At the time when the fortnight of Roland Garros begins, we offer you a quiz on tennis at the cinema.
Sport occupies a major place in our society, and this omnipresence is of course reflected in the cinema.
We recently saw basketball player Lebron James take over from legend Michael Jordan in Space Jam 2. In 2017, Margot Robbie put on the skates and dazzled us on the ice by interpreting the role of Tonya Harding in I, Tonya. And last March, Will Smith received his first Oscar for best actor for his role in The Williams Method, which looked back on the childhood and education of sisters Venus and Serena Williams.
But many old films have also remained famous by addressing different sports over the past decades. Boxing, a very cinematic sport, has inspired great directors such as Charlie Chaplin and his hilarious fight in City Lights, Martin Scorsese and his masterpiece Raging Bull where Robert De Niro played boxer Jack LaMotta, or even the Rocky franchise of which Sylvester Stallone will direct four parts.
Football has also been brought to the big screen by renowned filmmakers. It was John Huston who staged a match during the Second World War in Our Victory, where we could see a team of prisoners made up of Sylvester Stallone, Michael Caine and the icon Pelé confront German soldiers. Ken Loach meanwhile had the opportunity to stage the fiery Eric Cantona in the aptly named Looking for Eric. And we can also remember the moving Patrick Dewaere in Jean-Jacques Annaud’s Death the Arbitrator.
And since we are approaching this vast subject of sport in the cinema, we can pay a vibrant tribute to Vangelis a few days after his death, composer of the unforgettable music of Chariots of Fire by Hugh Hudson.
But at the time when the Roland Garros tournament begins, it is with tennis that we suggest you play with this quiz in nine films. Take out your best forehands to try to achieve the perfect!