When I came up with the idea of a movie trivia quiz site, I wondered what people were really interested in so I could write about it. I know Lindsay Lohan pics (along with those of other celebrities) is a popular subject, but not necessarily because people think she’s a good actress. (Even though I believe she is.) But I didn’t know if anyone would ever find Lindsay trivia with all the other celebrity gossip sites and blogs competing to talk about her ongoing misspent youth. It made me wonder whether quizzes about Tinseltown classic movies might be better.
But I know people like modern celebrities, so I thought maybe it would be best to start with current movie trivia questions. I began with a 2007 movie trivia quiz — and I made it good and hard. Everyone who took it said they had to struggle to getting even one question correct. So, that made me realize I needed to give people a fighting chance, even though I saw in my Web statistics that someone had been looking for a “hard superbad quiz.” Hard is a relative term I guess, because I had a question in the 2007 trivia quiz about Superbad and I don’t think that’s the question that people got right. That person who was searching might have been looking for a hard trivia question, but was probably unprepared for the gauntlet he would have to run on the Tricky Movie Trivia blog! Or, maybe he was really just searching for a super-bad, hard quiz and I just misinterpreted.
When I checked my Web statistics, I also found that people also were interested in fake names movies are shipped under. Now, I consider this category of questions especially hard to get right. How would you know the names, unless you were a movie insider (or a reader of Tricky Movie Trivia who cheated by looking at the quiz answers)? But, as I said before, people like to challenge themselves. When they’re not looking for celebrity gossip or movie facts, they sometimes want to prove to themselves that they really do have a lot of insider movie information at their fingertips.
In my search to write about topics people want, I posted one movie trivia quiz each about a variety of movies. I touched quite a bit on the teenage genre by writing about these Lindsay Lohan pics: Freaky Friday, Mean Girls, Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen, Herbie Fully Loaded and Just My Luck. But let’s not forget the teenage boys, who can generate their own share of Hollywood gossip. The 2007 Movies Trivia Quiz contained a question about Superbad, as of course did the Superbad and Seth Rogen Trivia Quiz post. That post also contained some questions about two other funny movies, Knocked Up and The 40-Year-Old Virgin.
Stars of classic movies vs. trendy celebrities
All of this was well and good, but I wondered if people are interested in more than just movie trivia and Hollywood gossip about celebrities. For example, I wonder if people still care about black and white movies. I’ve written several reviews of To Kill a Mockingbird, which I consider brilliant. (The movie, not the reviews.) Writing about Gregory Peck is a pleasure, because he was every bit as as good a man as the sterling Atticus Finch, the character he played in To Kill a Mockingbird. But do people care about Gregory Peck any more? I hope so. I know the book from which the classic movie was made is still very popular because it was labeled as the Book of the Century by a national association of librarians. But have we become more obsessed with celebrity gossip about who people are sleeping with instead of the content of people’s hearts and minds? Are great ideas dead? Let’s hope not, for all our sakes.
Besides To Kill a Mockingbird, other black and white movies also exemplify the past focus on substance over flash. One of my favorites is The Enchanted Cottage. This romantic movie stars Dorothy McGuire and Robert Young, and teaches the true meaning of love without being preachy. The production value is a little spotty in some places, but the timeless story shines through both the limitations of the medium of black and white film and the haze of each characters’ perceptions. Another example in the romantic movies genre is The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, which takes the concept of a love story beyond the grave. It’s truly one of the most romantic movies I’ve ever seen. The storytelling was strong, which made it transcend its being told in black and white.
Classic movies without color are particularly effective for dark, moody romantic stories with ultimate happy endings, but they also work well for comedies. A great example of this is My Man Godfrey. Screwball comedy was never more zany than in this farce that had Carol Lombard and William Powell first at odds, and then, in good old-time Hollywood fashion, in accord. I can’t imagine this movie in color. A certain elegance and Tinseltown glamor was imparted through the colorless medium. When you can shine through black and white, you know you’re a star. It was easy to imagine Carol Lombard and William Powell together at the Copa Cabana or the Brown Derby (before their divorce, of course), because they seemed born to radiate old fashioned Hollywood glamor.
Does it really matter what Lindsay Lohan is doing?
So, why am I going on and on about this? There are several reasons. The first is that I want to know whether people would be more interested in a movie trivia quiz about modern celebrities or if they would prefer movie trivia questions about classic movies. Maybe I should do both. Time will tell.
Over time, I hope to find out whether people really care more about Lindsay Lohan pics and celebrity gossip than how characters in classic movies have modeled good behavior. In the meantime, I plan on having fun writing about what I love: movie trivia. I hope to see you around as I explore the medium I love and meet people who feel the same way.
Posted January 6, 2008 Comments Off
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