10 Great Movies About Making Movies

Movie lovers, and Hitchcock fans in particular, are about to get a fascinating double dose of behind-the-scenes dramatization. First up is "The Girl," which premiered on HBO on October 20, that tells the story of the relationship between Hitchcock (Toby Jones) and Tippi Hedren (Sienna Miller), the model selected to star in "The Birds" despite having no acting experience. Then, on November 1, "Hitchcock" will premiere at the AFI Film Festival – and is slated to open in select theaters by the end of the month. "Hitchcock" deals with the filming of "Psycho," focusing on the relationship between the director (Anthony Hopkins) and wife Alma Reville (Helen Mirren) while he is making one of the greatest horror films of all time. (And to answer your next three questions: Scarlett Johansson plays Janet Leigh, Jessica Biel plays Vera Miles, and James D’Arcy plays Anthony Perkins.)

Novels about writing are hard to read; we can’t think of any paintings about painting or songs about songwriting, but both of those seem like bad ideas. Film, though, is different, as movies about movie making can be both profound and fun. As a viewer, you’re free to ponder the layers: Text vs metatext; the film vs. the film-within-a-film. But you’re also free to ignore that and simply enjoy the opportunities for comedy and intrigue offered by a film set. A film set that is itself the set of a film. The film about the film.

Here are ten great movies (or at least noble attempts) that peel back the skin of polished cinematic product and tell their stories within the guts of the process. Some are imagined accounts behind real movies; others are fiction from the title sequence to the credits. For the purposes of this list, we’ve left out – good as they are – biopics like "Chaplin," "Ed Wood," and "Boogie Nights" and concentrated on films that are about making a single film. Even so, the list of what might have been included – among them "King Kong," "Le Mepris," "The Player," and "Bowfinger" – runs well beyond ten entries. What can we say? Everything, even a Fellini movie, has to end sometime.

8 ½ (1963)

Director: Federico Fellini

Successful director Guido Anselmi (Marcello Mastroianni) is blocked. Everyone expects his latest work, a quasi-science fiction movie, to be yet another hit, but Guido can’t bring himself to care about it too much. He’s going through personal problems – the harem of sorts that has come to surround him (including a wife and a mistress) is rebelling. Guido is weary of his complex life, of having so many people depending on his every decision, yet it is through memories and imagined dialogues that he finds his way back, and ultimately rededicates himself to his career. A three-hour nonlinear autobiographical portrait of an apathetic, angst-ridden director? In anyone else’s hands, this would be a recipe for self-indulgent disaster, but when you’re Fellini – arguably the greatest director of all time – you can get away with it.

S.O.B. (1981)

Director: Blake Edwards

After a string of successes in the early and mid 1960s, including "Breakfast at Tiffany’s," "Days of Wine and Roses," and two Pink Panther movies, Edwards’ career hit the skids, beginning with the poorly-received "Darling Lili." "S.O.B." is a send-up of Edwards’ experiences making that film, which was beset by studio interference and recut before release without Edwards’ permission. In "S.O.B.," suicidal producer Felix Farmer (Richard Mulligan) tries to save a dog of a picture by turning it into an erotic musical in which Felix’s wife, the Julie Andrews-like Sally Miles (played by Edwards’ wife, Julie Andrews) will shatter her wholesome image by appearing topless. When this seemingly-terrible idea starts looking like it just might work, the studio begins to meddle. Felix dies in the fight to save his film, which ends up being highly successful. Sally, now widowed, wins an Oscar.

Barton Fink (1991)

Director: Joel Coen

This Coen Brothers film is more about writing movies than filming them – and it’s really more about not writing than writing. Protagonist Barton Fink (John Turturro) arrives in Hollywood after some success in the New York theater world. A studio executive gives him his first assignment: “A Wallace Beery wrestling picture.” Time goes by and Barton cannot get more than a couple lines into his script. Intrigue swirls; there’s a serial killer on the loose and Barton’s experience meeting a broken-down novelist (based on William Faulkner) is hardly inspiring. "Barton Fink" ends with a macabre flourish that might have been avoided if Barton had simply done the job he was hired for. As the studio man says, “Wallace Beery. Wrestling. What do you need, a road map?”

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