Tossup
A telegram typo resulted in this director being passed over as president of the 1980 Cannes jury in favor of a Hollywood star with a similar name. A film by this director cuts between a woman dancing to mambo in her room and her father tumbling down a staircase to his death due to a heart attack. Richard Pryor spent most of his time in the Army imprisoned for stabbing a white soldier who laughed at a scene by this director in which a girl cries while clutching her dead mother’s casket. In a shot by this director, a man sleeps on a sofa while a woman looks out a window at a (*) deer. In Pulp Fiction, Vincent Vega orders a steak named for this director. John Waters’s Polyester, Todd Haynes’s Far From Heaven, and Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s Ali: Fear Eats the Soul are all homages to this director’s films, especially those starring Rock Hudson. For 10 points, Written on the Wind, Imitation of Life, and All That Heaven Allows exemplify what German director’s melodramas? ■END■
ANSWER: Douglas Sirk [or Hans Detlef Sierk] (The Cannes telegram to Hollywood was meant to be “request Douglas Sirk for jury” but the telegram sent was “Request Douglas, Kirk for jury.” The second line refers to a scene from Written on the Wind.)
<AP, Written>
= Average correct buzz position
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