My favorite fictional movies about the movie industry
Only fictional stories, not biographies of real filmmakers.
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- DirectorPreston SturgesStarsJoel McCreaVeronica LakeRobert WarwickHollywood director John L. Sullivan sets out to experience life as a homeless person in order to gain relevant life experience for his next movie.– Why don't you want to make O Brother, Where Art Thou, Sully?
– In the first place, I'm too happy to make O Brother, Where Art Thou? In the second place, I haven't suffered enough to make O Brother, Where Art Thou?
– You haven't suffered enough?
– He hasn't suffered enough?
– But Sully!
– I'll tell you something else. There's a lot to be said for making people laugh. Did you know that's all some people have? It isn't much, but it's better than nothing in this cockeyed caravan. Boy. - DirectorBilly WilderStarsWilliam HoldenGloria SwansonErich von StroheimA screenwriter develops a dangerous relationship with a faded film star determined to make a triumphant return.Joe: You're Norma Desmond. You used to be in silent pictures. You used to be big.
Norma: I am big. It's the pictures that got small. - DirectorVincente MinnelliStarsLana TurnerKirk DouglasWalter PidgeonAn unscrupulous movie producer uses an actress, a director and a writer to achieve success.Director Von Ellstein (Ivan Triesault) to Shields (Kirk Douglas) about the aesthetics of movies: "I could make this scene a climax. I could make every scene a climax. If I did, I would be a bad director. A picture with all climaxes is like a necklace without a string. It falls apart. You must build to the big moment and sometimes, you must build slowly. You see this picture one way, and I another. It will be done your way, but not by me, and not by any other director who respects himself. You know what you must do, Mr. Shields, so that you'll have it exactly as you want it? You must direct this picture yourself. – To direct a picture, a man needs humility. Do you have humility, Mr. Shields?"
- DirectorVincente MinnelliStarsKirk DouglasEdward G. RobinsonCyd CharisseAfter spending three years in an asylum, a washed-up actor views a minor assignment from his old director in Rome as a chance for personal and professional redemption.Veronica: Then why would anyone want to be an actor?
Jack: That's a good question.
Veronica: Why?
Jack: To hide from the world. - DirectorsStanley DonenGene KellyStarsGene KellyDonald O'ConnorDebbie ReynoldsA silent film star falls for a chorus girl just as he and his delusionally jealous screen partner are trying to make the difficult transition to talking pictures in 1920s Hollywood.A magic moment: Don takes Kathy to an empty studio and the unreality becomes real.
- DirectorFrançois TruffautStarsJacqueline BissetJean-Pierre LéaudFrançois TruffautA committed film director struggles to complete his movie while coping with a myriad of crises, personal and professional, among the cast and crew.
- DirectorJoseph L. MankiewiczStarsHumphrey BogartAva GardnerEdmond O'BrienThis is the life of a Hollywood movie star named Maria, as told by writer/director Harry Dawes, from being discovered in Madrid, Spain, until her funeral in Italy.
- DirectorEdward F. ClineStarsW.C. FieldsGloria JeanLeon ErrolA filmmaker attempts to sell a surreal script he has written, which comes to life as he pitches it.A moment of movie magic: Gloria Jean sings "Estrellita".
- DirectorRobert AldrichStarsJack PalanceIda LupinoWendell CoreyHollywood actor Charles Castle is pressured by his studio boss into a criminal cover-up to protect his valuable career.
- DirectorOlivier AssayasStarsMaggie CheungJean-Pierre LéaudNathalie RichardHong Kong starlet Maggie Cheung arrives in France to portray Irma Vep in a remake of Les Vampires (1915), but the production is plagued by behind-the-scenes intrigues.
- DirectorBilly WilderStarsWilliam HoldenMarthe KellerHildegard KnefDown-on-his-luck Hollywood producer Barry 'Dutch' Detweiler attempts to lure Fedora, a famous but reclusive film actress, out of retirement only to discover the horrible truth behind her success.
- DirectorMel BrooksStarsMel BrooksMarty FeldmanDom DeLuiseA film director and his strange friends struggle to produce the first major silent feature film in forty years.
- DirectorBlake EdwardsStarsJulie AndrewsWilliam HoldenMarisa BerensonA successful movie director makes the most expensive film in his career and it becomes a huge flop. He tries to salvage his career by reshooting the film as an erotic production, where its family-friendly star takes her top off.
- DirectorJean-Luc GodardStarsBrigitte BardotJack PalanceMichel PiccoliA French writer's marriage deteriorates while working on Fritz Lang's version of "The Odyssey", as his wife accuses him of using her to court favor with the film's brash American producer.
- DirectorFederico FelliniStarsMarcello MastroianniAnouk AiméeClaudia CardinaleA harried movie director retreats into his memories and fantasies.
- DirectorElia KazanStarsRobert De NiroTony CurtisRobert MitchumF. Scott Fitzgerald's novel is brought to life in this story of a movie producer slowly working himself to death.
- DirectorsWilliam A. WellmanJack ConwayVictor FlemingStarsJanet GaynorFredric MarchAdolphe MenjouYoung Esther Victoria Blodgett comes to Hollywood with dreams of stardom and achieves them only with the help of alcoholic leading man Norman Maine, whose best days are behind him.Scene 253: ESTHER AT MICROPHONE
Esther: Hello, everybody … This is Mrs. Norman Maine.
The ovation is tremendous. CAMERA MOVES IN TO A BIG CLOSEUP OF ESTHER. Tears are starting down her cheeks. She looks out past all this crowd, this confusion, this uproar, to some distant point of her own. The music swells up. FADE OUT. THE END - DirectorGeorge CukorStarsJudy GarlandJames MasonJack CarsonA fading matinee idol helps a young singer and actress find fame, even as age and alcoholism send his own career on a downward spiral.
- DirectorFederico FelliniStarsMarcello MastroianniAnita EkbergAnouk AiméeA series of stories following a week in the life of a philandering tabloid journalist living in Rome.
- DirectorJohn SchlesingerStarsDonald SutherlandKaren BlackBurgess MeredithAn art director in the 1930s falls in love and attempts to make a young woman an actress despite Hollywood who wants nothing to do with her because of her problems with an estranged man and her alcoholic father.Hollywood(land) sign – "the mammoth metal monument to this mecca of broken dreams".
- DirectorNicholas RayStarsHumphrey BogartGloria GrahameFrank LovejoyA potentially violent screenwriter is a murder suspect until his lovely neighbor clears him. However, she soon starts to have her doubts.Dixon Steele: I was born when she kissed me. I died when she left me.
I lived a few weeks while she loved me. – You like it?
Laurel Gray: What is it?
Dixon: I want to put it in the script. I don't know quite where.
Laurel: The farewell note?
Dixon: I... I don't know. Maybe.
Say it back to me. Let's hear how it sounds.
Laurel: I was born when she kissed me.
I died when she left me. I... I...
Dixon: I lived a few weeks while she loved me. - DirectorGene WilderStarsGene WilderCarol KaneDom DeLuiseA neurotic baker travels to Hollywood to attend a talent search for an actor to rival the great Valentino. Although not an actor, through blind luck he succeeds, to a certain degree.
