Q: Build a movie plot around this: Who was exiled to Elba? Napoleon Bonapart
A: "The Duellists" is based on a story written by Joseph Conrad, which, according to the author, was itself based on a true story whose origins sprang from a ten-line paragraph in a small Southern France local newspaper. That brief paragraph reported the fatal ending of a duel between two officers in Napoleon's Grand Army. The two officers had fought a series of duels in the midst of great wars on some futile pretext. As the pretext was never disclosed, Conrad invented one.We are in 1800, in the garrison town of Strasbourg, on the Rhine. There is a lull in the Napoleonic wars, and the French soldiers are enjoying a moment of peace before resuming the slaughters. As the film opens, a young girl driving a gaggle of geese happens upon two men dueling in a meadow. Lieutenant Gabriel Feraud (Harvey Keitel), from the 7th Hussar Regiment, is in the process of settling a score with an unknown man who soon ends up skewered on the Lieutenant's epee. We learn that this man is the nephew of the Mayor of Strasbourg, and is seriously wounded, when General Treillard (Robert Stephens), Commandant of the garrison, enters his officers quarters and makes inquiries about this Lieutenant Feraud. Lieutenant Armand d'Hubert (Keith Carradine), from the 4th Hussar Regiment, admits to vaguely knowing the gentleman, and he is immediately "volunteered" by his Commandant to find him and bring him back to the barracks, where he will be put under house arrest. General Treillard, who must see that his soldiers obey the Emperors rules prohibiting combat with civilians, needs to investigate what happened in the meadow. It is somewhat ironical that Bonaparte, who spent a large part of his life dueling with the rest of Europe on a rather grand scale, involving tens of thousand of participants on both sides (but was somewhat of a dilettante when judged by present day's standards), had little respect for the same tradition on an individual level.D'Hubert, after looking all over town, ends up at Feraud's private quarters, where he learns that the...

Q: Build a movie plot around this: What did the Starman tell Jenny he gave her? A baby
A: In 1977, Voyager 2 was launched containing a gold, phonographic disk with messages of peace embedded within it and inviting visitors to come to the planet Earth. The Voyager probe is intercepted by an alien space ship which sends a small observational scout vessel in response to the invitation in order to establish first contact with Earth. However, instead of being greeted by its human hosts, the spacecraft is promptly shot down by the US government. The ship crashes in Chequamegon Bay, Wisconsin and the alien, a blue ball of energy, emerges from the wreckage. It stumbles upon the house of recently widowed Jenny Hayden (Karen Allen). There, it finds a lock of hair belonging to deceased Scott Hayden in a photo album and uses it to clone a new body in the likeness of Scott, which the stunned Jenny witnesses.The Starman (Jeff Bridges) is seen to possess seven small silver spheres which he turns into pure energy to perform miraculous feats. He uses the first one to send a message to his people that his craft has been destroyed, that the environment is hostile, and that he will rendezvous with them at "Landing Area One" in three days, located in Arizona. He then uses the second one to create a holographic map of the United States in order to compel the dumbstruck Jenny to help him get to Arizona. However, Jenny is frightened of the Starman and reacts with hostility towards him, doing what she can to avoid traveling with him. After repeatedly and unsuccessfully attempting to escape, she finally implores the Starman to shoot her with her pistol. Instead, the Starman releases the pistol's magazine and tells her he means her no harm. As they continue on their journey the Starman, who developed a rough understanding of English syntax from the Voyager 2 disk, learns to communicate exactly who he is and what his purpose is to Jenny while she tries to teach the Starman that humanity is not completely savage.The Starman explains to Jenny that he has three days to get to the rendezvous point, Arizona's Barringer Crater, or...

Q: Build a movie plot around this: Who helps Bill regain control of his company? Joe
A: William Parish (Anthony Hopkins) is a multimillionaire who has run a successful empire for the past forty years in New York. But, after his wife passes away, he feels empty and becomes convinced that Death is now after him too. He hears strange voices in his head, mimicking his own words, but they are phony and ridicule him in every possible manner. William's eldest and somewhat meddlesome daughter, Allison (Marcia Gay Harden), is planning her father's 65th birthday party.Her sister Susan (Claire Forlani), an attractive young doctor, is involved with one of Bill's board members, Drew (Jake Weber). Her father disapproves of the relationship and suggests she look for someone more suited to her character. Early in the morning she meets a handsome and cheery stranger (Brad Pitt) in a cafe, but fails to learn his name before they leave. The young man is struck and killed by a car a few minutes later.Death (Brad Pitt) appears to Bill in his home. Bill finally realizes that the young man is the personification of death. But death wants a holiday from his taxing, eternal responsibility of taking the souls of the dead to the after life. He chooses William to be his guide strikes a deal with Bill: as long as Bill shows him around the world of mortals, Bill will get to live a little longer. Temporarily doubting his own sanity, he finally agrees. He is introduced to William's family at a dinner at his house, when Susan arrives a few minutes late. She immediately recognizes the young man she met earlier that day, but the young man as Death is unfamiliar with the practices of mortal men and does not remember their original meeting. He acts awkwardly around her and she is confused and upset by his sudden odd behavior, very unlike his actions earlier that day.When the dinner guests ask Bill for the name of his "old friend", Bill hesitatingly introduces him as "Joe Black". The family is puzzled by the sudden appearance of an old friend of their father's that they have never met. Joe insists that Bill allow him to accompany...

Q: Build a movie plot around this: When was her song, "Non, je ne regrette rien", performed? as the maid returns with the cross
A:
As a small child, Edith Piaf is crying on a stoop, near some other children on the streets of Paris. Her mother stands across the alley singing, panhandling for change. Edith's mother writes a letter to her child's father, the contortionist, who is in the trenches of World War 1. She explains that she's dropping Edith off at her mother's so she can pursue the life of the artist.He returns to Paris and scoops up Edith, covered in insect bites and sores, from under the blanket of a bed in a delapidated house. He drops her off at his mother's house, a bordello madame in Brittany.There, Edith is adopted informally by Titine, a young troubled redhead who sings to Edith, plays with her, and walks the streets of their small town. Titine and another prostitute are Edith's closest friends and they are repeatedly demeaned and abused by brothel customers. Screams of pain ring out one night, as Titine rushes down the hall to help her friend, who explains, "I let him play doctor and use his instruments on me." Edith enters the room, saying she cannot see. A doctor identifies it as keratitis, an inflammation of the eyes, and her eyes are wrapped in cloth. Titine and her visit St. Therese at Liseux, pray for vision. Later, as the members of the brothel pin up laundry in the backyard, Edith slowly pushes off her banage and reveals her eyes, and blinks up at the sky.Edith's father is discharged from the WW1 forces and takes Edith to live with him, at loud protests by Titine, who must be held back while he bundles Edith into a cart. Her father works in the circus as a contortionist. He cannot stand the manager, so they leave, performing on the streets of Paris. At one point a passerby asks if she is part of the show, and with prompting by her father to "do something," she sings the Marseillaise. More crowds gather around her and are obviously moved.She makes a friend from a factory job, Momone, and they wander the streets, glugging from a bottle of wine, and Edith occasionally sings for their supper, quite literally. After...