10 Best Movies About Movies
What could be dearer to a director’s heart than filmmaking? And what could be dearer than that? Well making films about making films of course! And that is exactly what we are here today to talk about. With literally hundreds of films to choose from with such a popular topic (most directors have made at least one film on the desires or difficulties of making a movie), it was certainly difficult to narrow it down to just ten.
Somehow I did it though (lots of sleepless nights!) but before we get to those, please allow me to list ten films that regrettably did not make the list but would still be good choices if one were to expand this to a top twenty list. These films, in no particular order, are The Purple Rose of Cairo, Barton Fink, Sullivan’s Travels, Irma Vep, Postcards From the Edge, Ed Wood, INLAND EMPIRE, Boogie Nights, Show People and Hellzapoppin’. Now without further ado, here are my choices for the ten best movies about movies – starting with a special mention.
Special Mention: Hollywood Canteen
This film is not so much about making movies as it is about using movies and movie stars to help with the war effort. Made in 1944 in order to help the troops and rally morale, this star-studded variety show is a veritable who’s who of Classic Hollywood. Made by Warner Brothers and highlighting many of the studio’s biggest and brightest stars, Hollywood Canteen is a treasure trove of star sightings. Hosted by Bette Davis and John Garfield (two of the most dedicated Hollywood stars when it came to helping the troops) and featuring the music of The Andrew Sisters, one can easily spot Joan Crawford, Jack Benny, Joe E. Brown, Barbra Stanwyck, Alan Hale, Sydney Greenstreet, Peter Lorre, Kitty Carlisle, Paul Henreid, Joan Leslie, Ida Lupino, Jack Carson, Roy Rogers & Trigger and many many many more. A star-studded, rousing and patriotic musical and entertainment extravaganza indeed.
10. Day For Night
Directed by French New Waver Francois Truffaut and named after a cinematic technique of shooting night scenes in broad daylight, this 1973 Oscar winner for Best Foreign Language Film (it was also nominated for Best Director, Supporting Actress and Screenplay) plays out as a film within a film and shows the myriad of obstacles one encounters while trying to create a film. Obviously made by someone who loves the art of cinema and the history of film (Truffaut was notorious for his undying, obsessive love of cinema – some would say too obsessive but I am not one of those) and featuring many cinematic in-jokes, references and homages (the film is dedicated to Lillian and Dorothy Gish) Day For Night is a cinephile’s dream movie made real – or at least semi-real.
9. The Player
Becoming 1970′s iconic director Robert Altman’s comeback piece when it was released in 1992, The Player is a murder mystery (Altman did so love those) that takes place inside the backstabbing corporate world of the modern Hollywood studio system. Starring Tim Robbins, Greta Scacchi, Fred Ward, Dean Stockwell, Cynthia Stevenson, Peter Gallagher, Lyle Lovett and Whoopi Goldberg (among a slew of others in a typically Altmanesque ensemble piece) Altman devises the most devious of plots worthy of classic film noir and puts it smack dab in the middle of the one place the director had despised his entire career – Hollywood. Needles to say, even though there are loving homages to film’s great and glorious past throughout the film, the powers-that-be in Hollywood, as well as all those lapping yes men, are not shown in the best of light. A perfect loving hate letter to modern Hollywood.
8. The Bad and the Beautiful
Directed by Vincente Minnelli and the winner of five Academy Awards (poor Kirk Douglas, the sixth nominee, was the only one to go home empty-handed on Oscar night), this look at the cut-throat world of the Hollywood system, and more specifically, the cut-throat world of cocksure producer Jonathan Shields (more than loosely based on David O. Selznick) is a triumph of classic era Hollywood – just before the studio system began to crumble. Douglas (Oscar loss or not – and the great man has never won one) gives a brilliant performance – one of the best of his career – and Lana Turner (receiving top billing over the still relatively up-and-coming Douglas) hands in one her best as well, and costar Gloria Grahame who did win the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress (though is only in the film very briefly, even by “supporting” standards) is a thrill to watch in anything, but she is especially stunning here. One of Minnelli’s best films and that is saying a lot when speaking of the man who gave us An American in Paris, Gigi, The Band Wagon, Some Came Running, Meet Me in St. Louis and The Cobweb.
7. Stardust Memories
Made in 1980, just on the heels of his most brilliant films yet, Annie Hall, Interiors and Manhattan, this is Woody Allen’s own paean to the difficulty of creative life. This blatant homage to Fellini’s brilliant 8 1/2, and his own diatribe against those who had thought his films were becoming too serious and not as funny as before (“we like the older, funnier ones” everyone exclaims as a running gag throughout) easily joins Allen’s previous three films as one of his best. Often getting forgotten in the director’s very crowded oeuvre (many opting to cite the aforementioned Annie Hall and Manhattan, or films such as Hannah and Her Sisters or Crimes and Misdemeanors as his best) Stardust Memories nonetheless deserves recognition as not only a smart and cinematically subversive work of art but also as one of the most honest looks at the creative mind being ripped asunder by outside agitators.
6. Contempt
Directed by Jean-Luc Godard, one of the founding forces in the French New Wave, and starring Michel Piccoli, Jack Palance and the ever-stunning Bridget Bardot (one of the film’s taglines exclaims “More Bold! More Brazen! And Much, Much More Bardot!”) and featuring iconic auteur Fritz Lang – as himself! What could be more cinematic than that? Telling the story of an attempt to turn Ulysses into a film – and a mainstream film at that – Godard throws every cinematic trick in the book at us (and Bardot as well!) and in all its over-the-top glory and self-referential rhetoric and with its spinning, weaving, lunging camera and cinephiliac chutzpah worthy of a masters degree thesis, the film is a work of sheer cinematic genius. Mad cinematic genius, but cinematic genius nonetheless.
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40 Comments
I’d remove the two french new wave films. I was stoked like hell to see them but was really disapointed especially on ceontempt. I feel its more like he filmed a stage play.
I’d also add What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? and puth the Player as number one.
I though Contempt was pretty good, actually. I liked it more than I’ve liked some of his other stuff, although I wanted to like it more than I did. The addition of Fritz Lang is a big plus, though.
There are a few I’d add, I think–Man Bites Dog would be one I’d toss in, for instance. Also Boogie Nights and Adaptation.
I was going to be disappointed with Sunset Blvd. not being first until I saw Singin’ in the Rain. Good choice for the top spot.
I hate to say it (it could be construed as embarrassing for a guy who considers himself a film historian) but I have never seen Baby Jane. Aghast you must be. So that is why it did not make the list. Sorry.
Ooooh, Whatever Happened to Baby Jane is a good one.
Honestly, I don’t know what I would add, I’m trying to check any of the discs I have at hand, but none of them are about movies. Hmmm… how about Cinema Paradiso? We don’t really get to see the filmmaking part, but Salvatore works in the industry and loved film xD
I think I like Ed Wood more than any of the films I’ve seen on this list. Yes, it’s goofy and silly at times, but I think ti arrives at some very powerful conclusions about film.
Perhaps not as important as some of these other picks, but one I think is worth entering into the conversation.
Dang–I forgot about Ed Wood!
I contemplated making this a top twenty list which would have given Ed Wood a spot, but alas, just ten.
No “State and Main”? What’s wrong with you?
I enjoyed the film, but I didn’t love it. That’s what’s wrong with me.
One day I gotta see ‘The Bad and the Beautiful.’ I’ve heard lotsa good stuff about it.
I recently saw Blake Edwards’ ‘SOB’ and that was pretty good too, though I don’t think I would replace anything from this list with it.
Almost any film by Quentin Tarantino. I cite Inglourious Basterds as a movie about European movies. The flick is peppered with so many other film references it’s overwhelming.
Yup, totally agree, Markus.
Comment triplets LOL I just came over here to say this…i’m so predictable
I’d agree with Inglorious Basterds for sure. The rest of Tarantino’s stuff is less about movies, in general, than they are about Tarantino’s knowledge of movies, specifically, which is a lot less compelling.
I love QT (some would say a bit too much) but even though his films work as cinematic homages, I do not think any of them, even Basterds, to be about movies per se. Hell, I would put a QT film atop most of my lists if I had my druthers.
The Hong Kong films “Centre Stage” and “Viva Erotica” are good movies about making movies. “Centre Stage” features a phenomenal performance by Maggie Cheung as Chinese silent diva Ruan Lingyu.
State and Main is a good choice, but the one that has to be on here is Sullivan’s Travels. Even though it’s also a road movie, it’s focus on what constitutes a “real” film and the power of comedies is nearly perfect. Of the six films I’ve seen on the list, these are all great picks.
I love Sullivan’s Travels and actually went back and forth between that and Day For Night for the number ten spot. I would have regretted leaving whichever one off, so it is a no win situation in my mind.
Lots of great lists today, good one Kevyn. When I saw the title I immediately think of Sunset Boulevard and Purple Rose of Cairo. I think the fact that the characters from the movie walk off the screen and into the real world, there’s a bit of a filmmaking theme in that one.
Yeah good call! The Last Action Hero has a a similar theme.
Adaptation! Can’t believe it’s not on here
Sorry sorry. Not the biggest fan of it. It would probably make number 21 or 22 on an expanded list though. That’s probably not going to appease you though. Sorry.
wow i haven’t seen any of these movies. but i do agree ed wood should be on there.
None of them? Wow! Well you certainly have some good movies ahead of you. Enjoy.
I know no one should ever compare a little film like Bowfinger to the likes of Fellini and Minnelli and Gloria Swanson but….no, you know what? I can compare them. I’m going to compare them. Because I love Bowfinger. So I’m mentioning it.
Great list. It makes me want to see Stardust Memories and Day for Night, the latter played once in a while in my favourite rep cinema until it was sold as a doc cinema.
Speaking of Woody Allen, The Purple Rose of Cairo.
I didn’t want to put two films by any filmmaker on the list, so I ended up choosing Stardust over Rose – though I do love both very much.
Glad you agree, Paolo, I immediately thought of ‘Purple Rose’ when I saw this post.
How about “Adaptation”? Well, parts of it is about the writing of a film and it has scenes about the making of “Being John Malkovich”.
“Tristam Shandy” is about the making of an unfilmable book.
No F For Fake? That’s a pretty good one about maybe a more narrow aspect of movies, being editing, but it’s worth a mention at least.
I’m going to throw down for the bizarrely-reviled Inception. Say what you want about the film’s intellect, but it contains a very clear-cut metaphor for the creative process and ultimately serves as a comment on art’s ability to move us and touch us emotionally through its dream sequences.
Curses, I was hoping to be the one to look smart and throw “Inception” on the table.
I so rarely get the opportunity to that when I see one, I seize it right away!
Great list, I would also throw in The Big Picture starring Kevin Bacon. It’s such a funny movie about a young filmmaker trying to make it in Hollywood. The funniest part in the movie was when he interviewed at a restaurant for a dish washing job after he failed at making his film at a studio, it was hilarious.
I would have to add Wim Wenders’ “The State of Things”- his response to Hollywood on the butchering of his film “Hammett”. Heck, it co-stars both Sam Fuller & Roger Corman!!
Sad to see Inland Empire miss the cut. It takes a lot of thought to fully grasp the enormity of what it means, but I think it’s thoroughly deserving of the Top 10. But you featured its sister movie, Mulholland Dr., which is good. Interesting that you say Watts’ performance in that movie was your favourite female of the decade, becuase Laura Dern in Inland Empire is my personal favourite female performance of the decade.
Other than a few omissions, the list is brilliant. Would perhaps shift Singin in the Rain back to four, put Sunset Blvd in #1, 8 and 1/2 in #2 and MD in #3, but can’t really complain.
Yea, I couldn’t get through 30 minutes of Inland Empire. I was completely at a loss. Loved Mulholland Dr. though, how odd…
It’s certainly on a list of most inaccessible movies of all time. It works better to just think of each scene on its own, and then when you’ve finished the movie, mull it over for an hour or so, and it’ll come to you. There is literally millions of different interpretations, and no one knows whether they’re right or wrong, so there really is no right or wrong answer, which makes individual interpretations so great. I recommend it all the time; even if it’s hard to sit through, you’ve got to admire Laura Dern’s amazingly solid performance.
Hey, at least we both are thinking in a David Lynch kinda way. Does that scare you as much as it scares me?
Great choices and number 3 and 1 were the ones that immediately came to mind. I’m missing Get Shorty though.
You have no idea how happy you made me with this list.
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