Top 30 Films About Films

May 29, 2013 by Craig Sutherland

Since the invention of cinema, filmmakers intrigued by the potential of their new medium sometimes turned their lens upon itself. Here’s 30 of the Greatest, Quirkiest and Funniest films about films, Enjoy!

Adaptation

Charlie Kaufman is hired to adapt The Orchid Thief for the screen, except he decides to write a screenplay about writing the screenplay for The Orchid Thief. Still with us? Didn’t think so…

American Movie

Documentary about an aspiring filmmaker’s attempts to finance his dream project by finally completing the low-budget horror film he abandoned years before with his hilarious sidekick Mike. See what we’re talking about here…

Argo

Winner of best picture at the 2013 Academy Awards, Ben Affleck’s historical drama about the 1979 Iran hostage crisis is the perfect film about a film. Pretending to be scouting locations for the Sci-Fi film Argo, a CIA agent (Affleck) uses this cover to attempt to ex-filtrate six hostages hiding out in the Canadian ambassadors house.

The Artist

A silent movie star meets a young dancer, but the arrival of talking pictures sends their careers in opposite directions.

The Aviator

Winner of five Oscars, Martin Scorsese’s 2004 film about film producer and aviation magnat Howard Hughes details the early years of Hughes’ life. The film centres on Hughes’ obsessive-compulsive disorder whilst showing the struggles of adapting to the change from Silent films to ‘Talkies’.

Barton Fink

A renowned New York playwright is enticed to California to write for the movies and discovers the hellish truth of Hollywood.

Be Kind Rewind

Michel Gondry directs two bumbling store clerks (Jack Black & Mos Def) who inadvertently erase the footage from all of the tapes in their video rental store. In order to keep the business running, they re-shoot every film in the store with their own camera, with a budget of zero dollars.

The Blair Witch Project

Three film students go missing after traveling into the woods of Maryland to make a documentary about the local Blair Witch legend leaving only their footage behind.

Boogie Nights

Paul Thomas Anderson tells a rather large tale about young man (Mark Wahlberg) with a big talent who gets taken under Jack Horner’s (Burt Reynolds) wing so he can become the worlds biggest film-star.

Bowfinger

When a desperate movie producer fails to get a major star for his bargain basement film, he decides to shoot the film secretly around him.

Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story

The stylized and somewhat made-up version of the Bruce Lee story that concentrates on the myth far more than the man himself, because real life is a bit boring sometimes…

Ed Wood

The mostly true tale from Tim Burton of a legendary director of awful films and the eclectic pack of actors and oddities he company with.

Full Tilt Boogie

A documentary about the production of From Dusk Till Dawn and the people who made it.

It features extensive interviews with the cast and crew covering a variety of topics related to the film. This includes the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees protesting the non-union status of the film. The production crew for the documentary are also non-union.

Hitchcock

Partly about the making of Psycho and partly about Hitchcock & Alma Reville’s relationship, Hitchcock may not have enjoyed critical acclaim but this film is a must for any Psycho fan.

Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back

The comic ‘Bluntman and Chronic’ is based on real-life stoners Jay and Silent Bob, so when they get no profit from a big-screen adaptation they set out to wreck the movie.

King Kong

The 1933 King Kong is a classic tale that is destined to be remade every few years, in this film, a crew of filmmakers go to a tropical island for an exotic location shoot and discovers a colossal giant gorilla who takes a shine to their female blonde star.

Last Action Hero

A young kid gets sucked into the world of his favorite movie franchise and gets to play tough with his absolute hero.

Lost in La Mancha

Fulton and Pepe’s 2000 documentary captures Terry Gilliam’s attempt to get The Man Who Killed Don Quixote off the ground. Back injuries, freakish storms, and more zoom in to sabotage the project.

Matinee

A small-time film promoter releases a kitschy horror film during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Overnight

A documentary on the rise and stumble of Troy Duffy, the bartender-cum-filmmaker who was swept up by Miramax’s Harvey Weinstein to turn his script for The Boondock Saints into a feature film.

The film eventually got made and became a cult classic take a look at the trailer here…

The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou

With a plan to exact revenge on a mythical shark that killed his partner, oceanographer Steve Zissou rallies a crew that includes his estranged wife, a journalist, and a man who may or may not be his son.

Room 237

A subjective documentary that explores the numerous theories about the hidden meanings within Stanley Kubrick’s film “The Shining”.

RKO 281

Orson Welles produces his greatest film, Citizen Kane, despite the opposition of the film’s de facto subject, William Randolph Hearst.

Shadow of the Vampire

The filming of Nosferatu is hampered by the fact that the star is taking his role far more seriously than what seems humanly possible.

Singin’ in the Rain

A silent film production company and cast make a difficult transition to sound.

Son Of Rambow

During a long English summer in the early 1980s, two schoolboys from differing backgrounds set out to make a film inspired by “First Blood”.

South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut

When the four boys see an R-rated movie featuring Canadians Terrance & Phillip, they are pronounced “corrupted”, and their parents pressure the United States to wage war against Canada.