are mercifully free from the ravages of intelligence."--David Warner, Time Bandits. In Pola X, a fully erect Guillaume Depardieu is seen vaginally penetrating the actress who plays his half-sister (Yekaterina Golubyova); the film is an adaptation of Melville's Pierre, or, the Ambiguities. "What are you, bourgeois?"--Sunday, Bloody Sunday. Cinema Seattle was incorporated May 16, 1990, 14 years and two days after opening night of the first Seattle International Film Festival. The van with the "YESCA" license plate in Cheech and Chong's Up in Smoke is made of "fiberweed." Timothy Carey, Jack Nicholson, Dennis Hopper, and Frank Zappa appear in Bob Rafelson's Head, alongside Micky Dolenz, Michael Nesmith, Peter Tork, and David Jones. Michael Powell, Stanley Donen, Paul Verhoeven, Ken Russell, Bernardo Bertolucci, Nicholas Roeg, David Lean, Robert Wise, Erich von Stroheim, Rainer Warner Fassbinder, John Schlesinger, Bertrand Tavernier, and Robert Altman have all received SIFF tributes, while Krzysztof Zanussi, Fons Rademakers, Alan Rudolph, Martin Donovan, Denys Arcand, Peter Greenaway, Jean-Jacques Beineix, Ang Lee, Rolf de Heer, Bryan Singer, Danny Boyle, Bill Condon, and John Sayles have all won the Golden Space Needle award for best director. The complete cast of actors with speaking roles in Louis Malle's My Dinner with Andre--a film that contains the line, "Are you really sure you want to hear all this?"--numbers four: Wallace Shawn as Wally, Andre Gregory as Andre, Jean Lenauer as the Waiter, and Roy Butler as the Bartender. "What I owe you is beyond evaluation."--Alec Guinness, Lawrence of Arabia.