|
|
Post by london777 on Mar 23, 2017 14:12:50 GMT
Many great films (and some not so great) have been made about the movie-making process. It makes sense. Even in junior school we were told to write about what we knew about. Of course there are constraints, such as the risk of offending (or even libeling) actual persons or their heirs, non-cooperation from rival studios, etc, etc.
Please add any I have omitted. I am sure there must be many, especially from the non-Anglophone world. And I welcome your other comments. I will update this OP so we build a handy reference list.
Note that I am just listing them, not necessarily recommending them.
Do not add titles unless they actually depict some part of the process from concept to screen. For example, the protagonist of In a Lonely Place (1950) is a screenwriter but, if I recall correctly, the film does not show the activity of writing or filming. (I could be wrong as it is far too long since I last watched it).
Also, will cerebral posters please refrain from adding stuff like 'Clash on Main Street' may appear to be a routine B-movie about a bungled bank heist but it is actually a profound meditation on the film-making process in the light of Kierkegaard's existentialism. OK, that is a bit over the top, but this week I watched Perfect (1985) in which the Travolta character writes an article for Rolling Stone in which he eulogists California health clubs as an expression of Emersonian philosophy. Given the muddled viewpoint of the movie I am not sure whether that was supposed to be satirical or not.
Adaptation 2002 Spike Jonze (Charlie Kaufman screenplay)
And Starring Pancho Villa As Himself 2003 Bruce Beresford
Barton Fink 1991 Coen Brothers
Boogie Nights 1997 Paul Thomas Anderson
Day for Night 1973 François Truffaut
Ed Wood 1994 Tim Burton
Fade to Black 2006 Oliver Parker
For Your Consideration 2006 Christopher Guest
Grand Canyon 1991 Lawrence Kasdan
Hail, Caesar! 2016 Coen Brothers
Hitchcock 2012 Sacha Gervasi
Hollywood Ending 2007 Woody Allen
Hugo 2011 Martin Scorsese
Living in Oblivion 1995 Tom DiCillo
Mulholland Drive 2001 David Lynch
Safe Conduct 2002 Bertrand Tavernier
Shadow of the Vampire 2000 E. Elias Merhige
State and Main 2000 David Mamet
Sullivan's Travels (1941) Preston Sturges
Sunset Boulevard 1950 Billy Wilder
Swimming With Sharks 1994 George Huang
The Bad and the Beautiful 1952 Vincente Minnelli
The Big Knife 1955 Robert Aldridge
The Big Lebowski 1998 Coen Brothers
The Big Picture 1989 Christopher Guest
The Day of the Locust 1975 John Schlesinger
The Fall 2006 Tarsem Singh
The Front 1976 Martin Ritt
The Girl 2012 Julian Jarrold
The Player 1992 Robert Altman
The Stunt Man 1980 Richard Rush
Trumbo 2015 Jay Roach
Two Weeks in Another Town 1962 Vincente Minnelli
Wag the Dog 1997 Barry Levinson
|
|
|
|
Post by marshamae on Mar 23, 2017 15:25:28 GMT
Boy Meets Girl- a very funny play made into a Sosa movie. Stars Cagney and Pat OBrien as two screenwriters whooping it up , making fun of the crass movie boss and the big cowboy star. A commissary waitress has an illegitimate baby who becomes an immensely popular baby star. its manic and fun, and has some smart things to say about the film world , but reading the play it comes off funnier.
|
|
|
|
Post by Doghouse6 on Mar 23, 2017 15:27:07 GMT
To cover some not mentioned:
Free and Easy (1930) - Keaton's talking debut ("Oh, woe is me...the sween has quooned!") and a barrelfull of cameos.
The Lost Squadron (1932) - WWI aces work as movie stunt fliers. Erich von Stroheim as a tyrannical director (who'da thunk?).
What Price Hollywood? (1932) - The embryo before a star was born.
Bombshell (1933) - Lacerating satire of the tribulations of stardom.
The Death Kiss (1933) - Breezy whodunnit behind studio walls.
Make Me A Star (1933) - First talkie version of Merton Of the Movies.
A Star Is Born (1937) - Is even a capsule description really necessary?
Hollywood Hotel (1937) - Music-filled romp about making-or-breaking it.
Stand-In (1937) - Leslie Howard and Humphrey Bogart reunite for some light-hearted lampooning.
Something To Sing About (1937) - Eastern song-and-dance man Cagney goes west, makes good, becomes miserable.
Boy Meets Girl (1938) - Cagney and O'Brien are slow working, fast talking screenwriters.
The Perils Of Pauline (1947) - Fluffy, fictionalized bio of Pearl White.
Merton Of the Movies (1947) - Re-tailored for Skelton.
On An Island With You (1948) - Colorful Esther Williams confection.
It's A Great Feeling (1949) - Zany early Doris Day. A dozen-and-a-half top Warner's personalities poke fun at themselves.
Valentino (1951) - Noteworthy for Anthony Dexter's spooky physical resemblance to the star, but little else.
The Star (1952) - Has-been Bette Davis tries for a comeback.
A Star Is Born (1954) - Even better the second time around with songs and Garland.
The Buster Keaton Story (1957) - Doesn't work as well as might have been expected with the multi-talented and acrobatic Donald O'Connor.
Jeanne Eagles (1957) - Pretty standard star bio of the era, both sensationalized and sanitized.
Frankenstein 1970 (1958) - Half in earnest, half tongue-in-cheek nonsense about Dr. Frankenstein renting his castle to a film company.
Man Of A Thousand Faces (1959) - Reverential depiction of Lon Chaney's life and professional times.
The Carpetbaggers (1964) - Ruthless aviation tycoon dabbles in movies at the dawn of talkies (sound like anyone?); glossy, trashy fun.
Harlow (1965) and Harlow (1965) - No need to worry about confusing the two: the less said about either, the better.
After the Fox (1966) - Uneven Peter Sellers lunacy; Victor Mature steals all his scenes as an over-the-hill glamour-boy.
Alex In Wonderland (1970) "Sullivan's Travels meets the Counterculture" with a cult following.
Hearts Of the West (1975) - Very sweet and affecting look at Depression-era Poverty Row. Standout roles for Alan Arkin and Andy Griffith.
Nickelodeon (1976) - Lots of promise; little delivery.
I really hate leaving out The Barefoot Contessa (1954), but they only talk about movie-making. Still, a melancholy, sometimes dreamlike, always beautiful to look at and interesting film.
|
|
|
|
Post by pimpinainteasy on Mar 23, 2017 15:33:41 GMT
CELLULOID - indian movie in the malayalam language about the making of the first movie in the malayalam language. i wouldnt recommend it though.
THE WOMAN CHASER - great film based on a charles willeford novel. strongly recommend this dark and relatively unknown film.
THE LAST MOVIE - directed by dennis hopper after EASY RIDER. i haven't seen it. i'm not sure if a good print exists.
INLAND EMPIRE - i did not have a clue what was going on with this one. had to stop half way into it.
THE AVIATOR - one of my least favorite scorsese flicks.
|
|
|
|
Post by pimpinainteasy on Mar 23, 2017 15:34:42 GMT
love this one. great choice, london777.
|
|
|
|
Post by mattgarth on Mar 23, 2017 15:48:06 GMT
Not much to add after London, Spider, Doghouse and Pimp got through with the subject!!
Adding one minor entry -- GRAND CANYON (1949) from Lippert Pictures. Richard Arlen as cowboy turned movie actor.
|
|
|
|
Post by movielover on Mar 23, 2017 15:52:16 GMT
You guys got most of them, but I thought of a few more:
Tropic Thunder (2008) - Ben Stiller
Big Fat Liar (2002) - Shawn Levy
Bowfinger (1999) - Frank Oz
Get Shorty (1995) - Barry Sonnenfeld
Chaplin (1992) - Richard Attenborough
Sunset (1988) - Blake Edwards
Sweet Liberty (1986) - Alan Alda
Body Double (1984) - Brian DePalma
Blow Out (1981) - Brian DePalma
Real Life (1979) - Albert Brooks
All That Jazz (1979) - Bob Fosse
Hooper (1978) - Hal Needham
Night Moves (1975) - Arthur Penn
|
|
|
|
Post by pimpinainteasy on Mar 23, 2017 16:17:02 GMT
THE LAST TYCOON
|
|
|
|
Post by pimpinainteasy on Mar 23, 2017 16:18:12 GMT
You guys got most of them, but I thought of a few more: Tropic Thunder (2008) - Ben Stiller Bowfinger (1999) - Frank Oz Chaplin (1992) - Richard Attenborough Get Shorty (1995) - Barry Sonnenfeld Sunset (1988) - Blake Edwards Body Double (1984) - Brian DePalma Blow Out (1981) - Brian DePalma Real Life (1979) - Albert Brooks All That Jazz (1979) - Bob Fosse Hooper (1978) - Hal Needham Night Moves (1975) - Arthur Penn great choices. |
|
|
|
Post by teleadm on Mar 23, 2017 20:30:16 GMT
Not sure if these could count Callaway Went Thataway 1951 and The Perils of Pauline 1947.
|
|
|
|
Post by manfromplanetx on Mar 23, 2017 20:33:41 GMT
A film within a film , a thriller within a thriller .... Alain Robbe-Grillet's , Trans-Europ-Express (1966) is an excellent film on the processes of constructing and writing a film...
Boarding the Trans-Europ-Express (Paris -Antwerp) are a team of three filmmakers a writer-director (played by Robbe-Grillet himself), a producer and the production secretary “script girl” armed with typewriter. The team discuss a thriller they want to make about smuggling drugs to Antwerp, we shift to inside the movie they are discussing and see the fictional drug courier in a rather ridiculous costume with fake beard and glasses and suitcase.
Back to the compartment and the filmmakers who are now considering reworking and improving on what we have just seen. The secretary continually interrupts to remind her employers that they're ignoring facts, missing important details, and spinning off on tangents that contradict what's gone before.
From now on the two parallel worlds of the film itself, its characters and authors, and a different or parallel narrative space interweave and collide as the filmmakers constantly change their minds, rewriting along the way.
An original and innovative film that features a daringly rule-breaking screenplay, temporal dislocation, narrative rejigging, ellipses, thrills and playfulness.
|
|
|
|
Post by mattgarth on Mar 23, 2017 20:43:42 GMT
Garth Game finally finished over on the Trivia Board so I can give a better look at this impressive list.
Don't think I see POSTCARDS FROM THE EDGE anywhere.
Maybe THE OSCAR from the mid-1960s
NIGHT MOVES -- ooppss, Pimp listed that
|
|
|
|
Post by BATouttaheck on Mar 23, 2017 22:25:18 GMT
The Cameraman (1928)Buster Keaton "After becoming infatuated with a pretty office worker for MGM Newsreels, Buster trades in his tintype operation for a movie camera and sets out to impress the girl (and MGM) with his work. "
|
|
|
|
Post by london777 on Mar 23, 2017 22:25:44 GMT
I really hate leaving out The Barefoot Contessa (1954), but they only talk about movie-making. Still, a melancholy, sometimes dreamlike, always beautiful to look at and interesting film.
For you, Doghouse6, because I enjoy your knowledgeable posts, I am going to bend the rules and grandfather it in. Anyway, as my Irish granny used to say, "A good talk is worth a thousand pictures". Don't you other peasants get ideas! This is a one-off! When I was an English gentleman I was inflexible and incorruptible, but since moving to this dysfunctional Caribbean island, where rules are for pendejos, I have learned to play the game: "You scratch my back, etc". |
|
|
|
Post by Doghouse6 on Mar 23, 2017 23:12:00 GMT
I really hate leaving out The Barefoot Contessa (1954), but they only talk about movie-making. Still, a melancholy, sometimes dreamlike, always beautiful to look at and interesting film.
For you, Doghouse6, because I enjoy your knowledgeable posts, I am going to bend the rules and grandfather it in. Anyway, as my Irish granny used to say, "A good talk is worth a thousand pictures". Don't you other peasants get ideas! This is a one-off! When I was an English gentleman I was inflexible and incorruptible, but since moving to this dysfunctional Caribbean island, where rules are for pendejos, I have learned to play the game: "You scratch my back, etc". Thanks, london, very nice of you. My initial list has grown by about a dozen since this morning as afterthoughts have occurred. As you noted, some films about movie-making are not so great, and as far as the write-what-you-know rule, it's often remarkable how inaccurate (apparently deliberately) some films-about-films are in depicting the process. But to paraphrase The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, when the legend becomes fact, film the legend. |
|
|
|
Post by marianne48 on Mar 23, 2017 23:20:14 GMT
Son of Rambow (2007). In the 1980s, two tween schoolboys befriend each other in order to collaborate on a homemade sequel to First Blood,
with one boy taking on the bulk of shooting the film on his video camera while the other works on storyboarding the plot. They also perform in the film and
add such novel special effects as a dog with wings (none of the Rambo films had that!) The story was inspired by the director's boyhood experiences,
and the DVD includes some clips of his own boyhood movie creations.
|
|
|
|
Post by manfromplanetx on Mar 23, 2017 23:22:18 GMT
Krzysztof Kieślowski's compelling 1979 Polish film Amator, Camera Buff begins when a humble factory worker Filip who acquires a home movie camera and embarks on an all consuming newfound hobby, amateur film.
This quickly develops into an obsession, and transforms his modest and formerly contented life by letting his responsibilities to his wife and daughter slip off his radar.
This pursuit becomes ironic because in trying to capture everyday life, he sacrifices the very experience of living his own everyday life.
Increasingly throughout the film, Filip begins seeing the world more and more through the eyes of his camera. He films everything and begins to get noticed at film festival, he up-grades to a 16mm camera. As the drama of his own mounts Filip begins understanding and relating to it also via the medium of film. His wife even accuses him of playing out his role as if life was a film.
Packed with fascinating observations the amateur filmmaking process is portrayed with a dark sense of drama and emotion...BRILLIANT
|
|
|
|
Post by gunshotwound on Mar 24, 2017 1:10:15 GMT
Valentino (1977) Gods and Monsters (1998) Good Morning, Babylon (1987) The House of Seven Corpses (1974) The Mirror Crack'd (1980) The Exorcist (1973) |
|
|
|
Post by manfromplanetx on Mar 24, 2017 3:03:31 GMT
Andrzej Wajda created a fascinating multi dimensioned tale, in his excellent Polish film,
Man of Marble. (1977)
Interwoven are themes, of political opportunism, character analysis, and most importantly the filmmaking process under communism.
Agnieszka is a determined and tenacious film student who believes that she has found the ideal subject for her diploma film, an investigative documentary on Mateusz Birkut the great post-war working-class hero who fell into government disfavour and disappeared into obscurity many years ago.
Given 21 days to complete her film assignment and despite great reservations from the authorities about the possible political implications that may flow from her subject matter, she proceeds.
Agnieszka investigates and starts documenting archival sources and museum collections and begins interviews with those who knew Birkut , but the answers provide only partial information and raise more complex questions about the heroes life.
The authorities decide that the young filmmaking student is starting to dig too deeply into the recent past...
|
|
maxwellperfect
Junior Member
@maxwellperfect
Posts: 3,966
Likes: 1,683
|
Post by maxwellperfect on Mar 24, 2017 22:42:46 GMT
Paris When It Sizzles (1964)
Shadow of the Vampire (2000)
Cecil B. Demented (2000)
|
|
