CQ is about an american screenwriter who sort of accidentally finds himself thrust into the director’s chair of a French science fiction movie that looks like Modesty Blaze. It’s pretty uneven, but it has some good scenes, and it looks really nice.
It’s really an accidental masterpiece. Anyone who makes movies should see it and the Raiders of the Lost Ark adaptation done by the kids from Mississippi. The Raiders adaptation is an example of what you can do with no resources and a shitload of determination. Lost in La Mancha is about what happens when a shitload of determination isn’t enough.
I haven’t seen it, but there’s The Pickle, about the making of a horror film.
Same with The Independent, about a career schlock filmmaker.
Other films that include filmmaking include The Comic (Dick Van Dyck as a silent film star), The Aviator (a sequence about the making of Hell’s Angels), Chaplin (showing him making films), and The Bank Dick (In one subplot, Egbert Sousé takes over the direction of a movie).
American Movie http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0181288/
Brian
Don’t forget the hilarious The Search for One-Eye Jimmy.
The plot of Mel Brooks’ Silent Movie is about how Mel Brooks was trying to create a silent movie.
Lost In La Mancha and American Movie are both excellent.
I’d also suggest Burden of Dreams, a documentary about the making of Werner Herzog’s Fitzcarraldo… which goes nicely with Elanor Coppola’s
Hearts of Darkness, the documentary about the making of Apocalypse Now.
Irma Vep
Stardust Memories
The Big Picture
Sunset Boulevard
And I wouldn’t be much of a theatre major if I didn’t try to convince you that Rent can shomehow be included since Mark is making him film the entire time.
Much as it breaks my heart (this is an all-time favorite movie of mine), I have to disagree. It’s about Hollywood, it’s about people who work in Hollywood – but it’s not really about making a movie.
John Waters’ Cecil B. DeMented.
The Blair Witch Project.
American Splendor (Harvey Pekar’s comics, but also the indie filmmakers making a movie about him…).
There was an anarchic French black comedy from about ten years ago about a rogue film crew whose director was engineering a series of sensational crimes for them to film – although whether it was for a TV show (a la Network) or a movie, I can’t recall… I tried identifying this by keywords and searches on likely production credits in IMDB, but no dice. Does anybody remember this one?
Jean-Luc Godard’s Contempt.
The 1999 film American Movie is a doc about a no-talent, no-budget filmmaker who realizes that in order to make the movie he wants, he needs to finally finish his horror film to try and raise money for the new venture. Too bad the money-maker is even worse.
The filmmakers came under some criticism in some circles at the time, accused of exploiting the unsuspecting protagonist for laughs (the film is quite hysterical), a situation examined in the second segment of Todd Solondz’ film, Storytelling.
::: shudder :::
Not to hijack, and please don’t take this the wrong way, but no one should ever watch this movie under any circumstances. Even if it’s the only DVD you have - and you’re snowed in a cabin alone in the mountains with nothing but a comfortable couch, a brand new 60" plasma screen, a matching brand new DVD player, a freshly-installed BOSE speaker setup, and a jumbo bag of Doritos. Never.
And this is not because the movie is supposed to be scary.
- Peter Wiggen
It’s perhaps better described as a movie about a director avoiding making the movie he’s meant to be working on, but there’s Fellini’s 8 1/2.
Quite a lot of Powell’s Peeping Tom is set on and around the sound stage for the film the central character is working as cameraman on.
You absolutely must see this movie.
One more thought:
I didn’t like it when I saw it years ago, but Good Morning, Babylon, by the Tavianis, is set around the filming of Intolerance.
…the Peter Jackson masterpeice Forgotten Silver. Its a documentary that follow’s Jackson’s quest to tell the story of forgotten filmmaker Colin McKenzie. McKenzie was a movie pioneer, who, before anyone else, filmed the worlds first flight, made the worlds first feature length movie, made the worlds first talkie, and created the epic production of Salome. Brilliant stuff, with McKenzie’s journey seemingly mirroring Jackson’s own.
Is a “mockumentary”, by the way, but one that is so good that when it screened for the first time in NZ, it fooled most people who saw it. I guessed it was fake when they showed some CSI-style digital enhancement, but most of my fellow Kiwi’s fell for it hook, line and sinker!
Does Reality Bites count?