Please recommend movies about making movies.

December 9, 2007 2:59 PM

I watched Incident at Loch Ness recently and it reminded me how much I enjoy watching actors pretending to be actors and directors, so now I'm looking for more.

The Film within a film tag on IMDB gave me a pretty good start, but it doesn't totally correspond with what I'm looking for. I'm interested primarily in highbrow, dramatic movies like Opening Night and 8½ that explore the craft and the conflicts involved in producing a movie or a play. I'm also interested in half-serious comedies like The Stunt Man, Shadow of the Vampire, and A Cock and Bull Story that play around with the fourth wall or with the actors perceptions of reality.

I'm least interested in light comedies like State and Main, Waiting for Guffman, UHF, The Producers, and the TV series Studio 60 where the bulk of the action happens to take place in the context of a production; however, in the interest of completeness, I encourage you to submit them anyway.

I'm sure I've forgotten some obvious ones, so fire away.

posted by clockwork to media & arts (45 comments total)

Blake Edwards has made a few films about that kind of thing, placed in different eras and situations. "Victor Victoria" is about stage performance in the 1920's in Paris. S.O.B. is another, placed in Hollywood.
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 3:08 PM on December 9, 2007

Truffaut's Day for Night
posted by cazoo at 3:09 PM on December 9, 2007

For a more recent film, Irma Vep by Oliver Assayas was quite good too.
posted by cazoo at 3:13 PM on December 9, 2007

"Topsy Turvy"
"Ed Wood"
"Looking for Richard" (sort of. It's a documentary about Al Pacino working on Richard III)
"All That Jazz"
posted by grumblebee at 3:15 PM on December 9, 2007

Probably not on the highbrow end, but The Tall Guy partially revolves around the staging of Elephant!, a musical version of The Elephant Man.
posted by pupdog at 3:16 PM on December 9, 2007

"Hamlet" is fairly highbrow.

I think "Bowfinger" might fall somewhere between the "half-serious comedy" and "light comedy" areas. "Adaptation" is about the act of writing a movie. It's also the only film I can think of that dramatizes the making of another, real, movie. ("Kaufman" visits the set of "Being John Malkovich")

"Wayne's World" is a (brilliant imo) but light comedy about making a tv show.

There are a lot of self-indulgent, trite movies that pander to stereotypes of how awful Hollywood and the movie industry are. "Grand Canyon" is a particularly awful example of this kind of dishonest tripe.

Oh and then there's HBO's Entourage, although they dramatize the business far more than the actual making of films. If you've seen the last few train wreck seasons, you might be surprised it was actually a pretty good show in the first two seasons.
posted by drjimmy11 at 3:16 PM on December 9, 2007

"Mistress" (would make an interesting double feature with Ed Wood)
"Singin' in the Rain"
posted by grumblebee at 3:16 PM on December 9, 2007

"All About Eve"
posted by grumblebee at 3:17 PM on December 9, 2007

Man Bites Dog
The Player
Lots more at Wikipedia: Films about filmmaking
posted by Paragon at 3:18 PM on December 9, 2007

oh and I think HBO's biopic of Peter Sellers might be right up your alley. They play with the fourth wall a lot, although frankly I felt it was a mostly unnecessary gimmick in an already good film.
posted by drjimmy11 at 3:18 PM on December 9, 2007

"Murphy Brown" was probably the most successful and longest running TV show about making a TV show.
posted by drjimmy11 at 3:20 PM on December 9, 2007

"Network"
"Good Night And Good Luck"
posted by grumblebee at 3:25 PM on December 9, 2007

"The Dresser"
posted by grumblebee at 3:26 PM on December 9, 2007

"To Be Or Not To Be" (Jack Benny)
"To Be Or Not to Be" (Mel Brooks)
posted by grumblebee at 3:29 PM on December 9, 2007

"Sunset Boulevard"
posted by grumblebee at 3:32 PM on December 9, 2007

Shakespeare in Love
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 3:32 PM on December 9, 2007

"A Life In The Theatre" (David Mamet play that was filmed -- with Jack Lemon and Mathew Broderick -- for television. I believe it's available on DVD.)
posted by grumblebee at 3:33 PM on December 9, 2007

"Beware of a Holy Whore" by Rainer Werner Fassbinder is a good one.
posted by ISeemToBeAVerb at 3:35 PM on December 9, 2007

30-rock has a similar premise to studio 60, except studio 60 is boring and lame, whereas 30-rock kicks serious ass. here's a clip of tina fey & alec baldwin spoofing lame product placements.
and there's a canadian series called "slings & arrows" that's apparently awesome, although i've never watched it. here's a clip of don mckellar as a jackass director.
posted by twistofrhyme at 3:38 PM on December 9, 2007

Vanya on 42nd street
SportsNight
posted by softlord at 3:40 PM on December 9, 2007

oh, and a prairie home conmpanion (skip ahead to 2 min to see meryl streep & lily tomlin singing). that film is the backstage story of a live radio show- it's great.
posted by twistofrhyme at 3:44 PM on December 9, 2007

The French Lieutenant's Woman
posted by Thorzdad at 3:53 PM on December 9, 2007

"Extras" (BBC/HBO series)
posted by grumblebee at 3:55 PM on December 9, 2007

Buscemi playing a director of a indie film gone wrong. Living in Oblivion
posted by filmgeek at 4:19 PM on December 9, 2007 [1 favorite]

Seconding Living in Oblivion. Great film.
posted by dhammond at 4:20 PM on December 9, 2007

Actually, The Night they raided Minsky's is sort of like what you're talking about, though it's about Burlesque.
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 4:41 PM on December 9, 2007

Slings & Arrows (The complete show: seasons 1, 2, 3 on DVD) is a FANTASTIC Canadian mini-series (6 hour-long episodes per season) about the actors and administrators at a fictional Canadian Shakespeare company. I highly highly recommend it for anyone interested in theatre at all.
posted by Zephyrial at 5:02 PM on December 9, 2007

Slightly out of what you're looking for, but I saw a performance of Noises Off a few weeks ago -- a play about putting on a play. It was made into a movie in 1992. It's more about how the actors' various relationships screws up the play rather than any serious artistic conflicts, but it was the first thing I thought of when I read this. I liked the actors pretending to be actors as well. I'd recommend the play, but the movie's supposed to be pretty good.
posted by lilac girl at 5:03 PM on December 9, 2007

Lost In La Mancha (imdb) is a documentary about Terry Gilliam's (failed) attempt to film The Man Who Killed Don Quixote.
posted by lowlife at 5:14 PM on December 9, 2007

Thirding Living in Oblivion. Laughed my butt off, and I'm no film geek.

OK, maybe a little bit I am, but I've never made a movie or been involved in movie production myself. Still, very accessible and amusing film. I loves me some Buscemi.
posted by ZakDaddy at 6:03 PM on December 9, 2007

The Man Who Knew Too Little has Bill Murray acting a character who thinks he's a character in a complex play for the duration of a very eventful night, and his character's acting is patently bad. Hilarity ensues.
posted by SlyBevel at 6:17 PM on December 9, 2007

Mulholland Drive
The Player
Peeping Tom
The Kid Stays in the Picture (docu)
David Holzman's Diary (perhaps)
Barton Fink
Adaptation
Ellie Parker
The Minor Accomplishments of Jackie Woodman (tv show)
Inland Empire
posted by dobbs at 6:55 PM on December 9, 2007

And

The Aviator
All that Jazz
... And God Spoke
Paint Cans (though it's fucking gawdawful)
posted by dobbs at 7:00 PM on December 9, 2007

Sweet Liberty (written and directed by Alan Alda)
posted by apetpsychic at 7:06 PM on December 9, 2007

These are great! Thanks all! I don't know why I didn't think to look at Wikipedia for this. "Grand Canyon" looks suspiciously like one of the "Important Films" mentioned at the end of this article from The Atlantic.

Now, if I can only keep my mind from going totally blank once I hit the video store...
posted by clockwork at 7:18 PM on December 9, 2007

Return of the Killer Tomatoes! - one of the most underrated comedies of the 80s.
posted by martinrebas at 8:09 PM on December 9, 2007

Wow, no one has mentioned "White Hunter Black Heart" yet! Clint Eastwood playing John Huston filming "The African Queen" but becoming obsessed with the idea of hunting and killing an elephant.
posted by A dead Quaker at 8:35 PM on December 9, 2007

10 Items or Less has Morgan Freeman playing a movie actor who makes friends with a store clerk, while he's researching for a store clerk role he's supposed to play. It's one of the most delightful movies I've seen in the last year.
posted by vytae at 9:02 PM on December 9, 2007

naomi watts overdrive:
i heart huckabees
king kong
mulholland drive
posted by twistofrhyme at 10:19 PM on December 9, 2007

Where's Marlowe?
posted by juv3nal at 12:09 AM on December 10, 2007

I Am Curious (yellow) features this, but it sort of seeps in here and there rather than being the focus of the film.
posted by beerbajay at 1:44 AM on December 10, 2007

The Most Important Thing Is To Love.
posted by Sticherbeast at 2:46 AM on December 10, 2007

I wrote my senior thesis on Forgotten Silver, which was one of Peter Jackson's (of LotR fame) earlier works. It's a fiction-documentary about a fellow who -- according to the film -- first developed a process for color film and directs some movies. So, it sort of fits your criteria, at least in the interest of completeness... It definitely breaks the 4th wall in some majorly creative ways.

Oh, and there's also the lesser (and lesser known) fiction documentary, And G-d Spoke, which is "A documentary on the making of a big budget Bible picture" -- but it definitely falls into your second category.
posted by prophetsearcher at 3:00 AM on December 10, 2007

I love these movies too. Dangerous Game is one of my favorites; not on DVD yet, but it's good enough that I'm still clinging to my VHS.

Paul Schrader's Auto Focus is outstanding.

RKO 281 isn't the absolute best thing to see if you really want to know about the making of Citizen Kane, but it is an excellent dramatization. A bit free-handed, but it probably wasn't difficult to make an entertaining film when the true story is that meaty. Incredible cast for an HBO picture, too.

Not so spectacular or maybe less relevant:

Gods and Monsters may be of interest to you; as I recall it's somewhat skinny on the filmmaking and more with the conflicts, but it's a fantastic flick anyway.

How can no one have mentioned Swimming with Sharks yet?

There were a few action films I remember from the 80's like The Dead Pool and the F/X movies.
posted by zebra3 at 6:55 AM on December 10, 2007

Wow, no one has mentioned "White Hunter Black Heart" yet!

Wow. I can't believe I forgot this one. It's a favorite of mine.
posted by dobbs at 7:11 AM on December 10, 2007