8 1/2, Day for Night, Singin’ in the Rain
Hehe just around those days I was thinking about this topic. That’s a good list you have so far, it could make a nice thematic film season. Regarding this same concept of movies about movies, did you see Kiarostami’s latest movie (experiment) “Shirin”? I haven’t yet, but to me it must be a really weird experience to just look at other people seeing a movie for 92 minutes.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1284587/
Stardust Memories – ‘cuz it’s Woody Allen
And God Spoke – ‘cuz it’s got Soupy Sales
Ed Wood – ‘cuz it’s Burton and it’s reverential and heartwarming in a way other films can’t be even though they should
Play It Again Sam – ‘cuz it’s Woody Allen
I’m watching Sunset Boulevard and Day for Night this weekend. I have a feeling one or both of them will jump into my list.
1. Shadow of the Vampire – I love this movie. I’m working on a screenplay for a similar semi-fictionalized look at a silent film classic (keeping my cards close to my chest until it’s finished and registered with WGA).
2. 8 1/2 – Fantastic, but I can see how it would alienate some people…but probably not many people on this board. Probably the people who went and saw Transformers and thought it was “badass”.
3. Ed Wood – You can’t help but like ‘ole Ed Wood, even though he might be the most untalented director who ever lived. He did love film, though, and Burton does a really good job of showing his love here. Burton’s best, in my opinion. It’s also a credit to Wood that his movies are still being discussed half a century later…
Best? I don’t know. But I just watched Kieslowski’s Camera Buff, and it has to be up there on any list.
The Stunt Man.
The Life Aquatic I would argue is about filmmaking in a lot of ways (besides the obvious fact that they’re documentary filmmakers)
Fassbinder’s Beware A Holy Whore
Maybe not BEST, but certainly most entertaining
Stardust Memories: Woody Allen’s 8 1/2
Two Weeks in Another Town: absolutely over-the-top shenanigans from Kirk Douglas/Vincent Minnelli/John Houseman
The Player
Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?
I just watched 8 1/2 last night and I wasn’t very impressed. I might need to watch it again in order to let it simmer into my brain. It just upsets me that every Fellini movie has to be a fucking carnival.
8 1/2is probably the best. But on that is also pretty good is Diary of the Dead.
I don’t know the best, but I do know the worst…
The Barefoot Contessa (1954) wd. Joseph L. Mankiewicz, w/ Humphrey Bogart, Ava Gardner.
Hold your nose.
Camera Buff
Venice/Venice (1992) is a good one
Its a tie between The Player and Ed Wood.
Truffaut’s Day for Night (1974) Jean-Pierre Léaud on a go-cart.
Matthias Müller’s Home Stories
John Water’s Cecil B. Demented…. well, maybe it isn’t the best.
Vanity: Whatever Happened to Baby Jane
Obsession: 8 1/2
Love: Ed Wood
Craft: After Life
All of the above: Mulholland Dr.
Digressing slightly, Fitzcarraldo allows a certain ‘aboutness’; the sheer spectacle of the boat broke the fourth wall for me. Same could be said about many films I suppose.
I’m adding sunset Blvd and 8 1/2 to the films I want to watch. There’s one movie I loved that hasn’t been mentioned here – Hollywood Dreams by Henry Jaglom.
Festival In Cannes.
I agree with Dennis – Venice/Venice.
I would like to add to that thread two films that I didn’t see mentioned:
Tatarak by Wajda – went to see it at the cinema without any great expectations and I was blown away – semi-fiction, semi-documentary, with very warm insights and meditations on death and art and how those affect each other…
The Aligator by Nanni Moretti – at times witty, at times cheesy, at times hilarious, at times dramatic – very interesting portrait of the connections between art, love, and current politics in Italy, with a very creepy, and unfortunately, prophetic ending…
Festival In Cannes.
Venice/Venice
in the soup?
Venice/Venice
Hollywood Dreams
Tale of Cinema
By and large one of the more thoughtful and inventive explorations of self-reflexivity in film.
Festival in Cannes
Kenji
The brilliant Man with a Movie Camera deserves more love here i think. It wears its politics and love of film-making on its sleeve, and sweeps you along with its exuberance. Of course 8 1/2, Singin in the Rain, Mulholland Dr, Sherlock jnr (among others) are great,