bafta pub quiz (lyn)

Corinne and I sign up to go to a BAFTA pub quiz.  This is the third year it’s being held, and our first year attending.  It sounds like fun, and since we are both movie fanatics, we think we might even have a shot at winning.

We arrive and there is some mix up on our team assignment.  We’d named ourselves Five Easy Pieces, since there were supposed to be five of us.  But now there are just two of us, so we get placed on another team of four people who have called themselves Shiver Me Livers.  There are about 20 teams seated at tables at a local bar.  Next to us is group of women who win for most creative name (Inglorious Bitches). 

The rules are simple.  There are two rounds of play.  Each round is divided into five categories of five questions each.  The questions are read and we consult with each other and write down the answers.  The team with the most correct answers wins.  In addition to Corinne and me, there is one English guy on our team (thank G-d for that), a young American guy, and two young women.  As it turns out, all know a lot more about movies than Corinne and I put together.

The questions are ridiculously hard.  Here are just three examples:

Q:  What do these actresses have in common?

·    Margaret Rutherford

·    Angela Lansbury

·    Ita Ever

• Helen Hayes

A: They have all played Miss Marple.

Q: In what European country did reality TV originate?

A:  The Netherlands

Q:  What do these three movies have in common (aside from the fact that they are all about doomsday)?  2012, THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW, and INDEPENDENCE DAY?

A:  They are all executive produced by Ute Emmerich.  (One team actually got this answer right.   I, on the other hand, have never even heard of this Ute Guy.).

And did you know that the most scripted line in Hollywood film history is not I love you, but rather, Let’s get out of here.

Well, I don’t know that or much else.  In fact, I know so little that I begin focusing more on the appetizers that are being served to our table all evening.  (And, I had eaten dinner before).  There are mini hot dogs (only had one), bruschetta (2 small pieces), slider burgers (none), slider chicken sandwiches (none), small fried chicken pieces (2), small egg roll (1), a mushroom and spinach on a small piece of bread (1), and chicken satay (1).  At least I was good about the drinking-two cranberry with seltzer drinks.  Oh, and a few handfuls of real popcorn; I’d forgotten how good it is, compared to the fat-free-one-point-for-five-cups that I usually eat.

At the end of round one our team has 11 points, somewhere near the top, the frontrunner has 16 points.

But then we totally fall apart in the second round.  There’s one question that two at the table know the answer to, but decide instead to write down the answer that I mindlessly blurt out.  My answer of course turns out to be incorrect while theirs is correct.  That’s when Corinne provides the best quote of the evening, “You’re not only worthless, you’re harmful too.” 

We do not win.  Not even close.  I eat too much.  And contribute only one right answer the entire night. 

Q:  Who played the lead male role in the movie upon which the film NINE is based?

A:  Marcello Mastroianni (in Fellini’s 8 ½). 

We all decide to meet again next year.   Although I wouldn’t be surprised if our new friends leave and say to each other, “Are you kidding?  Join up with those two again?  C'mon, they’ve never even heard of Horror Hammer films?!”