# Movies about other movies? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 14, 2018, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-about-other-movies/821320 "2018-09-14T02:37:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![GreenWyvern](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/greenwyvern/32/2834_2.png) [@GreenWyvern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenWyvern)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2018, 7:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-about-other-movies/821320/21 "2018-09-14T07:21:44Z")
Two good comedies about making Hollywood movies: [Hail, Caesar!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMqeoW3XRa0) [Bowfinger](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsFzvPt6Smw) ---
**Author:** ![steepone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/977dab/32.png) [@steepone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/steepone)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2018, 8:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-about-other-movies/821320/22 "2018-09-14T08:17:53Z")
_Under the Rainbow_ A comedy about the making of The Wizard of Oz ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2018, 9:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-about-other-movies/821320/23 "2018-09-14T09:26:20Z")
> [@commasense](#): > > although not all of them are about making a specific movie, which I think is what the OP is looking for. No, it isn’t, at all. While I won’t complain about the tangents, I was thinking of movies where one or more of the characters has such an interest in a real movie that really already exists in the outside world that it makes up a major part of the plot of the movie. The main character’s obsession with _Fargo_ in _Kumiko the Treasure Hunter._ Everyone’s obsession with _The Graduate_ in _Rumor Has It_. (In the most closely matching examples, the movie would have scenes of the character watching real footage from the real movie as happened multiple times in _Kumiko_.) To go on a bit of a tangent, George’s obsession with _Breakfast At Tiffanys_ on an episode of _Seinfeld_ and the _My Dinner With Andre_ episode of _Community_ come close. So far none of the movies mentioned fit my intentions, but that may be because there aren’t many examples to mention. I know I’m not thinking of any–_Fanboys_ with _The Phantom Menace_ comes close, but without _TPM_ even being out yet in the movie. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2018, 9:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-about-other-movies/821320/24 "2018-09-14T09:58:01Z")
[5-25-77](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5-25-77) is all about a guy who obsesses over _Star Wars_. There was also [Fanboys](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0489049/reference), about nerds who want to get an early screening of _The Phantom Menace_. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2018, 11:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-about-other-movies/821320/25 "2018-09-14T11:07:07Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > So far none of the movies mentioned fit my intentions, but that may be because there aren’t. Not even “Son of Rambow”? I thought that was pretty close, with the two main characters being focused on the movie “First Blood”. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2018, 11:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-about-other-movies/821320/26 "2018-09-14T11:37:19Z")
> [@DavidwithanR](#): > > … _Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead_ is a movie (containing a play) of a play about a play about a movie of a play containing a play … … containing a puppet show. If we’re going to allow plays, \*Kiss Me Kate \*is a musical film about people making a stage musical based on a Shakespeare play. Events on and off stage are parallel. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2018, 11:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-about-other-movies/821320/27 "2018-09-14T11:58:49Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > [5-25-77](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5-25-77) is all about a guy who obsesses over _Star Wars_. > > There was also [Fanboys](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0489049/reference), about nerds who want to get an early screening of _The Phantom Menace_. Heck, throw in\* Free Enterprise\* about a couple of Star Trek uber fans who get to meet and hang out with William Shatner. You know it’s utter fiction because one of them, despite being marginally employed, is shown (sometimes in flashback) as having dated/bedded at least five absurdly hot women. Granted, the movie is set in Los Angeles, which acts as a hottie gravity well, but geez… ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2018, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-about-other-movies/821320/28 "2018-09-14T13:18:34Z")
> [@Peter\_Morris](#): > > If we’re going to allow plays, \*Kiss Me Kate \*is a musical film about people making a stage musical based on a Shakespeare play. Events on and off stage are parallel. Louis Malle’s [_Vanya on 42nd Street_](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0111590/) is about a group of real actors who came together to produce an spartan and non-commercial production of Checkov’s _Uncle Vanya_ which actually becomes a production of the play; that is, it starts with the players gossiping and discussing the characters and then just turns into them playing the roles without any transition. If was the result of Malle pseudo-documenting the actual development of the play by the actors over a period of months prior to the filming. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2018, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-about-other-movies/821320/29 "2018-09-14T13:34:19Z")
> [@hogarth](#): > > Not even “Son of Rambow”? I thought that was pretty close, with the two main characters being focused on the movie “First Blood”. Okay, maybe a couple of them–I was re-skimming all the replies before posting. _Play It Again, Sam_ sounds like a fit, too. ---
**Author:** ![txjim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f07891/32.png) [@txjim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/txjim)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2018, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-about-other-movies/821320/30 "2018-09-14T13:35:50Z")
[_After the Fox_](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060200/) might fit where Peter Sellers fakes making a movie to cover up a robbery. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2018, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-about-other-movies/821320/31 "2018-09-14T13:45:04Z")
[_Living In Oblivion_](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113677/) (1995). Steve Buscemi is an no-budget independent filmmaker in New York. If you’ve ever worked on an indie film, you’ll totally get it. I love Peter Dinklages’s [rant](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVBclV5ps2U). 😛 (NB: F-bomb dropped near the end of the one-minute clip.) ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2018, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-about-other-movies/821320/32 "2018-09-14T13:55:16Z")
> [@El\_Kabong](#): > > [Hooper](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077696/), one of Hal Needham/Burt Reynold’s lesser works. Burt likewise plays a stunt man. An unsung masterpiece just for the barfight scene 😃 ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2018, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-about-other-movies/821320/33 "2018-09-14T14:12:58Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > No, it isn’t, at all. While I won’t complain about the tangents, I was thinking of movies where one or more of the characters has such an interest in a real movie that really already exists in the outside world that it makes up a major part of the plot of the movie. The main character’s obsession with _Fargo_ in _Kumiko the Treasure Hunter._ Everyone’s obsession with _The Graduate_ in _Rumor Has It_. (In the most closely matching examples, the movie would have scenes of the character watching real footage from the real movie as happened multiple times in _Kumiko_.) To go on a bit of a tangent, George’s obsession with _Breakfast At Tiffanys_ on an episode of _Seinfeld_ and the _My Dinner With Andre_ episode of _Community_ come close. So far none of the movies mentioned fit my intentions, but that may be because there aren’t many examples to mention. I know I’m not thinking of any–_Fanboys_ with _The Phantom Menace_ comes close, but without _TPM_ even being out yet in the movie. Ah, my apologies for misunderstanding. So not movies about \*making \*movies, but about regular people watching real movies. You’re right, that’s a much smaller universe. The only example fitting your criteria I can think of right now has already been mentioned: _Play it Again, Sam._ But even that uses only a brief (but quintessential) clip from \*Casablanca \*at the beginning, and a famous quote spoken by Woody’s character at the end. The rest of \*PIAS \*deals more with the archetypal Bogart character, and only references _Casablanca_ sparingly. One of the reasons there are so few examples may be that the makers of the meta-film will have to get permission if they want to include actual clips from the real film, which is probably not easily obtained, unless the studio and/or principals of both are the same, and maybe not even then. Even merely using quotations or referring to characters or scenes could provoke the threat of litigation if the producers of the earlier film wanted to get persnickety about it. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2018, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-about-other-movies/821320/34 "2018-09-14T14:32:17Z")
Not really in line with o.p.’s request of a movie centered around a real movie but entertaining nonetheless, [_Galaxy Quest_](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0177789/) is about a bunch of washed up actors from the eponymous cancelled television show (which itself is a clear fictionalization of _Star Trek_) who are abducted by aliens who received transmissions of the original show and interpreted them as “historical documents” and then recreated all of the imagined technologies and cultural artifacts (much to the horror of Alan Rickman, who despises the role and what it did to his stage career, as well as the meal of “Kep-Mok blood ticks” he is served) as well as the plot complications written into the show such as the Omega-13 device, the countdown destruct timer that always stops at 1, and the “chompers” which serve no apparent function and which Sigourney Weaver’s character scorns as “bad writing”. The actrs are abducted by the Thermians, who are essentially alien fanboys of the show, and forced to deal with a very real threat from an evil alien. The movie ends with the show being revived with the original cast including “Guy” (Sam Rockwell’s dispensible securoty officer who is killed off in an episode with only one screamed line of dialogue) and “Jane Doe” who is actually one of the Thermians in human form. Man, that movie was so good in so many ways even aside from the metatextualism and satire. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2018, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-about-other-movies/821320/35 "2018-09-14T15:02:23Z")
Another (pretty weak) example of what I’m thinking about is Raymond’s obsession with _The People’s Court_ in _Rainman_, which does slightly shape the plot. TV series and not movie, but same general idea ---
**Author:** ![GreenWyvern](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/greenwyvern/32/2834_2.png) [@GreenWyvern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenWyvern)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2018, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-about-other-movies/821320/36 "2018-09-14T15:03:57Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > To go on a bit of a tangent, George’s obsession with _Breakfast At Tiffanys_ on an episode of _Seinfeld_ and the _My Dinner With Andre_ episode of _Community_ come close. There’s another episode of Seinfeld (actually a two-parter), _The Cadillac_, where George is obsessed with Marisa Tomei and is caught by Susan watching _My Cousin Vinny_ and _Only You_. ---
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2018, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-about-other-movies/821320/37 "2018-09-14T15:10:34Z")
Blair Witch 2 is set in a universe where Blair Witch 1 is a movie that the main characters are all fans of. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2018, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-about-other-movies/821320/38 "2018-09-14T15:14:47Z")
Blake Edwards’ masterpiece [S.O.B.](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083015/) ---
**Author:** ![Dropo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ce7236/32.png) [@Dropo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dropo)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2018, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-about-other-movies/821320/39 "2018-09-14T15:19:38Z")
- Sunset Blvd.\* (1950) - 'Nuff said. \*Hollywood Story \*(1951) - [Hollywood Story (1951) - IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0043646/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1) “During the 1950s Hollywood, an independent producer unwisely opens an old can of worms when he decides to make a movie about the 1930s unsolved murder of a famous silent-film director.” Features many clips from real movies and is inspired by the 1922 murder of director William Desmond Taylor. _The Spirit of the Beehive_ (1973) - [The Spirit of the Beehive (1973) - IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070040/?ref_=nv_sr_1) “In Castilla around 1940, a traveling movie theatre brings James Whale’s black and white film classic “Frankenstein” (1931) to a small village. Two young girls, Isabel and Ana, are subsequently determined to find the monster themselves.” _The Legend of Billie Jean_ (1985) - [The Legend of Billie Jean (1985) - IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089470/?ref_=nv_sr_1) Teenager watches Jean Seberg in _St. Joan_ (1957), cuts her hair like Seberg and takes inspiration to fight an injustice. ---
**Author:** ![mikecurtis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mikecurtis/32/3284_2.png) [@mikecurtis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mikecurtis)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2018, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-about-other-movies/821320/40 "2018-09-14T15:43:47Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > Another (pretty weak) example of what I’m thinking about is Raymond’s obsession with _The People’s Court_ in _Rainman_, which does slightly shape the plot. TV series and not movie, but same general idea Well, then youve gotta mention _Being There_ for Chance’s obsession with TV in general. mc [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-about-other-movies/821320.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movies-about-other-movies/821320.md?page=3)