HOW TO PRETEND
YOU HAVE SEEN A CLASSIC MOVIE
A survey suggests 58% of men and 38% of women lie about having seen classic films. So how might you go about bluffing that you have?
Here are six of the top 10 most fibbed about films with all of the necessary bluffage provided for you to able to get away with not having seen any of them.
In a line: Super-slick gangster flick.
Plot summary: Ageing crime boss finds himself caught up in a cycle of violence that takes its toll on his whole family. People are killed, then the people who killed them are killed. Eventually a new boss is found from an unlikely source.
Buzzword bingo: Consigliere, button men.
Key lines: "Make him an offer he couldn't refuse."
"Luca Brasi sleeps with the fishes."
Key scene: A movie studio boss refuses to put Don Corleone's godson in a lead role. He wakes up with his prized horse's severed head in his bed. He changes his mind.
In a line: Passionate love story set in America's "Deep South" through the Civil War and beyond.
Plot summary: The lavish film follows the fortunes of beautiful, ambitious and unscrupulous Southern belle Scarlett as she fights for her and her family's survival. The greatest battles are not between the North and the South, but between Scarlett and anyone who stands between her and what she wants.
Buzzword bingo: Tara, mamie and fiddle-de-dee.
Key line: "Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn."
Key scene: Lying weak from hunger in the ruins of rural Georgia, Scarlett claws at the scorched earth and declares: "As God is my witness, I will never be hungry again." At that moment she decides that not only is she going to survive, but she is going to prosper.
In a line: Heartwarming reminder that good guys can prosper.
Plot summary: George Bailey has had some bad luck and on Christmas Eve is thinking of killing himself. An angel is sent to intervene and show what a vital role he has played in people's lives. Topically, the baddie is a banker, and the whole story works as a paean to community over personal ambition.
Buzzword bingo: Evil bankers, getting your wings.
Key lines: "You're worth more dead than alive."
"Harry wasn't there to save them, because you weren't there to save Harry."
Key scene: There is a run on the savings and loan and George stands behind the counter trying to persuade the crowd that they can't take their money out because it is invested in each other's houses.
In a line: Newspaper mogul attempts to bestride the world but ends up alone.
Plot summary: With close parallels with the life of real newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst, the movie follows a journalist's quest to uncover the meaning of Charles Foster Kane's final words, while also telling the story of his life.
Buzzword bingo: Rosebud, auteur, deep focus, pioneering.
Key line: "You provide the prose poems. I'll provide the war."
Key scene: Kane dies and the snow globe he is holding rolls out of his hand.
The Godfather - 1972
In a line: Super-slick gangster flick.
Plot summary: Ageing crime boss finds himself caught up in a cycle of violence that takes its toll on his whole family. People are killed, then the people who killed them are killed. Eventually a new boss is found from an unlikely source.
Buzzword bingo: Consigliere, button men.
Key lines: "Make him an offer he couldn't refuse."
"Luca Brasi sleeps with the fishes."
Key scene: A movie studio boss refuses to put Don Corleone's godson in a lead role. He wakes up with his prized horse's severed head in his bed. He changes his mind.
Taxi Driver - 1976
In a line: Vietnam-veteran cabbie goes a bit wonky.
Plot summary: Insomniac Travis Bickle spends his nights driving taxis in New York and not exactly feeling at peace with the world. A date gone wrong starts to upset him, and an encounter with an underage prostitute and her pimp send him right over the edge. He gets an alarming haircut and turns into the have-a-go hero to end all have-a-go heroes.
Buzzword bingo: Alienation, isolation.
Key lines: "You talkin' to me?"
"Someday a real rain will come and wash all this scum off the streets."
Key scene: Bickle, played by Robert de Niro, takes Betsy to see a "sex education" film on their first date. She is not pleased.
Gone With the Wind - 1939
In a line: Passionate love story set in America's "Deep South" through the Civil War and beyond.
Plot summary: The lavish film follows the fortunes of beautiful, ambitious and unscrupulous Southern belle Scarlett as she fights for her and her family's survival. The greatest battles are not between the North and the South, but between Scarlett and anyone who stands between her and what she wants.
Buzzword bingo: Tara, mamie and fiddle-de-dee.
Key line: "Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn."
Key scene: Lying weak from hunger in the ruins of rural Georgia, Scarlett claws at the scorched earth and declares: "As God is my witness, I will never be hungry again." At that moment she decides that not only is she going to survive, but she is going to prosper.
It's A Wonderful Life - 1946
In a line: Heartwarming reminder that good guys can prosper.
Plot summary: George Bailey has had some bad luck and on Christmas Eve is thinking of killing himself. An angel is sent to intervene and show what a vital role he has played in people's lives. Topically, the baddie is a banker, and the whole story works as a paean to community over personal ambition.
Buzzword bingo: Evil bankers, getting your wings.
Key lines: "You're worth more dead than alive."
"Harry wasn't there to save them, because you weren't there to save Harry."
Key scene: There is a run on the savings and loan and George stands behind the counter trying to persuade the crowd that they can't take their money out because it is invested in each other's houses.
The Great Escape- 1963
In a line: Ingenious escape from German PoW camp, based on a true story.
Plot summary: PoW escape mastermind Big X arrives in the high security Stalag Luft III and conceives a plan for the biggest breakout of Allied airmen yet. They dig three tunnels, Tom, Dick and Harry, and have to devise cunning tricks to keep their activities from the prying eyes of the camp guards.
Buzzword bingo: Ferrets, penguins.
Key line: "Oh my God, they found Tom."
Key scene: Virgil Hilts tries to jump over barbed wire at the border on a stolen motorbike. Nothing like it ever happened in reality. But Steve McQueen really liked motorbikes
Citizen Kane - 1941
In a line: Newspaper mogul attempts to bestride the world but ends up alone.
Plot summary: With close parallels with the life of real newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst, the movie follows a journalist's quest to uncover the meaning of Charles Foster Kane's final words, while also telling the story of his life.
Buzzword bingo: Rosebud, auteur, deep focus, pioneering.
Key line: "You provide the prose poems. I'll provide the war."
Key scene: Kane dies and the snow globe he is holding rolls out of his hand.
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