Chess in cinema - the ultimate collection

Chess is often represented in films. Sometimes merely as decoration, often with a deeper, symbolic meaning. In Hollywood the connotation of chess seems to be that of the lonely, disturbed man, seeking pastime and consolation in the royal game. One YouTube user has collected a great number of chess scenes in four videos.

The user FightLuX posted four "Chess Rhapsodies" on YouTube. The music might not be a treat to anyone's ears, but the collection is impressive:


Update June 1, 2011: the videos are not available anymore on YouTube, but they've been cross-posted on Vimeo:

CHESS RHAPSODY 1 - Movies from 1925 to 1968 from Lucius Etruscus on Vimeo.

0:04 - "Shakhmatnaya goryachka" directed by Vsevolod Pudovkin 0:12 - "Monkey Business", with Marx Brothers 0:18 - "The Black Cat" by Edgar G. Ulmer, with Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi 0:20 - "The Great Dictator" by Charlie Chaplin 0:21 - "The Thief of Baghdad" by Ludwig Berger 0:22 - "The Mark of Zorro" by Rouben Mamoulian with Tyrone Power 0:23 - "The Sea Hawk" by Michael Curtiz 0:25 - "Casablanca" by Michael Curtiz with Humphrey Bogart 0:27 - "Keeper of the Flame" by George Cukor with Spencer Tracy 0:28 - "To Be or Not to Be" by Ernst Lubitsch 0:29 - "Sherlock Holmes Faces Death" by Roy William Neill 0:33 - "Ivan Groznyj" by Sergej Michajlovic Ejsenštejn 0:35 - "La belle et la b?te" by Jean Cocteau 0:36 - "Knocking on Any Door" by Nicholas Ray with Humphrey Bogart 0:39 - "Quo Vadis" by Mervyn LeRoy with Robert Taylor 0:42 - "Angel Face" by Otto Preminger 0:45 - "Det Sjunde inseglet" by Ingmar Bergman with Max Von Sydow 0:52 - "Ascenseur pour léchafaud" by Louis Malle 0:53 - "The Diary of Anne Frank" by George Stevens 0:54 - "Exodus" by Otto Preminger 0:55 - "Lolita" by Stanley Kubrick with James Mason 0:56 - "From Russia with Love" by Terence Young 0:59 - "Becket" by Peter Glenville 1:03 - "Woman of Straw" by Basil Dearden with Sean Connery 1:07 - "Whats New Pussycat" by Clive Donner with Woody Allen 1:12 - "Zatoichi Jigoku tabi" by Kenji Misumi 1:16 - "Tony Rome" by Gordon Douglas with Frank Sinatra 1:20 - "Dance of the Vampires" by Roman Polanski 1:23 - "The Thomas Crown Affair" by Norman Jewison with Steve McQueen

CHESS RHAPSODY 2 - Movies from 1968 to 1995 from Lucius Etruscus on Vimeo.

0:03 - "Straw Dogs" directed by Sam Peckinpah with Dustin Hoffman 0:07 - "Vamos a matar, compa?eros" by Sergio Corbucci 0:08 - "Lassie: The Adventures of Neeka" by Jack B. Hively 0:09 - "The Omega Man" by Boris Sagal with Charlton Heston 0:11 - "Blazing Saddles" by Mel Brooks with Gene Wilder 0:13 - "La plus longue nuit du diable" by Jean Brismée 0:16 - "Night Moves" by Arthur Penn with Gene Hackman 0:23 - "Io sono un autarchico" by Nanni Moretti 0:29 - "The Wild Geese" by Andrew V. McLaglen 0:31 - "Il gatto" by Luigi Comencini 0:36 - "The Lady Vanishes" by Anthony Page with Elliott Gould 0:37 - "Fantozzi contro tutti" by Neri Parenti 0:40 - "History of the World: Part I" by Mel Brooks 0:52 - "Aus dem Leben der Marionetten" by Ingmar Bergman 0:55 - "Blade Runner" by Ridley Scott with Rutger Hauer 0:58 - "Fanny och Alexander" by Ingmar Bergman 0:59 - "The Thing" by John Carpenter with Kurt Russell 1:08 - "A Midsummer Nights Sex Comedy" by Woody Allen 1:11 - "Bingo Bongo" by Pasquale Festa Campanile with Adriano Celentano 1:19 - "The Jigsaw Man" by Terence Young 1:22 - "Nineteen Eighty-Four" by Michael Radofrd 1:24 - "Revenge of the Nerds" by Jeff Kanew 1:27 - "La diagonale du fou" by Richard Dembo with Michel Piccoli 1:42 - "Lattrazione" by Mario Gariazzo 1:49 - "Dekalog, jeden" by Krzysztof Kieslowski 1:54 - "Rambo III" by Peter MacDonald 1:56 - "M.A.R.K.-13 - Hardware" by Richard Stanley 1:57 - "Europa" by Lars von Trier 1:58 - "The Silence of the Lambs" by Jonathan Demme 1:59 - "The Addams Family" by Barry Sonnenfield with Raul Julia 2:04 - "Knight Moves" by Carl Schenkel with Christopher Lambert 2:11 - "Caino e Caino" by Alessandro Benvenuti 2:16 - "Searching for Bobby Fischer" by Steven Zaillian 2:26 - "Grumpy Old Men" by Donald Petrie with Jack Lemmon 2:28 - "Botte di Natale" by Terence Hill 2:40 - "Men of War" by Perry Lang with Dolph Lundgren 2:42 - "Sugar Hill" by Leon Ichaso 2:44 - "Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult" by Peter Segal with Leslie Nielsen 2:48 - "Assassins" by Richard Donner with Sylvester Stallone 2:54 - "Canadian Bacon" by Michael Moore 2:57 - "Othello" by Oliver Parker with Kenneth Branagh

CHESS RHAPSODY 3 - Movies from 1995 to 2005 from Lucius Etruscus on Vimeo.

0:04 - "Checkmate" [porno!] by Dyanna Lauren 0:15 - "Ridicule" by Patrice Leconte 0:20 - "Sabotage" by Tibor Takács with Mark Dacascos 0:24 - "Independence Day" by Roland Emmerich with Jeff Goldblum 0:30 - "Shine" by Scott Hicks 0:32 - "Summer of Fear" by Mike Robe 0:37 - "George of the Jungle" by Sam Weisman 0:39 - "Le comte de Monte Cristo" by J. Dayan with Gérard Depardieu 0:43 - "Train de vie" by Radu Mihaileanu 0:48 - "Bicentennial Man" by Chris Columbus with Robin Williams 0:54 - "The Spy Who Shagged Me" by Jay Roach with Mike Myers 1:11 - "Virus" by John Bruno 1:15 - "The Luzhin Defence" by Marleen Gorris with John Turturro 1:29 - "X-Men" by Bryan Singer 1:36 - "Black Hawk Down" by Ridley Scott 1:37 - "Black Knight" by Gil Junger with Martin Lawrence 1:40 - "Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone" by Chris Columbus 1:48 - "The Last Castle" by Rod Lurie 1:50 - "La regina degli scacchi" by Claudia Florio 2:10 - "Scacco alla Regina" [porno!] by Riccardo Schicchi with Eva Henger 2:30 - "The Navigators" by Ken Loach 2:31 - "Zoolander" [extra bonus in DVD!] 2:32 - "Two Weeks Notice" by Marc Lawrence with Hugh Grant 2:33 - "Global Effect" by Terry Cunningham 2:35 - "Moscow Heat" by Jeff Celentano with Michael York 2:42 - "Il Paradiso allimprovviso" by Leonardo Pieraccioni with Alessandro Haber 2:56 - "Out of Reach" by Po-Chih Leong 3:00 - "The Chronicles of Riddick" by David Twohy 3:02 - "In Enemy Hands" by Tony Giglio 3:06 - "A Love Song for Bobby Long" by Shainee Gabel 3:11 - "Five Fingers" by Laurence Malkin 3:16 - "La terza stella" by Alberto Ferrari 3:19 - "Kingdom of Heaven" by Ridley Scott 3:21 - "Oliver Twist" by Roman Polanski 3:22 - "Revolver" by Guy Ritchie with Jason Statham

CHESS RHAPSODY 4 - TV-Movies from 1966 to 2008 from Lucius Etruscus on Vimeo.

0:04 - Star Trek TOS (1x01) 0:11 - The Prisoner (1x09) 0:17 - Columbo (2x07) 0:19 - Happy Days (1x01) 0:21 - The Bionic Woman (2x07) 0:27 - Three's Company (3x02) 0:32 - Hart to Hart (1x18) 0:36 - Family Ties (4x20) 0:46 - MacGyver (1x21) 0:57 - Murder, She Wrote (2x17) 1:02 - Cheers (5x15) 1:07 - Major Dad (1x08) 1:16 - Cheers (8x19) 1:21 - Twin Peaks (2x14) 1:29 - Hart to Hart (6x04) 1:34 - Frasier (3x18) 1:39 - OZ (1x03) 1:40 - Sabrina, the Teenage Witch (1x18) 1:44 - OZ (2x05) 1:49 - The Pretender (3x19) 1:54 - Profiler (3x19) 1:56 - Stargate SG1 (3x18) 2:04 - Compagni di scuola (1x20) 2:09 - Friends (7x21) 2:20 - That 70s Show (4x01) 2:23 - Judging Amy (3x19) 2:27 - The West Wing (3x14) 2:30 - Joan of Arcadia (1x03) 2:32 - Malcolm in the Middle (4x19) 2:36 - Less Than Perfect (1x20) 2:38 - Coupling (4x03) 2:41 - My Wife and Kids (4x26) 2:43 - CSI: New York (2x04) 2:51 - Law & Order, Criminal Intent (4x11) 2:54 - Numb3rs (2x05) 2:58 - Star Trek Enterprise (4x11) 3:01 - In Justice (1x13) 3:03 - According to Jim (5x17) 3:04 - Smallville (5x19) 3:06 - House, M.D. (3x23) 3:10 - Hannah Montana (2x04) 3:12 - Lost (3x11) 3:17 - Tudors (1x01) 3:22 - Numb3rs (4x14) 3:26 - Don Matteo (6x22) 3:27 - Terminator: The Sarah Connors Chronicles (1x05)

CHESS RHAPSODY 5 - Other movies, from 1916 to 2004 from Lucius Etruscus on Vimeo.

Furthermore, the info of the YouTube user refers to a website (in Italian) with a large collection of chess in films, telefilms, videoclips, TV shows, commercials, animations and cartoons. Is there any other board game that's represented so much in our culture?