So again, my love of movies is creeping into these posts and causing a bias, but you can deal with it because today we’re playing a game, folks! Yes, you heard me right, it’s time to play:
Believe it or not, art museums get a lot of screen time in some really great movies!
You’ve probably seen a lot of these movies (they’re classics), but do you actually know what museums these take place in? Take our quiz to find out. Answers below.
We’ll start you off with a pretty simple one.
1. Rocky (1976), directed by Sylvester Stallone
Everyone knows the scene. You’ve probably even imitated it at some point in your life. Rocky, running up stairs, is an iconic image in film. But where is is it? At a famous art museum, of course! Watch the scene and see if you can identify it.
This might be another easy one…
2. Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986), directed by John Hughes
Literally a film that every high schooler needs to see, this comedy by classic teen movies director John Hughes (RIP!) features stellar performances and emotional character arcs, but do you know this museum in this classic sequence?
Ok, so those might have been easy. Try this one now.
3. Manhattan (1976), directed by Woody Allen
Do you know someone who tends to be a bit of a snob when it comes to art? Woody Allen sure does, and he gives Diane Keaton some great lines to deliver to Allen’s neurotic character Isaac as a pretentious new acquaintance at this famous museum in – you guessed it – Manhattan. Of course, there’s plenty of art museums in New York, so if you aren’t familiar with the movie, you may not get this one. What’s the museum?
4. Vertigo (1958), directed by Alfred Hitchcock
This is my personal favorite Hitchcock film, with James Stewart as a private eye with a fear of heights. The film features some pretty distinctive location shots, but what about this well-known scene in an art museum? The museum has a well-known exterior shown earlier in this scene, but bonus points if you can figure it out just from the interior.
5. The Thomas Crown Affair (1999), directed by John McTiernan
This entertaining remake of the 1967 film stars Pierce Brosnan as an art thief who steals a well-known Monet, so obviously, an art museum will be featured in the movie. The question is, which one?
BONUS: Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011), directed by Michael Bay
I know, I know, the Transformers movies have a) ruined your childhood memories, b) ruined your ear drums, and c) made more money than anyone ever thought possible. However, believe it or not, there’s a major art museum featured in the third movie – and there’s not even any giant robots blowing it up! The beautiful, white-walled museum has a distinctive design, though it’s hard to see it all from this quick shot of Shia LaBeouf kicking his car. I would have found a better scene, but YouTube was sadly short on scenes in this museum and long on alien robot explosions.
How did you do? Check out the answers below.
1. Rocky – The Philadelphia Museum of Art, which movie news and review site Screen Junkie ranked as the second-most famous film location ever.
2. Ferris Bueller’s Day Off – Ferris’s truant excursion around his home city has inspired real-life tours, which include a stop at the Art Institute of Chicago.
3. Manhattan – This Upper East Side museum has actually been featured in several films! It’s the Guggenheim Museum.
4. Vertigo – The one West Coast museum featured in this list is the Legion of Honor.
5. The Thomas Crown Affair – This was a bit tricky. Though the film’s museums scenes take place in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC and the movie has exterior shots, it’s basically impossible to film inside this museum. Thus, the crew built their own version of the museum in a studio set.
BONUS: Transformers 3 – the Milwaukee Art Museum, and I’m not kidding, it is absolutely stunning.
