Best films about film making?

I'd agree with Adaptation & All About Eve (two of my favourite films ever), but also The Last Tycoon - Elia Kazan, which I don't think anyone mentioned. The Player sort of reminded me of it, because of the eerie, untied atmosphere as much as the subject. Both also have amazing casts.

How about the Coen brothers' Barton Fink. Probably their most underrated movie and my personal Coen favorite.

Also David Lynch's Inland Empire comes to mind although it's not quite as good as his Mulholland Drive.

Sunset Boulevard is definitely a strong candidate. Great movie plus it's one of the earliest movies of this genre (films about film making) that I know of.

All in all, however, I'm inclined to say that Mulholland Drive takes the prize. I think we have yet to see another movie that is so spot-on in every aspect of the labyrinthine task that making movies (and watching them too!) really is.

Here are some of my personal favorites:

Living in Oblivion
The Player
Cannes Man (aka Con Man)
Mulholland Dr.
Sunset Blvd.
Adaption
Ed Wood
Swimming With Sharks
Barton Fink
What Just Happened?
Shadow of the Vampire (Not really that good, but i love Malkovich in this one)


Anyone in marketing or advertising!? Kill yourself!! -Bill Hicks

So what are the best films about film making?

As far as film-MAKING is concerned then - 8 1/2 and Peeping Tom, two extremely different films which as Martin Scorsese said, says all that needs to be said about people who express themselves through films.

In American cinema, there aren't too many films about film-making as such...The Cameraman comes close, as does Preston Sturges' Sullivan's Travels. But the vast majority, even the good ones, are about screenwriters, producers, actors and not necessarily related to the actual-making-of-films. Exceptions include Vincente Minnelli's The Bad and the Beautiful and Two Weeks in Another Town, the former about producers, the latter about neurotic actors and directors making fools of themselves in the International film business.

The Player has to be one of them but I think Mulholland Dr. is better.

Neither of these two are about film-making they are both about film culture. That is to say the culture created by Hollywood movies and myths.

Altman noted once that he once tried to cast actual cops in his films as extras some time in the 90s and was shocked when he found out that cops tended to model their posture and behaviour from watching cop shows or movies. He realized that in the 90s, that there was an adult generation who had families, professions and variety of other experiences which were all actively influenced and styled upon how people behaved in movies.

So The Player is about that, with the constant overwhelming use of movie posters in the background and the many film references and to film experiences.

Mulholland Dr. is different but with a similar theme, though more romantic and mystical towards the film iconography which subconsciously influence people's lives.


"Ça va by me, madame...Ça va by me!" - The Red Shoes

I can't believe no one's mentioned Joe Dante and Allan Arkush's "Hollywood Boulevard."

S.O.B. and Hollywood Shuffle.

I don't think that Bowfinger has any legitimate claim to be the best film about film making, but there are far worse ways to spend an hour and a half.

The one that I can't believe no one mentioned yet is Singin' in the Rain.

One that hasn't been mentioned yet, that is a must-see, is American Movie.