I thought we might try a different angle on this best of list. While The Big Picture is the funniest, I think Mistress is probably the most on target. When I first saw these films I just thought of them as entertainment. Now, however, I can see how perceptive the writers were when they wrote their scripts.

i liked Living in Oblivion. or it could just be steve buscemi.

-American Movie

i will second American Movie.....its a classic...and Cohven isn't half bad....beautiful black and white....

i'll third AMERICAN MOVIE!

Call me nostalgic, but Stanley Donen's "Singin' In The Rain" with Gene Kelly, Donald O'Conner and Debbie Reynolds examines the transition from silent films into sound movies and still entertains after all these years.

Swarzenegger's Last Action Hero.

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BAHAHAHAAA!!! Sorry, I just wanted to see if I could type this in without laughing. I couldn't even keep a straight face sitting at my computer.

I'll add to my list...

-Swimming With Sharks
-Bowfinger
-The Valley of the Dolls
-Cecil B Demented
-Sunset Boulevard
-The Muse
-Ed Wood
-A Star is Born
-Gods and Monsters
-The Player
-There's No Business Like Show Business
-Chaplin
-Sullivan's Travels
-Barton Fink
-The Bad and the Beautiful
-The Hard Way

Oh, and Ridely Scott's "RKO 281".

Singing in the Rain is a great pick, that's one you've got to see on the big screen. Ed Wood is another one that I loved. My wife told me that Ed Wood was a semi-autobiographical version of my life. I told her that Ed Wood made some of the worst movies in the history of Hollywood while I was an accomplished independent artist. What could we possibly both have in common? She said you're both dream big but work small.

I don't know if this is available on DVD but here's one that anyone with a passion for filmmaking should see.

Chris, when your wife said that Ed Wood was semi-autobiographical for her, I thought it meant that she likes to wear angora sweaters. Not that there's anything wrong with that! In fact, sounds kind of nice...

Good call on Truffaut's "Day for Night." I haven't seen that in years.

Blake Edwards made "S.O.B." back in the early '80's. It's about the industry, but I haven't seen it in a long time, either. Then there's Alan Alda's "Sweet Liberty," more of a relationship comedy but it's built around a Hollywood production company coming to a small New England town and its impact on the local populace.

Well, I posted this in the "Top Ten" thread but it makes more sense here, so I'll be rendundant..."The Stunt Man" is my all-time favorite movie about movies.

In a more recent vein, "State and Main" is pretty fun too.

A couple of years ago I worked on a Fox series called "Action" starring Jay Mohr as a a**hole movie producer. That was a great show, any of you guys catch it? We only did half a season before cancellation, but the reruns show up on F/X occasionally.

My, you're up early, Charles... it's 6:30am where you live... you must be working for a living these days. Shooting "Scrubs," right?

I do remember "Action" with Jay Mohr as Peter Dragon. Think I have at least one ep on VHS somewhere in the vault. Knew it wouldn't last, because it was such a great concept that seemed to be dead on. The viewing public doesn't like that very much. Plus, Fox kept moving it around. The viewing public doesn't like that very much, either.

I'm going to have to start asking which movies and TV series you *haven't* worked on, Charles!

;-)

Check out Project Greenlight on HBO. It's a serial doc of giving a first time writer/director a million$ budget and a garanteed showing of the finished product. Produced by Matt Damon & Ben Affleck. Interesting and entertaining. I'm not sure how many episodes are left, but it's easy to jump into.

<<<-- Originally posted by Eric Emerick : Check out Project Greenlight on HBO. It's a serial doc of giving a first time writer/director a million$ budget and a garanteed showing of the finished product. Produced by Matt Damon & Ben Affleck. Interesting and entertaining. I'm not sure how many episodes are left, but it's easy to jump into. -->>>

They are moving into their second season and have changed the format just a bit. Now they are looking for a screenplay writer and a director. Listed below is the link to the site:

http://projectgreenlight.liveplanet.com/

I hated Project Greenlight. That "filmmaker" was the biggest whore on the planet. While I'm at it, I think every copy of "State and Main" should be burned. Why? Because they kept offering an Associate Producer credit instead of money to anyone who could help get the film made. That's what I do! Someone I'm trying to use in the future may have seen that film and then the jig is up! Let's all band together now to get "State and Main" banned.

By the way, my favorite line comes from The Big Picture. The young director, played by Kevin Bacon, wants to shoot his movie in black & white and the studio head, played by the great character actor JT Walsh, says "Why? They're just going to colorize it anyway."

Your comments on State and Main didn't make any sense to me. Could you clarify?

Well, Marc, he's just jealous... can you blame him?

;-)

Marc, I was joking (duh!). Have you seen "State and Main"? It might make more sense if you've actually seen the movie.

Chris, I'm still reeling from that angora sweater crack!

Now what's your favorite line from a movie about movies??

Not sure what my favorite quote would be, but the scene from "Bowfinger" where they go to the boarder and wrangle up a crew of illegal aliens is humorous.

Hi Chris. Yeah, back in the "Scrubs" world again. Great bit of business in this week's episode where Colin Hay (lead singer of Men at Work) keeps popping up in a hospital johnny, wielding an acoustic guitar and singing their song "Overkill". Very random (typically Scrubs-ian). He's a lot of fun. And we just learned that Heather Locklear will be with us for three weeks--gee, THAT's going to suck--not.

I think I like my job.

"Singin in the Rain" is right at the top. If you can eagerly watch a film time after time and never tire of it or see any of it going out of date, it's a great one. "The Gods
Must Be Crazy (#1), is a must-see and "Crumb" is one that seems it would entertain someone who never heard the slogan, "Keep on Truckin'".

Steve McDonald

Anyone see Entropy? Same director as "The Ref", my favorite Christmas Movie. Entropy is about a Director, that made it big doing U2's videos. It is going to be a classic.. Check it out people.. Don't fall asleep at the wheel on this one..

>>In a more recent vein, "State and Main" is pretty fun too.

A couple of years ago I worked on a Fox series called "Action" starring Jay Mohr as a a**hole movie producer. That was a great show, any of you guys catch it? We only did half a season before cancellation, but the reruns show up on F/X occasionally.
<<
Saw State and Main, excellent.

Yes I saw Action, I really liked the woman who was the hooker turned production assistant. Her technique for curing writers block was inspiring. Sorry I forgot her name, could you post it?
She was also in some movie about 60's era song writers. I'm just bad with names.

What about Truffaut's Day for Night???

Gotta go with Truffaut's Day for Night, Big Picture and S.O.B.

<<es I saw Action, I really liked the woman who was the hooker turned production assistant. Her technique for curing writers block was inspiring. Sorry I forgot her name, could you post it?
She was also in some movie about 60's era song writers. I'm just bad with names.>>

Joe, that was Ileana Douglas.

State and Mane heads my list, probably followed by The Player, Barton FInk, Day for Night, Oblivion... they're all good.

ANd in its own curious way, "Shakespeare in Love"... think about it. The guy in the rowboat trying to foist off a script, the line, "There's never any profits... OH! I think you might be on to something!" Even the opening credits with the playbill being posted... really a clever send up on the biz.


Bill Angstrom
ASSOCIATE PRODUCER

And we just learned that Heather Locklear will be with us for three weeks--gee, THAT's going to suck--not.

<<
Charles, is her butt look as good in person as on screen? I know she's pushing 40, but darn, she still has it.

Okay, don't asnwer that, I don't want you to lose your job. I'll just imagine it is.

Thanks for posting Ileana Douglas' name.

She's 41, actually, and looking fabulous. Even for someone who's had the luxury of personal trainers, facials etc etc for years.

There's plenty of great looking people in this business, what actually makes her more attractive is that she is also a very nice person, and a hard-working professional. That's unfortunately more rare than it should be.

I'm not sure if these qualify or not, but I really liked HARD DAYS NIGHT and THAT THING YOU DO. Both had scenes were the bands performed before the cameras in a studio setting.

I'm afraid I haven't seen some of the others that were mentioned.

I saw a trailer for Analyze That (the sequal to Analyze This) and
it seems that there will be some fair amount of "behind the
scenes" shots since a movie is being made inside that movie.
Just thought to let everyone know.

I definitely need to visit a real set one day to see what they
are all doing... should be interesting

I'm going to go and Spike Jonzes' 'Adaptation'. It is a movie about screenwriting and making a movie. It's in theaters now.
It looks to be Nicholas Cages best work in a long while.

If someone else here has seen it, give me a day before spoiling.

thanks

Hey--last night I saw a movie called Ed Wood---(thanks to Tivo staying up the night before for me) Now thats a great movie about making films and about the film industry (among 300 other things.!

>>movie called Ed Wood<<

How ironic. A great movie abuot a guy who made some of the worst movies in history. toward the end, even his porno stuff was lousy.

I agree Joe---I thought it was a great film---

"Truman Show" with Jim Carey !

It's more of a recent movie than the "classics" mentioned above.

Maybe I am being a stickler--but wasn't the Truman Show about TV????

OK ok ok,

I am going way out there, but being addicted to 70's stuff i saw a fantastic doco entitled "Wadd: The life and times of John Holmes"

Now before you start about it being a porno, i did have the X cut, there is also a festival R rated cut with a little less of the flashbacks, but wow is it fantastic. It has all the main people from the industry back then, the producers, writers (heh heh), directors, actors even the distro agents all talking about every detail of the industry, geez it even had the people who composed the scores.

It goes for well over 2 hours and follows Little Johnny's entire life and inturn follows the industry all way from 1971 until 1985 and really opens your eyes. One person also in this but not really even advertised in Paul T. Anderson (the director of Boogie Nights) who talks a lot about how it translated into his movie.

Anyways, I enjoyed it.

Zac

<<<-- Originally posted by David Mintzer : Maybe I am being a stickler--but wasn't the Truman Show about TV???? -->>>

It's nice to see that someone is paying attention <;~)
You are correct.............

Fellini's 8 1/2 - a masterpiece!