Movies About Movies

Hollywood and film communities around the world have long reflected their light back on themselves. Cate Blanchett won an Oscar for playing Katherine Hepburn in The Aviator. Martin Landau did the same for his portrayal of Bela Lugosi in Ed Wood. François Truffaut played a thinly veiled version of himself directing a film in Day for Night. Peter O'Toole's scenery-chewing turn as an egotistical director made The Stunt Man a cult classic. More recently Damien Chazelle's take on Hollywood's early days in Babylon bombed at the box office but still has its ardent defenders. Richard Linklater fared better, at least critically, with Nouvelle Vague, his take on Jean-Luc Godard making Breathless. Are these and other such films illuminating, self-indulgent, or a bit of both?

We will also examine some of the great documentaries about moviemaking. Eleanor Coppola's Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse and Mike Figgis's Megadoc are fascinating looks at Francis Ford Coppola at different stages of his career. Chris Smith's American Movie profiles a much less successful filmmaker, but is no less compelling, while also hilarious at times. Morgan Neville's They’ll Love Me When I’m Dead deftly illustrates both Orson Welles's talent and his struggles to make what would be his last film.

What are some of your favorites? Which ones do you believe best capture the filmmaking process?