As a movie lover, many of my favorite movies are about movie- making, and HUGO, Scorcese's holiday treat could not be lovelier, especially its scenes in a train station in Paris. It is ultimately not for children so much as for people who love movies. It was a bit too long, a bit too ponderous, and perhaps the actor playing Hugo was a bit miscast, but it certainly deserved an audience larger than the ten people in mine. I think it has been lost among the many more child holiday-appropriate movies. I urge anyone who loves movies to give it a try--and in 3D at a big screen theater.
What is your favorite movie about movies? Hard to beat CINEMA PARADISO, isn't it?
23 comments:
I may actually get off my arse and go see HUGO. My kind of film and CINEMA PARADISO would be my first choice.
SHADOW OF THE VAMPIRE with John Malkovich as F. W. Murnau and Willem Dafoe as Max Schrenk.
Do movies about television count? If so, I'd have to add MY FAVORITE YEAR and TOOTSIE.
I have very few rules. Yes.
We loved HUGO.
How big was your audience?
We saw HUGO on Thanksgiving Day, even going to the 3D version which we generally do not. Enjoyed it immensely.
Loved Hugo. Unfortunately the theater was mostly empty, but there was a long line for New Years Day.
One of my favorites about movie making would be Truffauts Day For Night.
So that's the next question. Why is it lost? Is it because it is neither a movie for young children or for most adult.
Steve got mine: DAY FOR NIGHT.
Others? Well, if you're counting movies about television than how can you not count movies about theater? Then it's ALL ABOUT EVE, one of my all-time favorite movies, period.
How about THE BAD AND THE BEAUTIFUL?
Jeff M.
THE PLAYER is another good one.
KISS, KISS, BANG, BANG kind of.
Jackei says SINGING IN THE RAIN (can't believe I forgot that) and PURPLE ROSE OF CAIRO.
Jeff M.
Jackie
BOWFINGER as well as THE BIG PICTURE starring Kevin Bacon and Martin short and THE TRUMAN SHOW starring Jim Carrey.
Kiss, Kiss, Bang, Bang is terrfic, but that's more about the hardboiled PI genre than about movies.
Purple Rose of Cairo is a good choice.
What's Up Doc was a fun homage to the screwball comedies of the 30s. The Hundsucker Proxy is a wonderful homage to Frank Capra.
While this is about the lowest of the low in what's captured on film, Hardcore with George C. Scott is a powerhouse of a movie.
also Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid
Already mentioned, but favorites none-the-less: DAY FOR NIGHT and THE BAD AND THE BEAUTIFUL.
David Mamet's STATE AND MAIN, less about movie-making perhaps than about the attempt to make something, anything, work when a large group of people have to be committed to the goal.
Don't know that I've ever watched a movie about movies per se. I watched a comedy once about some writer who got to be on a movie set of his book being made into a movie. Can't remember the title.
Among the powerful or at least fitfully interesting work not yet mentioned, A FACE IN THE CROWD, HOTEL (the latter-day Mike Figgis film) which is one of my favorites, arguably at least THE STUNT MAN, REAL LIFE (the Albert Brooks film), those two films which starred Woody Allen without being directed or written by him: THE FRONT and (better) PLAY IT AGAIN, SAM, and CQ. THE MAGIC BOX. Others will come to mind.
HUGO is in trouble in part because of one of the worst ad campaigns in recent memory. It is being sold pretty much the way the recent spate of vanity productions of children's films (ranging from CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY through MARS NEEDS MOMS to that Dustin Hoffman thing with the annoying title) have been, which hasn't helped a bit.
Not familiar with HOTEL. I suppose there is a million movies about Hollywood. Just like there are a million books about writers.
Purple Rose, loved that one.
Amazing how many of these my library doesn't have and netflix continues to spurn me.
Dave Z. hit a powerhouse one, HARDCORE. That hit me hard when I saw it when we first had HBO in 1979. Talk about pulling no punches. Supposedly the Scott character was based on writer/director Paul Schrader's father.
Jeff M.
Charles may be referring to Alan Alda's movie SWEET LIBERTY, about a college history professor whose serious book about the American Revolution is filmed as a sex farce starring Michelle Pfeiffer and Michael Caine.
(Looks like I was blocked first time. Might post twice.)
HUGO was a beautiful movie.
However, my all time favorite movie about movies is S.O.B. by Blake Edwards. Great cast, fun story, dark comedy.
I'd add A STAR IS BORN and A NIGHT AT THE OPERA (if only for the final act).
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