The Movie Puzzle Solved

Here’s the relationships between these movies:

Logan’s Run is related to Austin Powers because Michael York is in both of them — in the first as the eponymous title character, and in the second as Basil Exposition, Austin’s boss who delivers expository dialogue.

Austin Powers is related to Casino Royale because the very first Casino Royale movie, back in 1967, was an Austin-Powersy 60s Bond spoof starring David Niven, Woody Allen and Peter Sellers.

Continuing in that theme, Down With Love is a very campy take on the old Rock Hudson-Doris Day comedies of the 60s AND at one point, star Ewan McGregor was tipped to take over the Bond role.

This is connected to North by Northwest partly by lettering style (letters with arrows - as was used on one movie poster for NxNW), the fact that there’s a direction in the title, and also because NxNW was basically the prototype for the Bond films. Cary Grant was the producers’ first choice, but they went with Sean Connery when Grant refused the role.

This connects to West Side Story by studio (MGM), and again because of a compass direction in the title.

WSS connects to Demoiselles de Rochefort as the latter is a Jacques Demy tribute to MGM musicals; Demoiselles connects to the earlier American in Paris by both being filmed (AiP, only in parts) in France, and sharing marquee song-and-dance man Gene Kelly.

AiP connects to Amelie via Montmartre, as Kelly’s character is trying to sell his paintings there, and most of the action of Amelie happens in that neighborhood.

Amelie is connected to the Fifth Element via Mathieu Kassovitz (”Gimmee de CASSHhhhhh!”) …

From there we go to Jacques Tati’s Mon Oncle…what’s the connection here….um…they’re French films…there’s some silly slapstick and…oh yes, there’s airport scenes in both! And sort of satires of supposed Western, technological progress! (Yes, that’ll do.)

From there, two more M. Hulot / Jacques Tati films, Les Vacances de M. Hulot and PlayTime.

Ratatouille… is also set in France…and they try their best to capture the same idea from Mon Oncle, the idea that food and wine and pleasure and doing what you love are more important than money.

From there to the Daft Punk / Leiji Matsumoto co-production Interstella 5555 — the music is French, the animation is Japanese.

Ok, then a group of Hayao Miyazakis, and then we end up at the cinematic adaption of Osamu Tezuka’s Metropolis, which deviates from the original manga by being more referential of Fritz Lang’s Metropolis, which concerned a group of downtrodden workers….

which brings us to Office Space.…which is connected to The Matrix viathese mash-ups… and the fact that they involve cubicle farms.

The Matrix and Blade Runner are gritty dystopian future movies…Lord of The Rings is connected to Blade Runner because…um….Gandalf rides a unicorn? And Gaff makes a tinfoil unicorn to allude to the ‘replicant dream’ Deckard has? (OK, Shadowfax was a horse, but let’s let it go.)

Which connects back to Star Wars because Rancors are kinda like cave trolls? And of course the LOTR trilogy, very steeped in all that Joseph Campbell-y universal-myth-making stuff, inspired Lucas to write his trilogy in the first place.

ok, from Star Wars to It’s a Wonderful Life…they’re both American classics in the AFI Top 100, no?

And IAWL connects to Bueller because the former is a morality tale about a near-suicide and the second is the story of someone trying to have a perfect day off, but they both feature scenes of people running home, you see how much one person can affect the world (everyone truly loves both Ferris and George Bailey) and the bad guy / vice principal get it in the end.

Bueller connects to Anchors Aweigh because the latter starred Sinatra and Chicago was his kind of town…which connects to The Life Aquatic because they involve boats and love triangles…and that connects to Yellow Submarine because they both feature (ahem) yellow submarines and fantastical made-up animated undersea creatures, and good music too.

“And that’s the truth!”

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From left to right: Logan’s Run; Austin Powers; Casino Royale; Down With Love; North by Northwest; West Side Story; Les Demoiselles de Rochefort; An American In Paris; Le fabuleux destin d’Amelie Poulain; The Fifth Element; Mon Oncle; M. Hulot’s Holiday; PlayTime; Ratatouille; Interstella 5555; Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind; Kiki’s Delivery Service; Princess Mononoke; Spirited Away; Castle In The Sky; My Neighbor Totoro; Howl’s Moving Castle; Metropolis (anime); Office Space; the Matrix Trilogy; Blade Runner; Lord of the Rings trilogy; Star Wars box set; It’s a Wonderful Life; Ferris Bueller’s Day Off; Anchors Aweigh; The Life Aquatic; Yellow Submarine.