# Movies about movies **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 13, 2004, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-about-movies/229096 "2004-02-13T20:37:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Ex\_Machina](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/278dde/32.png) [@Ex\_Machina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ex_Machina)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2004, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-about-movies/229096/1 "2004-02-13T20:37:49Z")
I used to laugh about writers who wrote stories about a writer writing stories. It seemed to me like a cheap way around creative blocks. Neal Simon comes to mind. Today I watched an old Kirk Douglas and Lana Turner movie called _The Bad and the Beautiful_ which was set in the movie industry. Another movie came on later this afternoon called _State and Main_ and I gather, from what I hear coming from the other room, that the plot also centers around the making of a movie. I began to wonder just how often this is done by moviemakers. Three more movies immediately came to mind. So I’m asking - can you name a movie that is centered in the movie industry or has prominent movie-making scenes? ---
**Author:** ![Big\_Norse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/big_norse/32/9954_2.png) [@Big\_Norse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Big_Norse)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2004, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-about-movies/229096/2 "2004-02-13T20:51:42Z")
_Singing in the Rain_ is about making a really bad movie, just as talkies come out. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2004, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-about-movies/229096/3 "2004-02-13T21:00:05Z")
Surely thousands of movies qualify, whether they’re explicitly about movies– [ul][li]The Big Knife[/li][li]Cecil B. Demented[/li][li]Sullivan’s Travels[/li][li]The Stunt Man[/li]. . . ad nauseum[/ul] –or their subtext is about movies– [ul][li]Dancer in the Dark[/li][li]Hollow Man[/li][li]Once Upon a Time in the West[/li][li]Rear Window[/li]. . . ad nauseum[/ul] Seems like it might be easier to list movies that are NOT about movies. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2004, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-about-movies/229096/4 "2004-02-13T21:03:01Z")
One of the best ones I can think of is [The Stunt Man](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0081568/combined) (1980). Steve Railsback is on the run form the law when he comes across a movie company that just lost their chief stunt man in an accident. Director Eli Cross (Peter O’Toole) offers to hide him from the law if he takes the dead guy’s place. Suspicion begins to arise that maybe it wasn’t an accident after all – Cross will manipulate anyone and do anything to get a good take. DD ---
**Author:** ![Tusculan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecd19e/32.png) [@Tusculan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tusculan)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2004, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-about-movies/229096/5 "2004-02-13T21:52:07Z")
I recommend Truffaut’s _Night for day_, which really is about the making of a movie, and the actions of the crew and actors. ---
**Author:** ![JohnGalt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johngalt/32/184_2.png) [@JohnGalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnGalt)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2004, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-about-movies/229096/6 "2004-02-13T21:58:40Z")
Don’t forget **Lost in LaMancha** , Terry Gilliam’s fiasco of the Don Quixote story. Yes, it’s a documentary, no one would believe it if it was written that way. ---
**Author:** ![Murcielago](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/da6949/32.png) [@Murcielago](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Murcielago)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2004, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-about-movies/229096/7 "2004-02-13T22:01:24Z")
I second **Tusculan**. I thought it was called _Day for Night_, anyway it is a great movie. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2004, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-about-movies/229096/8 "2004-02-13T22:39:34Z")
I can’t get enough “movie” movies. I don’t care if it’s entirely subtextual, like _Pulp Fiction_, or biographical, like _Ed Wood_, or semi-fantastic, like _Shadow of the Vampire_. I’m still waiting for the biopic of Orson Welles Mercury Theatre period, leading up to the premiere of _Citizen Kane_. It seems to me that [Leonardo DiCaprio](http://twirler.ws/celebrities/leonardo-dicaprio.jpg) was born to play a [young Orson Welles](http://www.billingsgazette.com/photos/991020wells.jpg). What are they waiting for? As far as existing films go, one of my favourites is _Living in Oblivion_, in which Steve Buscemi plays a director who has a… umm… _nightmarish_ day of shooting. He’s also good in _In The Soup_ in which he plays a desperate (aspiring) screenwriter who ends up hooked up with a colourful gangster with pretensions of being a producer. (_Get Shorty_ was fun, too.) _The Search For One-Eye Jimmy_ is a great deadpan comedy (also featuring Steve Buscemi) about a group of friends in the Bronx for whom a missing friend presents an opportunity to get involved in a bit of _cinema verite_. Hilarious. ---
**Author:** ![Hodge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Hodge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hodge)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2004, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-about-movies/229096/9 "2004-02-13T22:40:23Z")
Yeah, it’s called _Day For Night_, which is a photographic technique in which night scenes are shot during daytime using filters to make it appear dark outside. Anyway, a great movie. Also, check out _Living In Oblivion_. It’s a great Steve Buscemi flick with a hysterical performance by James LeGros supposedly based on a rather dim-witted Brad Pitt. Or, you might want to check out _Adaptation_, a movie about a screenwriter writing that movie as it unfolds. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2004, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-about-movies/229096/10 "2004-02-13T23:01:15Z")
One thing I’ve learned from the Oscars is that Hollywood loves movies about Hollywood. You want movies about making movies (or more generally about acting/entertaining), just go through a list of past Academy Award nominees, and you’ll find plenty. Make a halfway decent movie about Hollywood or acting, and you have a good shot at a nomination. Not yet mentioned: **The Player** **Chaplin** **Sunset Boulevard** ---
**Author:** ![Tentacle\_Monster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ba9def/32.png) [@Tentacle\_Monster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tentacle_Monster)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2004, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-about-movies/229096/11 "2004-02-13T23:30:59Z")
There’s also _…And God Spoke_, which is a comedy about the making of a movie about the bible. I suppose you could include _The Last Action Hero_, which I actually liked. I know, I’m a pervert. _Noises Off!_ isn’t about a movie, but it’s a movie based on a play, and the play itself is about the making of a play. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Fight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/90ced4/32.png) [@Cat\_Fight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Fight)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2004, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-about-movies/229096/12 "2004-02-13T23:36:03Z")
**The Purple Rose of Cairo** really captures the magic of going to the theatre and being in the audience of a really great movie. \*\*Mulholland Drive \*\* takes a somewhat different approach, but still covers the usual Hollywood truisms of phoniness, cutthroat tactics, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troy_mcclure_sf/32/4150_2.png) [@Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Troy_McClure_SF)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2004, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-about-movies/229096/13 "2004-02-14T00:06:27Z")
_Moulin Rouge!_ _A Midsummer Night’s Dream_ ---
**Author:** ![II\_Gyan\_II](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/bbe5ce/32.png) [@II\_Gyan\_II](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/II_Gyan_II)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2004, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-about-movies/229096/14 "2004-02-14T03:44:05Z")
I second _Day for Night_. Then, there’s _Contempt_(Le Mepris) by Jean Luc Godard, _My Wife Is an Actress_(Ma femme est une actrice), and _Bowfinger_. ---
**Author:** ![Beauty\_Personified](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e480ec/32.png) [@Beauty\_Personified](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beauty_Personified)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2004, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-about-movies/229096/15 "2004-02-14T05:22:49Z")
What about that recent Al Pacino film about the virtual actress? What was is called… SIMONE. Oh, wait, that should be S1M0NE. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Odinoneeye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/97f17d/32.png) [@Odinoneeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odinoneeye)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2004, 8:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-about-movies/229096/16 "2004-02-14T08:08:06Z")
**Bowfinger** is about making a movie on a really really really small budget. **Hollywood Ending** about a blind director ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2004, 9:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-about-movies/229096/17 "2004-02-14T09:27:16Z")
Behind the Screen (1916), Charles Chaplin The Extra Girl (1923), Mabel Normand Show People (1928), Marion Davies Movie Crazy (1932), Harold Lloyd Make Me a Star (1932) What Price Hollywood? (1932) King Kong (1933) A Star Is Born (1937) It’s Love I’m After (1937) Something to Sing About (1937) Hollywood Cavalcade (1939) Sullivan’s Travels (1941) The Reluctant Dragon (1941) Never Give a Sucker an Even Break (1941), W.C. Fields Thousands Cheer (1943) Abbott and Costello in Hollywood (1945) The Perils of Pauline (1947) The Bad and the Beautiful (1952) Singin’ in the Rain (1952) A Star Is Born (1954) ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2004, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-about-movies/229096/18 "2004-02-14T18:22:34Z")
Al Pacino in **Searching for Richard**. ---
**Author:** ![freewill39](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/d2c977/32.png) [@freewill39](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/freewill39)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2004, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-about-movies/229096/19 "2004-02-14T19:04:15Z")
> [@mbh](#): > > Al Pacino in **Searching for Richard**. Umm, I don’t know if that applies. It was a DOCUMENTARY, not a fictional movie. Also, it’s called ‘LOOKING’ for Richard, not searching. Remember the beginning? It shows the words KING RICHARD on the screen, and then the letters “LOO” appear in the with word KING and the word FOR appears between to two to make “KING RICHARD” become " LOOking FOR richard". Sort of neat. - Freewill39. ---
**Author:** ![freewill39](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/d2c977/32.png) [@freewill39](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/freewill39)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2004, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-about-movies/229096/20 "2004-02-14T19:07:50Z")
Although it’s a mini series and not a movie, I think it still applies… Last year there was a pretty interesting series on Showtime called “Out Of Order”. It starred Eric Stoltz, William H. Macy, and several others. It is about a screen writer writing scripts for a series based on his life (the implication is that the end result is what you’re watching). Through the show, there are many brazen illusions to the fact that the whole thing is a film, including seeing actual cameras following the main character. They go so far as to have “production meetings” with the main character, telling him his life should go and what choices he should make, based on feedback that the audience has given the producers. Very creative. - Freewill39. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-about-movies/229096.md?page=2)