'90s Flashcards
What critically acclaimed 1994 film was a box-office bomb on its initial release but has gone on to extreme popularity (and a #1 all-time ranking on imdb.com), thanks in part to frequent airings on the TNT cable network in the late 1990s and subsequent widespread accolades?
Shawshank Redemption
Which 1990s filmmaking movement was founded with the goal of minimizing modern effects and gimmicks in order to focus on storytelling and the actors’ performances? The movement followed a “Vow of Chastity” manifesto written by Lars von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg, and the movement’s practitioners included Susanne Bier and Harmony Korine.
Dogme 95
A dedicated group of Chinese American mah-jongg players forms the plot basis, and the title, for what 1993 film (and the 1989 novel on which it was based)?
Joy Luck Club
The mysterious title character of what 1996 film was, as it turned out, a Hungarian aristocrat named László Almásy?
The English Patient
Bill Murray plays a patient who follows his psychiatrist, played by Richard Dreyfuss, on vacation in this 1991 movie.
What About Bob?
Loosely based on what classic 19th century literature title character, Clueless heroine Cher describes finding a boyfriend in high school as “useless as looking for meaning in a Pauly Shore movie.”
Emma Woodhouse
In 1991, the Cannes Film Festival presented a one-time Supporting Actor award specifically for this actor’s performance, his breakthrough role as a drug addict. Name the actor.
Samuel L. Jackson (for Jungle Fever)
U.S. presidential candidate Bob Dole cited this film, which National Review ranked as one of the Top 100 Conservative Movies of All Time, as influencing his campaign because of its theme that “no matter how great the adversity, the American Dream is within everybody’s reach.”
Forrest Gump
After the Cultural Revolution ended, Chinese filmmakers known as the “Fifth Generation” were emboldened to criticize the Mao Zedong era. Shanghai officials banned this Fifth Generation film for its critical portrayal of communism in China and controversial content. However, after it won the top prize at Cannes, officials agreed to show a censored version, fearing an outright ban would harm China’s bid for the Olympics. Name the film’s English title.
Farewell My Concubine
Give the title of any one of the three films—from 1992, 1996, and 2001—that have come to be known as the “Red Curtain Trilogy.” Although unrelated in terms of plot, they share the same director (his first three films) and lavishly incorporate traditional theatrical conventions and lush imagery.
Strictly Ballroom, Romeo + Juliet, Moulin Rouge
The 1997 animated film Anastasia, which uses a similar scenario, features an adorable anthropomorphic bat, who shares a name with this (non-Russian) composer.
(Bela) Bartok
The 13th Warrior, a retelling of Beowulf with Vikings on the Volga river and major box-office bomb, is based on this Michael Crichton novel.
Eaters of the Dead
Though she did not star in the film (having died seven years earlier), Rita Hayworth plays an important role (of sorts) as a plot element in what 1994 film?
The Shawshank Redemption
In 1997 she became the first to win an Oscar for a film directed by her husband; her brother-in-law produced the film.
Frances McDormand (Fargo)
This was the first animated film to be nominated for a Best Picture Oscar. It is currently tied with Wall-E for the animated film with the most Oscar nominations.
Beauty and the Beast
As you might gather from the title, the 1994 film Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle was about what storied group?
The four Sex and the City actresses. No, no. This “Mrs. Parker” is Dorothy Parker and the movie centers on her snarky 1920s literary circle: the Algonquin Round Table.
Halle Berry’s film debut was as Vivian in this 1991 Spike Lee movie.
Jungle Fever
After directing one of the most iconic teen movies of the ’80s, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Amy Heckerling went on to write and direct one of the most iconic teen movies of the ’90s, Clueless. Cher Horowitz introduced a generation to useful words such as “sporadically,” as well as what two terms denoting, respectively, a pretty girl and a loser?
Betty, Barney
Which 1994 movie depicts a sham wedding between a South African swimmer and the title character in order for the swimmer to compete in the Olympics? (In real life, the Olympic ban on South Africa ended with apartheid, and thus the nation had already participated in the 1992 Olympics.)
Muriel’s Wedding
Set during the Troubles, what 1992 movie features an IRA member who falls for Dil, his prisoner’s girlfriend? Due in part to its even-handed politics and an IRA bombing around the time of its release, it initially failed at the box office in the UK. It became a hit in the US though, helped by a Miramax ad campaign that ignored the political aspects of the film and focused on the secret around Dil’s gender identity.
The Crying Game
What 1995 film, Michael Moore’s only non-documentary film and John Candy’s last, depicts an international incident between the US and Canada initially prompted by Candy’s character criticizing Canadian beer at a hockey game?
Canadian Bacon
What was the nom du crime of the partnership of Marv Murchins and Harry Lyme, the villains from Home Alone?
They’re called the Wet Bandits, because they leave the faucets running in the houses they burgle. Jerks.
Long before he had nine-figure budgets to make movies like Alita: Battle Angel, Robert Rodriguez was a broke film-school grad in Texas. Rodriguez’s first full-length film (shot in Mexico, in Spanish, for $7,000; released 1992) was intended for the Mexican direct-to-video market. That film’s mainstream success led to a 1995 sequel with a $7,000,000 budget. Name both films.
El Mariachi, Desperado
Works written by David Foster and Linda Thompson, Ashford & Simpson, Nick Lowe, Alan Silvestri, and Dolly Parton are among the songs that appear on the soundtrack for what hit movie from the 1990s?
The Bodyguard
