|
Post by Doghouse6 on Jun 8, 2017 17:51:03 GMT
I am less interested in the aspirations, sensitivities and insecurities of actors. They should stand in front of the camera and do what they are told. I sympathize with Hitchcock who said actors should be treated like cattle and with Aki Kaurismäki who said that if he ever caught any of his actors "acting" he would give them a smack in the mouth. You've possibly heard Jack Lemmon tell the story of working for George Cukor on his very first film. The director asked for take after take of a particular scene, repeatedly cautioning, "Less, Jack, less." When an exasperated Lemmon finally protested, "Are you trying to tell me not to act at all," Cukor clasped his hands together as though in prayer and wailed, "Yes... YES!" Although the provocative Hitchcock proudly took credit for that statement and sometimes imposed purely mechanical instructions upon his players ("Look ahead...now down...now look back up and frown") for the sake of rigorously-planned montage, he deserved credit as well for largely leaving actors to their own devices, also saying, "I trust them to know their jobs." This lack of interaction distressed some performers such as Doris Day, who finally confronted him about it under the assumption he was dissatisfied. "My dear," he reassured her, "I haven't said anything because I'm completely happy with what you're doing. When you do something I don't want, then you'll hear from me."
|
|
|
Post by teleadm on Jun 8, 2017 17:59:21 GMT
Full Frontal 2002 Steven Soderbergh, arty or boring movie film-within-a-film, a concept done much better and with more class in...
The French Lieutenant's Woman 1981 Karel Reisz, with parallel stories, or a film company that is actually doing the movie we are watching.
|
|
|
Post by teleadm on Jun 8, 2017 18:39:49 GMT
The Studio Murder Mystery 1929 Frank Tuttle, murder in a studio, and the studio is played by Paramount Studios lot. Primitive early talkie.
The Jones Family in Hollywood 1939 Malcolm St. Clair, with a name like that offcourse the Jones family causes havoc in a movie studio during filmmaking, this time the studio is played by The 20th Century Fox studio lot.
The Perils of Pauline 1947 George Marshall, Pearl White bio (sort of) showing some scenes from how they made some of her serials, using some of the real stars of the silent era like Chester Conklin, James Finlayson, Snub Pollard, Constance Collier among others.
I Am Curious (Yellow)/Jag är nyfiken - gul 1967 Vilgot Sjöman, as we are watching this movie we also seeing it being made, including the director, cameraman, production coordinator, sound assistant and so on at work.
I Am Curious (Blue)/Jag är nyfiken - blå 1968, Vilgot Sjöman, same as the above but with different camera angles, and a few scenes changed.
|
|
|
Post by BATouttaheck on Jun 8, 2017 18:58:12 GMT
Keaton's The Cameraman (1927)
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 Doghouse6 on Jun 8, 2017 20:07:22 GMT
Keaton's The Cameraman (1927) 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. Thanks Bat, for a submission that reminds me of another Keaton feature (and his first talkie): Free and Easy, in which Buster accompanies a local beauty contest winner to Hollywood, bumbling his own way before the cameras in the process (and continuing to bumble while in front of them, endlessly mangling the line, "The queen has swooned"). Also brought to mind is King Vidor's Show People, in which country girl Marion Davies storms Hollywood. In addition to their other charms, both films give extensive looks at the MGM studio itself during the transition from silents to talkies, documenting soon-to-disappear expanses of grass and plentiful trees. Another according similar views is Bombshell, Victor Fleming's breakneck-paced satire of the beleaguered daily life of a Jean Harlow-esque star (played by Harlow herself), in which a glimpse of Marion Davies's own massive Spanish "bungalow dressing room" (more than twice the size of most Los Angeles homes of the time) can be caught.
|
|
|
Post by BATouttaheck on Jun 8, 2017 20:20:55 GMT
Doghouse6Quite welcome and thank you for the names of other "to be looked for" films. I am pretty sure that I have seen the Keaton but not the other two. I have yet to see Marion Davies in anything, mostly knowing her only from her Citizen Ka... err... Heast connection. I have read that she was really quite good and perhaps would have had a more successful career if "someone" had not promoted her so vigorously. But therein lies another tale (and topic) for another day.
|
|
|
Post by Doghouse6 on Jun 8, 2017 21:28:19 GMT
Bat Outtaheck's inclusion of The Cameraman has spurred recollection of other Hollywood-centric films of the silent and early talkie eras:
Souls For Sale (1923) - Eleanore Boardman (soon to be Mrs. King Vidor) as a young woman on the run from a bad marriage taking refuge in the film capitol; her burgeoning stardom reveals her whereabouts to the abandoned husband, who comes to town to reclaim her.
Merton Of the Movies - This story, based on a George S. Kaufman/Marc Connelly play, was filmed three times: the first in 1924 with Viola Dana and Glenn Hunter is considered lost; a 1932 remake under the title Make Me A Star features Stuart Erwin and Joan Blondell; a third version under the original title starred Red Skelton and Virginia O'Brien in 1947.
Movie Crazy (1932) - Harold Lloyd's second sound feature follows the Merton formula of an aspiring actor whose ineptitude before the cameras leads to inadvertent recognition as a comedy genius.
|
|
|
Post by BATouttaheck on Jun 8, 2017 22:01:53 GMT
Some more recent ones. I think that they are not already in the collection:
Saving Mr. Banks - getting Mary Poppins bought and filmed.
Be Kind, Rewind - Two bumbling store clerks inadvertently erase the footage from all of the tapes in their video rental store. In order to keep the business running, they re-shoot every film in the store with their own camera, with a budget of zero dollars. - Jack Black
The Big Picture- Film school grad Nick Chapman thought his career was made after his award winning short film, but discovered Hollywood wasn't as easy as it seems. - Kevin Bacon
Day For Night - A committed film director struggles to complete his movie while coping with a myriad of crises, personal and professional, among the cast and crew EDIT: already on the list I see, but anyway
Baadassss! - Mario Van Peebles' half-documentary/half-homage to his father Melvin Van Peebles' movie Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song (1971).
|
|
|
Post by manfromplanetx on Jun 8, 2017 23:06:27 GMT
Amator , Camera Buff (1979) Krzysztof Kieslowski
After humble factory worker Filip buys an eight-millimetre movie camera when his first child is born, an all consuming cinematic curiosity a filmmaking obsession begins.
He soon discovers the art of editing, symbolism and censorship. His camera is the first in town, he's named official filmmaker by the local Party boss. Filip's horizons widen when he upgrades his camera and is sent to and acknowledged with his first works at regional film festivals. His intense focus on movie-making however leads to personal domestic strife and confronting philosophical dilemmas.
His path from amateur to fully blown cineaste has taken a passionate direction, from his past mundane reality he now records and transforms his world around through the love of his cinematic medium
A dark satire of the burgeoning filmmaking artiste, where the medium has developed into an expressive moral trumpet, which has come at great cost to Filip. His intrusive camera has become a diary, a home-wrecker, a recorder of life and death, a confessional, a manipulator an unblinking truth-seeker...
|
|
|
Post by gunshotwound on Jun 9, 2017 2:22:23 GMT
The World's Greatest Lover (1977) studio looking for the next Rudolph Valentino
|
|
|
Post by Nalkarj on Jun 9, 2017 3:11:55 GMT
Bat's mention of The Cameraman also inspired (for heaven knows what reason) a recollection in me of a very different movie that fits these criteria: Tod Browning's last picture, Miracles for Sale, which is fun but not especially memorable. I wish I could put a link to it (there used to be a a free copy on Internet Archive--that's where I saw it--but it no longer seems to be there) because its plot description doesn't seem to fit the criteria, but the opening scene is based in a studio and shows the inner workings of a film being made--which makes it count, I think.
EDIT: I found a (not very good) copy with French subtitles on YouTube, if anyone's interested:
EDIT (again): I just watched it again and was surprised to see that I'd misremembered: it's more of a play (magic trick) than a movie being made. Still rather similar, and it was being filmed, but perhaps it doesn't count after all. Sorry 'bout that.
|
|
|
Post by BATouttaheck on Jun 9, 2017 3:56:24 GMT
NalkarjGee, it's nice to be "inspirational" for a change of pace. Shall try to be like Scarlett and remember that tomorrow is another day (to check out that Browning Video). Sounds interesting.
|
|
|
Post by Nalkarj on Jun 9, 2017 4:22:47 GMT
Oh, and perhaps someone has put this on the list and I just didn't see it, but Sullivan's Travels (1941, Preston Sturges), one of my favorite movies?
|
|
|
Post by BATouttaheck on Jun 9, 2017 4:33:08 GMT
Oh, and perhaps someone has put this on the list and I just didn't see it, but Sullivan's Travels (1941, Preston Sturges), one of my favorite movies? was going to mention ST but could have sworn that I saw it on someone's list so didn't. It was being discussed somewhere or other just the other day but I have no idea where or who by. Will come back and edit an update if I find it. (such a fount of detailed information, eh ? )
|
|
|
Post by manfromplanetx on Jun 9, 2017 5:12:28 GMT
Might not make the list but may be of interest... Hold Back the Dawn (1941) Told in flashback the film begins when the main character played by Charles Boyer visits the Paramount Studios because he has a connection to a director who is played by the films director Mitchell Leisen, desperate for money, he has a story to sell. Boyer finds his way to the Paramount soundstage where director Mr. Dwight Saxon. Veronica Lake and Richard Webb are shown rehearsing a scene from I Wanted Wings . Brian Donlevy is also seen and is also listed as an uncredited actor for the film.
|
|
|
Post by Nalkarj on Jun 9, 2017 13:37:08 GMT
Oh, and perhaps someone has put this on the list and I just didn't see it, but Sullivan's Travels (1941, Preston Sturges), one of my favorite movies? was going to mention ST but could have sworn that I saw it on someone's list so didn't. It was being discussed somewhere or other just the other day but I have no idea where or who by. Will come back and edit an update if I find it. (such a fount of detailed information, eh ? ) Bat, I looked again and still couldn't find it listed here. Unless it's right in front of my face and I'm not seeing it...?
|
|
|
Post by teleadm on Jun 9, 2017 14:23:01 GMT
Movie Crazy (1932) - Harold Lloyd's second sound feature follows the Merton formula of an aspiring actor whose ineptitude before the cameras leads to inadvertent recognition as a comedy genius. I was thinking of this movie before, but suddenly became unsure if there was any actual scenes of making movies, memory fails my sometimes. Since you have included it here show my memory sometimes is right. Since this isn't a game, it doesn't matter who comes first anyway, the important thing is that it comes on Mike's list.
|
|
|
Post by Doghouse6 on Jun 9, 2017 14:26:12 GMT
was going to mention ST but could have sworn that I saw it on someone's list so didn't. It was being discussed somewhere or other just the other day but I have no idea where or who by. Will come back and edit an update if I find it. (such a fount of detailed information, eh ? ) Bat, I looked again and still couldn't find it listed here. Unless it's right in front of my face and I'm not seeing it...? Congrats on landing "the one that got away." One of the most remarkable things about Sullivan's Travels is its deft gear-shifting from antic and manic to grimly dramatic by way of weighty social messaging, for which Sturges craftily prepares viewers early on with Robert Greig's dire lecture on poverty. And it's also rich in classic Sturges dialogue, delivered with expert drollery by McCrea, Robert Warwick, Porter Hall and others. A favorite exchange: SULLY: "What do they know in Pittsburgh?"
LE BRAND: "They know what they like."
SULLY: "If they knew what they liked, they wouldn't live in Pittsburgh!"
I've got nothing against the Steel City, but that kills me every time.
|
|
|
Post by Lebowskidoo 🦞 on Jun 9, 2017 14:31:31 GMT
One Crazy Summer (1986), with John Cusack and Demi Moore, takes places on a Cape Cod island during the summer, where Foam II is being filmed. Foam II, of course, is the sequel to Foam, in which a dolphin with rabies (again) terrorizes the inhabitants of an island beach community.
|
|
|
Post by Doghouse6 on Jun 9, 2017 14:58:42 GMT
Movie Crazy (1932) - Harold Lloyd's second sound feature follows the Merton formula of an aspiring actor whose ineptitude before the cameras leads to inadvertent recognition as a comedy genius. I was thinking of this movie before, but suddenly became unsure if there was any actual scenes of making movies, memory fails my sometimes. Since you have included it here show my memory sometimes is right. Since this isn't a game, it doesn't matter who comes first anyway, the important thing is that it comes on Mike's list. Yes, several. As refreshers, you might recall his recruitment as a walk-thru extra on location at the station moments after he steps off the train in Los Angeles (and messes up the shot, of course) and his disastrous screen test in which, among other things, he becomes repeatedly and hopelessly entangled with the prop phone he's supposed to answer. Which brings to mind another I don't think has been listed: The Party, which engages Peter Sellars in similar on-set clumsiness in the extended pre-title "Gunga Din" sequence (my apologies if it has and I missed it).
|
|