From 8 1/2 to Life Aquatic: 9 Great Movies About Moviemaking
Although today's new releases Super 8 and Road to Nowhere couldn't be farther apart in terms of budget, genre, tone, influence and spirit, they do have one striking theme in common: At heart, they are both about the sacrifices, struggles and adventures encountered by artists who make movies. They are the latest in a long tradition of films about films -- and film love -- that Movieline's S.T VanAirsdale and Christopher Rosen surveyed for the occasion.
Click through to Movieline's gallery for a glimpse at nine of this genre's greatest entries -- and let's hear your own suggestions in the comments.
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Comments
I was kind of hoping for Cinema Paradisio - because I am a big sap - but am a little surprised not to see Living in Oblivion or Sunset Boulevard or Singing in the Rain.
Singin' in the Rain for sure, and would have been good to see Be Kind Rewind or Son of Rambow, even if they are about the more amateur end of film-making!
Believe me, they came up. Sunset Boulevard and Singin' in the Rain are not quite technical enough -- in terms of how they depict the filmmaking process -- to be included. Living in Oblivion was just a casualty of having two docs that really peeled back the insular sheen of that indie culture of the time. But it could easily have been included, no doubt.
Both BKR and SoR are in this thematic ballpark; they're just not especially... good.
Well, lists always invite controversy, but I agree with Margo about Oblivion. And Singin' in the Rain, really? From the noisy cameras to the awful microphones and Lina's grating voice it's practically a documentary about the advent of sound, and turning The Dueling Cavalier into The Dancing Cavalier is a lesson in movie marketing. So congratulations, you now have 11!
I assume Ed Wood is just good not great.
No Barton Fink?
It was on the bubble.
It's a little too invested in statements about Hollywood's creative/political process to really be about filmmaking per se. Also, I rewatched it recently, and boy oh boy, it does not hold up at all.
Could we expand the category to include movies about theater? Because Opening Night is one of my all time favorite films of ever everness.
Be Kind I can understand not being there, but Son of Rambow captures that joy of childhood filmmaking in such a spectacular way that I can only hope Super 8 at least meets (if not exceeds) the bar set.
(I'll let you know later if I think it does, I'm checking it out tonight)
It definitely exceeds it.
_A Star is Born_? I guess it's not as much about the filmmaking process as it is about the life cycle of Hollywood talent?
What makes Barton Fink work is the way it captures the contrast between what one expects from "Hollywood" and what one gets. The scene where Barton watches dailies from a wrestling picture which is the same 30 second scene redone over and over captures a part of filmmaking most people never consider. It is the opposite of those ridiculous scenes in movies about movies when they shoot a major set piece all in one take! CUT! PRINT! LET'S MOVE ON!!
I just thought of a good one -- Inside Daisy Clover.