Movies that Love Movies
Submitted by Oedipus on Wed, 12/08/2004 - 07:06
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- A Film Johnnie (1914) Charlie goes to the movie and falls in love with a girl on the screen. He goes to Keystone Studios to find her. He disrupts the shooting of a film, and a fire breaks out. Charlie is blamed, gets squirted with a firehose, and is shoved by the female star.
- The Masquerader (1914) Charlie is an actor in a film studio. He messes up several scenes and is tossed out. Returning dressed as a lady, he charms the director. Even so, Charlie never makes it into film, winding up at the bottom of a well.
- His New Job (1915) Charlie is trying to get a job in a movie. After causing difficulty on the set he is told to help the carpenter. When one of the actors doesn't show, Charlie is given a chance to act but instead enters a dice game. When he does finally act he ruins the scene, wrecks the set and tears the skirt from the star.
- Behind the Screen (1916) Three movies are being shot simultaneously and Charlie is an overworked scene shifter. The foreman is waited on hand and foot until all the shifters but Charlie go on strike. A girl looking for work pretends to be a man and helps Charlie. Charlie discovers her gender and falls in love with her. The foreman thinks they are homosexual and in the ensuing fight they become involved in a long pie throwing scene from one of the movies in production. The frustrated workers dynamite the studio.
- A Movie Star (1916) Just as the local movie theater is about to begin showing a picture, the star of the film arrives and comes to see the movie himself. On screen, the star must rescue his girl from danger. In the theater, the star finds that not all of the audience admires his acting as much as he does.
- Hollywood (1923) Angela comes to Hollywood with only two things: Her dream to become a movie star, and Grandpa. She leaves an Aunt, a brother, Grandma, and her longtime boyfriend back in Centerville. Despite seeing major movie stars around every corner, and knocking on every casting office door in town, at the end of her first day she is still unemployed. To her horror, when she arrives back at their hotel, she finds that Grandpa has been cast in a movie by William DeMille and quickly becomes a star during the ensuing weeks. Her family, worried that Angela and Grandpa are getting into trouble, come to Hollywood to drag them back home. In short order Aunt, Grandma, brother, boyfriend and even the parrot become superstars, but Angela is still unemployed...
- Sherlock, Jr. (1924) Buster and Ward are rivals for Kathryn. Ward steals her father's watch and Buster is blamed. Back at his projectionist's job he dreams himself and everyone else in his life into the movie which is playing. He is now Sherlock Holmes looking for some stolen pearls.
- The Cameraman (1928) Buster Keaton is Luke Shannon, a photographer, he becomes infatuated with a pretty office worker for MGM Newsreels, he then trades in his tintype operation for a movie camera and sets out to make newsreel films and ends up impressing the girl and bosses at MGM with his terrific camera work.
- Show People (1928) Colonel Pepper brings his daughter, Peggy, to Hollywood from Georgia to be an actress. There she meets Billy who gets her work at Comet Studio doing comedies with him. But Peggy is discovered by High Art Studio and she leaves Billy and Comet to work there. For her new image, she is now Patricia Pepoire and ignores Billy when he sees her on location. When she is not longer wanted by the little people who do not understand "ART", she plans to marry Andre to get a fake title. Billy will not let her go without a fight.
- Free and Easy (1930) Buster Keaton is Elmer, manager of Elvira, an aspiring actresses. They go to Hollywood to break into the picture business but Elmer has a hard time getting in the studio, when he does, he interrupts the filming of some pictures and eventually he ends up becoming an actor.
- Movie Crazy (1932) Harold Hall, an accident prone young man with little or no acting ability, desperately wants to be in pictures. After a mix-up with his application photograph, he gets an offer to have a screen-test, and goes off to Hollywood. At the studio, he does everything wrong and causes all sorts of trouble. But he catches the fancy of a beautiful actress, and eventually the studio owner recognizes him as a comic genius.
- Bombshell (1933) Jean Harlow is Lola Burns sexpot film star who wants to change her image. She tries marrying a marquis, adopting a baby and all sorts of schemes which all go wrong.
- Broadway to Hollywood (1933) Three generations of Broadway stars, attempt to thrive in the business and eventually one of them, Ted Hackett III is offered a Hollywood contract to be a musical star.
- King Kong (1933) Ace film director Carl Denham (Robert Armstrong) hires an unemployed, attractive New York woman Ann Darrow (Fay Wray) to star in his new picture. He takes her by boat to remote Skull Island where, according to legend, there lives an awesome god-like beast named Kong. Denham's plan is to shoot a variation of the Beauty and the Beast story, using Ann as his beauty and Kong as his beast. Everyone involved gets more than they bargained for when Ann is kidnapped by the island natives and offered as a sacrifice to Kong. She is kidnapped by a gigantic prehistoric ape and saved only by the courage of ship's mate Jack Driscoll (Bruce Cabot).
- The Big Show (1936) Movie cowboy Tom Ford (Gene Autry), star of Mammouth Film Productions, goes on vacation before Wilson (William Newell), studio publicity man, can notify him that he is to make a personal appearance at the 1936 Texas Centennial celebration in Dallas.Unable to locate Ford,the desperate Wilson substitutes Fords exact-double and stunt man,Gene Autry (Gene Autry again.) Gene goes along only to help Wilson out but wants to reveal his true identity throughout the hoax.
- Movie Maniacs (1936) The 3 stooges arrive in Hollywood hoping to make it in the movie business. They sneak into a movie studio where they are mistaken for three new executives who were due to arrive. After taking over production of a movie, causing the director and cast to walk off, Moe takes over as director, with Larry and Curly as the leading man and lady. When the real executives send a telegram explaining why they haven't arrived, the stooges must leave on the run.
- A Star Is Born (1937) Janet Gaynor is Esther Blodgett, a farm girl, trying to break into the movies. She meets movie star Norman Maine while waitressing at a Hollywood party, she's given a screen test, gets a part in a movie, changes her name to Vicki Lester and her career is started. She eventually marries Norman and while her career takes off, his career dwindles down to nothing.
- Sullivan's Travels (1941) Director John L. Sullivan wants to make a social-problems film called 'O Brother, Where Art Thou?' When his producers point out that he knows nothing about trouble or poverty, he goes on the road as a hobo. Joined by a down-on-her-luck aspiring actress, the results are hardly the kind of trouble he had in mind. But when the 'experiment' seems to be over, Sullivan falls into more trouble than he ever dreamed of...
- Tales of Manhattan (1942) An actor, Paul Orman, is accidentally told that his new, custom made tail coat has been cursed and it will bring misfortune to all who wear it. As the 4 succeeding wearers of the coat discover, misfortune can often lead to truth.
- Abbott and Costello in Hollywood (1945) Abbott and Costello are agents, trying to get Jeff Parker a part in a movie musical. Abbott and Costello run amok on a studio's backlot and cause problems resulting in laughs.
- Always Together (1948) Millionaire Turner, on his deathbed, leaves a million to Jane Barker. A movie addict who believes life is like the movies, marries Donn without telling him about the bequest. Turner gets better and wants his money back, opening conflict for the newlyweds. Throughout the movie Jane imagines her own experiences as if they were taking place in movies with real movie stars in them.
- Sunset Blvd. (1950) Recently deceased hack writer Joe Gillis tells of his excursions with delusional silent movie star Norma Desmond. Joe Gillis, bankrupt screenwriter, hides from car repossessors in the garage of a deserted-looking mansion which proves to be the grotesque home of Norma Desmond, retired silent screen star. Joe takes refuge there, with a nominal job of rewriting Norma's hopeless 'comeback' screenplay. Weeks pass; feeling more and more like a kept man, Joe grasps at reality in the form of a clandestine friendship with script reader Betty Schaefer, but it's too late...
- Hollywood Story (1951) Hollywood 1950: The successful producer Larry O'Brian arrives in Los Angeles to found a motion picture company. He buys an old studio which was unused since the days of silent movies. He's shown the office where the famous director Franklin Farrara was shot. The case hasn't been solved until now, although there were many suspects. O'Brian becomes fascinated by the subject and wants to shoot a movie about it. He investigates himself and soon gets into danger himself.
- Singin' in the Rain (1952) A silent film production company and cast make a difficult transition to sound.
- A Star Is Born (1954) Judy Garland is Esther Blodgett, a showgirl, who meets movie star Norman Maine, when he stumbles into her show one night. They develop a friendship which eventually develops into a romance. She changes her name to Vicki Lester and her career takes off while Norman's career plummets.
- Man of a Thousand Faces (1957) Loose biography of actor Lon Chaney, starring James Cagney. Growing up with deaf parents, he learns what it is like to be different. As an actor, he puts that knowledge (together with lots of make-up and talent) to use playing a variety of strange, unusual characters, adopting their characteristics so thoroughly as to be called the Man of a Thousand Faces.
- 8½ (1963) A harried movie director retreats into his memories and fantasies. Guido is a film director, trying to relax after his last big hit. He can't get a moments peace, however, with the people who have worked with him in the past constantly looking for more work. He wrestles with his conscience, but is unable to come up with a new idea. While thinking, he starts to recall major happenings in his life, and all the women he has loved and left.
- Le Mépris (1963) Contempt: Paul Javal, a writer, is hired to work out a script for the new movie about Homer's Odyssey, directed by Fritz Lang and produced by Prokosch.
- The Carpetbaggers (1964) George Peppard plays a hard-driven industrialist more than a little reminiscent of Howard Hughes. While he builds airplanes, directs movies and breaks hearts, his friends and lovers try to reach his human side, and find that it's an uphill battle. The film's title is a metaphor for self-promoting tycoons who perform quick financial takeovers, impose dictatorial controls for short-term profits, then move on to greener pastures.
- Millipilleri (1966) Tarmo, the young nephew of Uncle-Scrooge-like Consul Ö is after his uncle's fortunes. After investing in Tarmo's unfinished studies, the uncle is furious and threatens to leave Tarmo penniless unless he is able to raise one million marks in one month. If not, he'll donate everything to an antiquarian society. Helped by some magic pills given by his friend, Tarmo spends the month in and out of various money schemes. Among other things he tries making avant-garde films to please the awards jury, and spends holidays in Spain on behalf of his clients who are too busy to take time off themselves. A band of crooks in pinstripe suits watch Tarmo's every move, trying to eliminate him after hearing about his uncle's fortune.
- Guddi (1971) Darling Child: This story is about a school girl (Jaya) who is crazy about movies. She thinks that in movies real life related things are shown. She is crazy about a movie-star (Dharmandra) and he is her real-life hero. Now, she is growing but still unable to differentiate between reality of life and movie. A young boy is deeply in love with her but the girl is crazy about this movie star. In the movie, girl's mama (Uncle) takes the help of the movie star and shows her the reality of movie making. In the end, the girl gets the points and decides to get married to the boy.
- L'Automne (1971) Autumn: Julien, a movie director, is on the phase of editing his new film, "Juliette sacrifiée". Hurried by his producer, he asks for the help of a professional editor. It is Anne, with whom Julien is soon falling in love. During the whole of the movie, both are sitting in front of the editing table, where they listen to music, talk about politics and what movies should and should not be about, make love, and finally end up editing the film as was planned.
- La Nuit américaine (1973) Day for Night:A film company at work. Actors arrive and depart; liaisons develop. Julie, the beautiful but possibly unstable lead, is recovering from a breakdown, aided by an older physician, her new husband. Alphonse is insecure, he babbles. When his fiance exits with a stunt man, he threatens to quit. Julie must convince him to stay. Alexandre, a consummate pro on the set, runs back and forth to the airport hoping a certain young man will visit. Severine, no longer young, hits the bottle and covers blown lines with emotional outbursts. At the center is Ferrand, the writer director, who must make constant decisions, answer a stream of questions, and deliver the film on schedule.
- Blazing Saddles (1974) Harvey Korman and Cleavon Little enter a movie theater and have a confrontation in the lobby. The cast of Blazing Saddles runs through studio backlot interupting the filming of other movies including a musical number, being directed by Dom DeLuise.
- Inserts (1975) A once-great silent film director, unable to make the transition to the new talkies, lives as a near-hermit in his Hollywood home, making cheap, silent sex films, and suffering in the knowledge of his sexual impotence, and apathetic about the plans to demolish his home to make way for a motorway. His producer and his producer's girlfriend come by to see how he is doing (and to supply heroin to the actress as her payment). The girlfriend stays to watch them filming, and is deeply impressed by his methods. When the actress goes to the bathroom, and dies there of an overdose, the girlfriend takes her place in the film. Then the producer returns...
- Silent Movie (1976) A film director and his strange friends struggle to produce the first major silent feature film in forty years.
- Czlowiek z marmuru (1977) Man of Marble: In 1976, a young woman in Krakow is making her diploma film, looking behind the scenes at the life of a 1950s bricklayer, Birkut, who was briefly a proletariat hero, at how that heroism was created, and what became of him. She gets hold of outtakes and censored footage and interviews the man's friends, ex-wife, and the filmmaker who made him a hero. A portrait of Birkut emerges: he believed in the workers' revolution, in building housing for all, and his very virtues were his undoing. Her hard-driving style and the content of the film unnerve her supervisor, who kills the project with the excuse she's over budget. Is there any way she can push the film to completion?
- Fedora (1978) Hollywood producer Butch Detweiler attempts to lure Fedora, a famous but reclusive film actress out of retirement. Fedora, an aging and reclusive film star, dies in Paris, struck by a train. At her funeral, a film producer thinks back over the past two weeks and the part he might have played in her death. He'd gone to Corfu to track her down, pushing himself into her island villa, where she lived with a nurse, an old countess, and the plastic surgeon who's success at keeping her looking young is amazing. We see her mental stability fail as the producer offers her a script for "Anna Karenina;" soon she's locked away in a Parisian asylum and the producer is in the hospital with a concussion. His reverie ended, the countess takes up the narration and completes Fedora's story.
- Hooper (1978) Sonny Hooper, Hollywood's greatest stuntman, deals with his relationship with the daughter of his mentor, a challenge from a young stuntman who idolizes him, and the egomaniacal director of his latest movie. He ultimately attempts to perform a record-breaking jump over a gorge in a rocket-propelled car.
- Train Ride to Hollywood (1978) Harry Williams, member of the rhythm & blues band Bloodstone, is about to go onstage for a concert when he is hit on the head. The rest that follows is his dream. The four band members become conductors on a train filled with (impersonated) actors and characters from the 1930s such as W.C. Fields, Dracula, and Scarlett O'Hara. For instance 'Jay Lawrence' (q.v.), who gave a brief impression of Clark Gable in _Stalag 17 (1953)_ (q.v.), plays Gable at greater length. Patterned after movies by the Marx Brothers and the Beatles, "Train Ride" features various songs. The thin plot requires the singing conductors to solve a mystery; Marlon Brando is murdering Nelson Eddy, Jeanette McDonald, and others by suffocating them in his armpits. Arriving in Hollywood, the Bloodstone boys are turned into wax sculptures by Brando.
- Home Movies (1979) Keith Gordon is a creative young man who films the oddball doings of his family and peers. "The Maestro" appears frequently to give him pointers on his techniques. It's almost a film about a young man making the film.
- The Muppet Movie (1979) Kermit and his new found friends trek across America to find success in Hollywood, but a frog-legs merchant is after Kermit. Orson Welles appears as Lew Lord, a potent and famous movie producer. In the movie, Kermit the Frog meets a Hollywood agent who tries to make a film with him and other assorted Muppets. Many guest stars appear on the screen...
- Fade to Black (1980) A shy, lonely, film geek goes on a killing spree against those who bully and browbeat him, while at the same time, he stalks his idol; a Marilyn Monroe look-alike. He begins acting out his favorite scenes from the movies. In doing so, he manages to involve his enemies and the scenes usually result in death.
- Stardust Memories (1980) Sandy Bates, a successful filmmaker, attends a festival conducted to honor his work. During the course of the weekend he reconsiders his cinematic accomplishments as well as his past relationships.
- The Stunt Man (1980) A fugitive stumbles on a movie set just when they need a new stunt man, takes the job as a way to hide out, and falls for the leading lady.
- Blow Out (1981) This stylish Brian DePalma thriller plays off the theme of the unsuspecting witness who discovers a crime and is thereby put in grave danger, but with a novel twist. Jack is a sound-man who works on "Grade-B" horror movies. Late one evening, he is "sampling" sounds for use on his movies, when he hears something unexpected through his sound equipment and records it. Curiosity gets the better of him when the media become involved, and he begins to unravel the pieces of a nefarious conspiracy. As he struggles to survive against his shadowy enemies and expose the truth, he doesn't know who he can trust.
- The French Lieutenant's Woman (1981) A film is being made of a story, set in 19th century England, about Charles, a biologist who's engaged to be married, but who falls in love with outcast Sarah, whose melancholy makes her leave him after a short, but passionate affair. Anna and Mike, who play the characters of Sarah and Charles, go, during the shooting of the film, through a relationship that runs parallel to that of their characters.
- S.O.B. (1981) A film-within-a-film: a fading movie director has a plan for a successful movie: get a actress famous for her wholesome image to appear in the nude on the screen.... much like this film itself.
- This Is Spinal Tap (1984) Spinal Tap, the world's loudest band, is chronicled by hack documentarian Marti DeBergi on what proves to be a fateful tour. In 1982 legendary British heavy metal band Spinal Tap attempt an American comeback tour accompanied by a fan who is also a film-maker. The resulting documentary, interspersed with powerful performances of Tap's pivotal music and profound lyrics, candidly follows a rock group heading towards crisis, culminating in the infamous affair of the eighteen-inch-high Stonehenge stage prop.
- The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985) In 1930s New Jersey, a movie character walks off the screen and into the real world.
- F/X (1986) A movies special effects man is hired by a government agency to help stage the assassination of a well known gangster. When the agency double cross him, he uses his special effects to trap the gangster and the corrupt agents.
- ¡Three Amigos! (1986) Three unemployed actors accept an invitation to a Mexican village to replay their bandit fighter roles, unaware that it is the real thing.
- Intervista (1987) Cinecitta, the huge movie studio outside Rome, is 50 years old and Fellini is interviewed by a Japanese TV crew about the films he has made there over the years as he begins production on his latest film. A young actor portrays Fellini arriving at Cinecitta the first time by trolley to interview a star. Marcello Mastroianni dressed as Mandrake the Magician floats by a window and Fellini followed by TV crew takes him to Anita Ekberg's villa where the Trevi fountain scene from Dolce vita, La (1960) is shown on a sheet that appears and disappears as if by magic.
- Spaceballs (1987) In Spaceballs, there's a scene where Dark Helmet and his crew are looking for Lone Starr and his crew, so with new advanced technology, they're able to play Spaceballs the movie on their monitor before the film is even complete. There's another scene where Yogurt shows Lone Starr movie merchandise from Spaceballs the movie.
- Summer School (1987) A high-school gym teacher has big plans for the summer, but is forced to cancel them to teach a "bonehead" English class for misfit goof-off students. Two of those goof off students, are Francis 'Chainsaw' Gremp and Larry Kazamias, they are obssessed with the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, they constantly talk about it and even re-enact some TCM like scenes with their fellow students in order to scare the substitute teacher.
- The Big Picture (1989) 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.
- Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989) Opthalmologist Judah Rosenthal has had an affair with Dolores for several years, and now she threatens to ruin his life if he doesn't marry her. When his brother Jack suggests to have Dolores murdered, Judah is faced with a big moral dilemma : destruction of his life or murder. Meanwhile, documentary filmmaker Clifford Stern is trying to make a film of a philosophy professor, but instead he's commissioned to make a portrait of succesfull TV producer and brother-in-law Lester, who to Clifford represents everything that he despises.
- Nuovo cinema Paradiso (1989) A famous film director returns home to a Sicilian village for the first time after almost 30 years. He reminisces about his childhood at the Cinema Paradiso where Alfredo, the projectionist, first brought about his love of films. He is also reminded of his lost teenage love, Elena, who he had to leave before he left for Rome.
- Speaking Parts (1989) A struggling, bit-part actor's job as a hotel custodian is a front for his real job: being rented out as a gigolo by his woman supervisor. A female co-worker is obsessed with him, but he ignores and avoids her. He leaves his acting resume in the hotel room of a woman screenwriter, who is casting for a TV movie based on the true story of her deceased brother. She hires him to play the lead and the two begin an affair. She becomes increasingly distraught as it becomes evident that the movie's producer is changing her story. Egoyan's trademark tangle of bizarre relationships surrounds the protagonists on their way to a mind-blowing conclusion. A hypnotic, fascinating film.
- The Adjuster (1991) A reflection about what makes everyone's life unique, through the story of Noah's family. Noah is an adjuster, having sex with his customers. His wife Hera watches pornographic movies for the Board of Censors. They live with their son Simon and Hera's sister in a show-flat. One day, they meet Bubba, who wants to make a movie in their house.
- Night on Earth (1991) A collection of five stories involving cab drivers in five different cities. Los Angeles - A talent agent for the movies discovers her cab driver would be perfect to cast, but the cabbie is reluctant to give up her solid cab driver's career.
- Jia you xi shi (1992) All's Well, Ends Well: Shang Foon gets into a bizarre relationship with a fan so obsessed with movies (Maggie Cheung) that she constantly acts out characters on dates, until he suddenly becomes temporarily mentally ill.
- The Player (1992) Griffin Mill is a studio executive who is responsible for accepting or rejecting the pitches for potential feature films. With his career on the line and the impending possibility that he might be replaced by a rival upstart. Griffin now finds his life threatened by an anonymous screenwriter whose pitch he rejected long ago. Drawn into a web of blackmail and murder, Griffin must evade the police investigation that he caused. But he must also watch his back, because in Hollywood, there's always another person to take your place.
- Venice/Venice (1992) The film starts in Venice, Italy, where Dean, a character much like the writer/director, is promoting his latest movie, which has been chosen as the American entry in a film festival. As he negotiates the media circus, he meets Jeanne, a woman from France who has sought him out because she's in love with the man she perceives behind his movies. She warns her that he's not really the man in his movies, at the same time avoiding the claim that movies are any less real than "reality." She becomes disenchanted, however, watching him play the publicity game, and eventually leaves. When the film moves to Venice Beach, CA, she reappears, and Dean's life gets rearranged as a result. The whole drama is intercut with sound-bites from a host of women talking about the differences between "real life" and the movies.
- Dangerous Game (1993) Eddie Israel is a moviemaker. He is beginning the shooting of "The mother of mirrors", starring Francis Burns and Sarah Jennings. "The mother of mirrors" is the story of the last night of a couple falling into decay. Eddie is very demanding with the actors, and the heavy atmosphere of the film acts upon the daily life of the protagonists.
- Last Action Hero (1993) Danny Madigan is a huge fan of Jack Slater, a charchter in his favorite films played by Arnold Schwarzenegger. Danny's friend, Nick is a movie projectionist and he gives Danny a magic ticket to the new Jack Slater film. The ticket magically transports Danny into the movie world of Jack Slater. Benedict, the Hitman is one of Jack Slater's enemies, he ends up with the magic ticket and is transported to the real world, there he realises that if he kills Schwarzenegger, Slater will also die.
- Ed Wood (1994) The mostly true story of the legendary director of awful movies and his strange group of friends and actors. Ed Wood concentrates on the best-known period of Edward D.Wood, Jr's life in the 1950s, when he made such movies as "Glen or Glenda", "Bride of the Monster" and "Plan 9 From Outer Space", and focusing on both his transvestism and his touching friendship with the once great but now ageing and unemployed horror star Bela Lugosi.
- New Nightmare (1994) Freddy Kreuger, upset that he was killed off in the last "Nightmare on Elm Street" movie, attempts to murder his creators and actors from his previous films.
- Augustin (1995) Augustin Dos Santos is a benign simpleton with a slight stammer. He's serious about his part-time job as a clerk for an insurance company, and he also acts, with small parts under his belt in commercials and experimental films. An agent finds his serious innocence perfect for a part as an odd bellman. Before his screen test, he volunteers for a day at a hotel. At his screen test, his inability to see the comic center of the scene makes him perfect for the part. Back at work, women co-workers tease him, and then he's off to the countryside to play a vet in a government film about myxomatosis in rabbits. Can anything break through his serious view of reality?
- Les Cent et une nuits de Simon Cinéma (1995) A Hundred and One Nights of Simon Cinema: Monsieur Cinema, a hundred years old, lives alone in a large villa. His memories fade away, so he engages a young woman to tell him stories about all the movies ever made. Also a line of movie stars comes to visit him giving him back the pleasure of life - but amongst them there are also some young students only striving after his money for the realization of their film projects. The two stories - Monsieur Cinema's and the young people's life - are told in parallel until they come together in the end when the old man plays a role in the film made by the students.
- Get Shorty (1995) A mobster travels to Hollywood to collect a debt and discovers that the movie business is much the same as his current job.
- Lap Dancing (1995) Angie is having no luck auditioning for movies. She thinks about going back home, but her roommate Claudia convinces her to try working at the "gentleman's club" with her in order to gain more life experience. Angie hopes to be able to turn the experience toward more effective acting but is having difficulty overcoming her inhibitions. She meets a burned out movie director at the club who helps her with her dilemma.
- Living in Oblivion (1995) Film about filmmaking. It takes place during one day on set of non-budget movie. Ultimate tribute to all independent filmmakers. Nick Reve is directing an independent movie with a shoestring budget, when the action spills outside of the scenes and everything goes all wrong, (real- life) writer/director Tom DiCillo throws tragicomic jabs at the strange, and painfully human, process of making movies.
- Number One Fan (1995) Hollywood's biggest action star, Zane Barry, played by Chad McQueen (son of Steve McQueen) is seduced by his gorgeous number one fan, Blair Madsen, played by Renee Griffin. For Blair, it's the beginning of a romance she's dreamed about all her life. But for Zane it's a one-night stand. Afterall, he's about to be married to a gorgeous costumer (Catherine Mary Stewart). As Blair's obsession turns to violence, Zane's life mirrors one of his action movies. Zane must take matters into his own hands in order to overcome the final fury of his Number One Fan.
- Girl 6 (1996) This Spike Lee film examines the life of an aspiring actress in New York. She is upset by the treatment of women in the movie industry during one of her screen tests with 'QT'. Out of work and desperate for money, she decides to take a job as a phone-sex operator. Here, unlike her previous dealings with potential employers, her (female) boss is kind, caring, and sensitive. Later, she begins to get too engrossed in her work and starts to lose touch with reality, represented by her friend and neighbor, Jimmy.
- Irma Vep (1996) Rene Vidal, a director in decline, decides to remake Louis Feuillade's silent serial "Les Vampires." Believing no French actress can match Musidora as Irma Vep (an anagram for vampire), he casts Hong Kong action heroine Maggie Cheung, though she speaks no French. On the chaotic set, she's aided by Zoe, the wardrobe mistress with a crush on her; she defends Vidal to a Parisian journalist who trashes all French film and praises John Woo and Schwarzenegger; she befriends Vidal when he goes over the edge; and, in costume, she breaks into a hotel suite to steal jewels as her victim talks on the phone. We also watch the making, the rushes, and the remains of Vidal's unfinished film.
- Tesis (1996) Why is death and violence so fascinating? Is it morally correct to show violence in movies? If so, is there a limit to what we should show? That's the subject of Ángela's examination paper. She is a young student at a film school in Madrid. Together with the student Chema (who is totally obsessed with violent movies) they find a snuff movie in which a young girl is tortured and killed. Soon they discover that the girl was a former student at their school...
- An Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn (1997) Director Alan Smithee comes to Hollywood to make a movie. Due to a variety of factors, he decides to disown it and direct it under a pseudonym. Unfortunately, the Director's Guild requires that if a director disowns a movie in this fashion, he must use the official Director's Guild pseudonym...which happens to be Alan Smithee.
- Boogie Nights (1997) A look inside the Pornography industry of the 1970's when they still used film until the 1980's when they switched to video.
- Love and Death on Long Island (1997) Giles De'Ath is a widower who doesn't like anything modern. He goes to movies and falls in love with film star, Ronnie Bostock. He then investigates everything about the movie and Ronnie. After that he travels to Long Island city where Ronnie lives and meets him, pretending that Ronnie is a great actor and that's why Giles admires him.
- My Giant (1998) Billy Crystal plays a Hollywood agent who stumbles upon Max, a giant living in Romania, and tries to get him into the movies.
- Vampire Centerfolds (1998) An innocent young cheerleader embarks on a dark and erotic journey into the nightmare underworld of Hollywood movies. Cast in a strange film about vampiric bloodlust, she discovers a secret coven of beautiful actresses who are transformed into sex-obsessed blood thirsty vampires by night.
- Bowfinger (1999) When a desperate movie producer fails to get a major star for his bargain basement film, he decides to shoot the film secretly around him.
- Introducing Dorothy Dandridge (1999) This biography of Dorothy Dandridge (Halle Berry) follows her career through early days on the club circuit with her sister (Cynda Williams) to her turn in movies, including becoming the first black actress to win a Best Actress Nomination in 1954 for "Carmen Jones", to her final demise to prescription drugs, which was debated whether it was suicide or accidental.
- RKO 281 (1999) Orson Welles produces his greatest film, Citizen Kane, despite the opposition of the film's de facto subject, William Randolph Hearst.
- Cecil B. DeMented (2000) An independent film director and his crew kidnap an A-list Hollywood actress and force her to star in their new movie.
- Spank (1999) Vince Poletto is a rich young man, who is obsessed with Sylvester Stallone movies thus his nickname of Rocky, he acts like a gangster with thugs in tow and a constantly belittled girl friend (Victoria Dixon-Whittle).
- Meilleur espoir féminin (2000) Most Promising Young Actress:Yvon Rance, a born hairdresser and an elegant middle-aged man with a perfect toupee reigns in his native Brittany over a clientele of little old ladies. But his main reason for living, his masterpiece, is Laetitia, his only daughter whom he has single-handedly brought up for eighteen years and whom he fondly pictures as heading a cutting-edge hairdressing salon. But she has secretly auditioned for the movies and has been cast in the leading role... her life is about to change! For her father, this is a real catasrophe.
- Shadow of the Vampire (2000) The filming of Nosferatu is hampered by the fact that the star is taking his role far more seriously than what seems humanly possible. The production of Nosferatu had to deal with a lot of strange things (some crew members disappeared, some died). This movie focuses on the difficult relationship between Murnau, the director, and Schreck, the lead actor.
- State and Main (2000) A movie crew invades a small town whose residents are all too ready to give up their values for showbiz glitz. Chaos ensues for a film production in a small Vermont town after the discovery of one of the town's landmarks burned down years ago. A moralistic screenwriter may have to put his career ahead of his principles. An authoritative director and his fast talking producer struggle to keep the production together, while the leading actors have their own problems. The leading man has a penchant for young girls while the woman has a problem showing nudity on screen.
- America's Sweethearts (2001) A movie publicist deals with the messy public split of his movie's co-stars while keeping reporters at bay while a reclusive director holds the film's print hostage.
- Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back (2001) Jay and Silent Bob, head to Hollywood to prevent a movie from being made about Bluntman and Chronic, a comic book that was based on them. While there, they interrupt the filming of Good Will Hunting 2 and cause all kinds of chaos.
- The Majestic (2001) Peter Appleton is a script writer during the 1950's who is suspected to be a Communist among many Hollywood film people (which is not true). Along the way, he gets into a freak car accident and suffers amnesia, then ends up in a small California town. There he lives in a run down movie theatre where he learns the magic of experiencing a movie in it. Soon, the Communist hunters find him and call him to testify before a Senate hearing committee.
- Adaptation. (2002) A lovelorn screenwriter turns to his less talented twin brother for help when his efforts to adapt a non-fiction book go nowhere. An account of screenwriter Charlie Kaufman's (Cage) attempt to adapt Susan Orlean's (Streep) non-fiction book The Orchid Thief, which is the story of John Laroche (Cooper), a plant dealer who clones rare orchids then sells them to collectors. We see the action of the book as we see Kaufman struggle to adapt it into a movie. This is presumably a somewhat true story, as Charlie Kaufman is the real life screenwriter of Adaptation.
- Full Frontal (2002) A day in the life of a group of men and women in Hollywood, in the hours leading up to a friend's birthday party. Writer-director Steven Soderbergh follows up Ocean's 11 with the low-budget 'Full Frontal', his first digitally shot film. Touted as an unofficial sequel to his 1989 hit sex, lies, and videotape, this arty film-within-a-film (which was shot in just 18 days) revolves around seven people with little in common whose lives collide. Julia Roberts, Blair Underwood, David Duchovny, Brad Pitt (cameoing as himself), David Hyde Pierce, Catherine Keener, and Terence Stamp are reason enough to see the film, which is billed as a "movie about movies for people who love movies."
- Hollywood Ending (2002) A has-been filmmaker is hired to direct his ex-wife, who's now dating the studio boss. But when he arrives on the set, he develops a case of psychosomatic blindness.
- My Brother's Light (2002) Follow documentary film maker Zues Arxidia Papagianakopoulos as he discovers that the real story behind one of the world's most important independent films happened when the cameras were not rolling.
- S1m0ne (2002) A producer's film is endangered when his star walks off, so he decides to digitally create an actress to substitute for the star, becoming an overnight sensation that everyone thinks is a real person.
- And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself (2003) Hollywood makes a deal with Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa to film his war and recreate his life. Producer D.W. Griffith (Colm Feore) becomes interested and sends Frank Thayer (Eion Bailey) with a film crew to develop film reels. Thayer becomes horrified and fascinated by the bandit. He finds an enigmatic individual that is both ghoulishly brutal and charmingly captivating. The resulting film became the first feature length movie, introducing scores of Americans to the true horrors of war that they had never personally seen.
- Bare på jobb (2003) Robert Reiakvam is a documentary filmmaker. He is far from successful and tends to make films no one wants to screen. His next big project is a documentary about debt collectors. After securing a financing agreement from the State Film Fund, he immediately begins filming. His contact with three debt-collecting thugs causes him to change the focus of his film: It turns out debt collectors get no sick pay, no car allowance, and no lunch break. It is not an acknowledged profession. This seems totally unfair. They're just doing their job, after all. Robert gets excited about this brilliant new angle, but in the meantime the State Film Fund has reconsidered. They withdraw their support. The thugs are now so excited about the project that they offer Robert the necessary financing. Robert happily accepts the money, which he considers a gift, but which it turns out is a loan. Robert ends up becoming an unwilling participant in his own film.
- Cineasten (2003) David, a young filmstudent, enters a competition with the ambition of winning. As his film develops, he himself turns into a real monster. A man who is ready to do anything to win... Even kill! A black comedy about Filmmaking, Ingmar Bergman and loosing friends on the way to success.
- How to Get the Man's Foot Outta Your Ass (2003) Baadasssss!: Mario Van Peebles's half documentary/half homage to his father Melvin's 1971 film, Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song. Melvin Van Peebles stunned the world for the first time, with his debut feature, The Story of a Three Day Pass. Filmed in France and selected as the French entry in the San Francisco Film Festival, Melvin's film was awarded the top prize. Melvin was determined to push the Hollywood boundaries with the groundbreaking, and even more controversial, Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song. Turned down by every major studio including Columbia, where he had a three-picture deal, Melvin was forced to basically self-finance.
- The Aviator (2004) A biopic depicting the early years of legendary director and aviator Howard Hughes' career, from the late 1920's to the mid-1940's.
- A New Wave (2004) The story for "A New Wave" centers on Desmond, a mid-twenties frustrated artist who works a day job as a bank teller. Miserable with his job, his eccentric roommate Gideon convinces Desmond to rob the bank in which he works. Unfortunately, Gideon concocts the plan based on all the bank-robber films he's ever seen. Ultimately, the story is about friendship, love, and the pursuit of life.
Author Comments:
For this list, I've included movies where the art of filmmaking is acknowledged, not just movies with characters that are in the movie business. That's why Spaceballs is included.
This list includes:
1. Movies with characters that are in the movie business or aspiring to it, including biopics.
2. Movies that portray scenes of making movies
3. Movies with characters that are obssessed with movies.
This list does not include.
1. documentaries
More to come...
Cloned From:
Movies that love movies...fitting topic for someone named Oedipus. I would add The Muppet Movie and Ed Wood, which I notice are in your lists of movies seen.
Thank you, I had planned on adding Ed Wood but had forgotten all about The Muppet Movie, until you mentioned it.
No problem. Reading through your plot summaries, I wonder why it is that so many movies about movies end in chaos?
I've noticed that too. Maybe, it's the filmmakers way of letting us know that filmmaking doesn't go as smoothly as some might believe by watching the finished product.
Rule #1 of maintaining multiple identities - Don't answer a reply to a previous post with a different name.
Shalom, y'all!
L. Bangs
This list is incomplete without the greatest movie about moviemaking of all time... Sunset Boulevard!
Thank you. I added it.
I suggest you look up Starring Pancho Villa As Himself. It is a made-for-tv movie, but it recounts the fascinating story of the making of this 1912 movie.
Thanks, I added it. I've been wanting to see "And Starring Pancho Villa As Himself" but haven't yet.
The Stunt Man (1980)
The French Lieutenant's Woman (1981)
The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985)
Get Shorty (1995)
Recall that Miss Piggy aspires to true stardom in the majority of the Muppet films even as she is cast in classic Hollywood roles. Starry-eyed ingénue, Esther Williams, Judy Garland, star cameo as an island love goddess, a gofer turned overnight star anchorpig and so on.
Gonzo the Great, on the other hand, is an artiste of the highest caliber. Film stardom will be his through the portal of Bombay. Unfortunately Hollywood does not have the vision to cast him in the role that he was born to play, Hamlet... shot from a cannon. As well as Richard the III shot from a cannon ("Now is the wintaarrrgghhh!") No one epitomizes the truism "There are no small roles, only small actors" better than Gonzo; I have never seen a finer Benvolio shot from a cannon. His tremendous range has allowed him to play parts ranging from Petruchio shot from a cannon to Prospero shot from a cannon. And who can forget Gonzo's transcendent performance as King Lear shot from a cannon for forty-three glorious weeks in the West End?
All of these accompanied by Animal playing a drum roll, of course.
More:
8 1/2
Living in Oblivion
Thank you.
I'm so glad that you remember how it once was.
Ahh... sweet, wonderful Animal. Has there ever been a more emotive drummer? His brushwork is beyond belief but I seriously doubt that Animal is able to play a drum roll (and neither could Ringo.) However, if there's anyone in the music industry today who's able to paradiddle with their face, it would most certainly be Animal.
Speaking of loving movies, you might burst with pleasure if you watch The Last Waltz through the lens of Dr. Teeth & the Electric Mayhem. Dr. Teeth was explicitly designed along the lines of Dr. John but the rest of the Electric Mayhem would feel perfectly at home on the Winterland stage in that Scosese/Robertson coke fest of a great concert film. Sgt. Floyd Pepper is a strap-on Clapton (although I think he moves exactly like Rick Danko.) Janice is a hotter version of Joni Mitchell and Animal is Levon Helm, of course. Only the inscrutable saxman Zoot is without a fleshy doppelgänger. But it appears that Dylan has stolen Zoot's hat.
I'm just waiting for Animal's basement tape where he sings lead on "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down."
(No thanks necessary, Oedipus.)
Thanks for the suggestions.
Godard's "Contempt," of course. And "Adaptation." And "Sherlock, Jr." probably fits.
Thanks, great suggestions.
I'll propose Day for Night, although I do not know the foreign name of the film off the top of my head...
Shalom, y'all!
L. Bangs
In fact, you will find many suggestions (including many from myself if you scroll a bit) here.
Shalom, y'all!
L. Bangs
Thanks, I'll check it out.
I thought about The Player, but then I had to ask myself - does it love movies? Does it hate movies?
It seemed a bit mixed at best (I guess the correct answer to both of the above questions is 'yes', or prehaps it loves movies and hates the system that makes them.). Still, I have no problem with it being on this fine list.
Shalom, y'all!
L. Bangs
Yes, there's a thin line between love and hate.
Thanks, I added it. The foreign title is La Nuit américaine.