Thursday Movie Picks: Movies About Movies

For the 15th week of 2018 as part of Wandering Through the Shelves' Thursday Movie Picks series hosted by Wanderer. We forge into the subject about films about films. Films about the art filmmaker whether it’s fictional or something that is happening behind the scenes. Here are six picks for this subject. One list involving narrative-based films about making films and the second list about real-life stories of making films.

1. Day for Night

From the legendary Francois Truffaut comes one of his greatest triumphs as it explores the ups and downs of making a film. It’s a film that explores what it takes to make a film as a filmmaker, played by Truffaut, is dealing with a depressed English actress and all sorts of things. It’s a film told with a lot of humor but also play into Truffaut’s fascination with love as characters sleep around with each other as well as it all plays into the turbulent relationship for a filmmaker and cinema.

2. Burden of Dreams

From director Les Blank comes one of the greatest making-of films ever as it explores the intense production of Werner Herzog’s 1982 film Fitzcarraldo. A production that was intensely troubled when it began in 1980 with Jason Robards in the titular role and Mick Jagger as his loyal assistant. Things unfortunately go wrong when Robards was ill and had to go home while Jagger went on tour with the Stones forcing Herzog to create a new film with longtime collaborator Klaus Kinski replacing Robards while Jagger’s role was scrapped entirely. It also shows Herzog’s supposed disdain for nature as he tries to do the impossible by dragging a two-ton steamship on top of a fucking mountain.

3. Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse

It’s no question that Apocalypse Now is one of the finest films ever made yet the story about the making of the film is just as compelling. Featuring footage that was shot by Francis Ford Coppola’s wife Eleanor, the film showcases the chaos that occurred during production where Coppola had to endure horrible weather, rising production costs, Marlon Brando arriving to the set overweight and not reading his lines, Martin Sheen having a heart attack, and all sorts of shit. It’s a film that showcases the air of insanity that occurs during a big production that would nearly kill any filmmaker as Coppola himself almost went insane during the production. It’s a compelling documentary that shows what goes on in big-budget filmmaking and how things can go wrong and the balls that it takes to create something that many people wouldn’t forget.

4. CQ

From Francis’ son Roman is a film about a film editor working a sci-fi film called Codename: Dragonfly while borrowing equipment and film for his own project as he deals with the chaos of finishing up the film he’s hired to work on. Starring Jeremy Davies as a young filmmaker working as an editor for this sci-fi film, it showcases a moment in time where things are to change as this young man finds himself falling for the film’s star just like the film’s original director. With a cast that includes Gerard Depardieu, Giancarlo Giannini, Elodie Bouchez, Jason Schwartzman, Billy Zane, Angela Lindvall, Dean Stockwell, and Roman’s sister Sofia in a cameo appearance. It’s a fun debut film from Roman.

5. Lost in La Mancha

With the film The Man Who Killed Don Quixote finally getting ready to come out after nearly 20 years of work, the 2001 documentary about Terry Gilliam’s first attempt in making the film is truly an astonishing experience that shows the audience what can go wrong. Among them is location issues, a poor soundstage, acts of God, and the wonderment over whether the production is cursed. It’s a mind-blowing documentary that showcases the many things that can go wrong as it would mirror many of the tribulations that even Don Quixote would endure in his story.

6. Tropic Thunder

From Ben Stiller comes a comedy about the making of a war movie where everything goes wrong with the biggest problem being the egos among its three main stars. With Stiller playing a fading action film star, the cast includes Robert Downey Jr. as an Australian method actor who takes on roles to great extremes as he plays an African-American platoon sergeant, Jack Black as a comedy actor with a serious drug problem, Brandon T. Jackson as a rapper trying to sell his endorsements, and Jay Baruchel as a newcomer. Add Matthew McConaughey as Stiller’s agent, Nick Nolte as the film’s author, Danny McBride as the special effects man, and Tom Cruise in one of the best performances of his career as a fat, balding, profanity-spewing film producer as it is a crazy-comedy about what happens when actors find themselves in a situation that becomes real life.

© thevoid99 2018