Game #1 of this past week’s Jeopardy! All-Star Games wildcard match (show #7939 - Thursday, February 28, 2019), featured the following clue in the Jeopardy! round:

Paul Schrader has said this French director’s “The Rules of the Game” represents all that film can be

I absolutely love that film and considering myself somewhat of a French cinema fan, smugly blurted out “Jean-Luc Godard”. Well, when contestant Roger then correctly answered, “Renoir”, I felt sufficiently embarrassed to go off and refresh my memory.

Consulting Renoir’s Wikipedia page reminded me that I have yet to see another of his highly acclaimed films, “La Grande Illusion”. That Wikipedia entry contains the following quote:

Orson Welles named La Grande Illusion as one of the two movies he would take with him “on the ark.”

Now I was really motivated to see it based on such high praise.

Curious about what other film one of history’s greatest directors might take with him on the ark, I followed the citation for Welles’s quote and watched the corresponding YouTube clip of a Dick Cavett interview with him. Naturally, I didn’t learn the name of the other movie but even more attractive now was YouTube’s suggestion on the right of the screen of, “The Most Profound Moment in Movie History”. I watched this mesmerizing clip and then immediately proceeded to watch the entire film that it was excerpted from, “F for Fake”. It’s enjoyable and funny and documents the lives of some truly incredible characters. I recommend it.

I guess I’m glad I botched that Jeopardy! clue after all…