Comingsoon.net is getting meta and compiling the very best movies about moviemaking that feature movies within a movie. Check out our selections in the gallery below!
Movies about movies are never not a hit with critics and audiences alike. This umbrella includes movies that feature films-within-films, which often lampoon or parody famous films or serve to be allusions to the way the film industry is headed at whatever point in time the actual movie was made. No matter what the reason, they often prove to be really fun sequences contained within a really fun films.
From Joe Dante to Quentin Tarantino, Wes Anderson to David Lynch, Tim and Eric to Francois Truffaut, films-within-films can end up being the true standouts of the films they’re encapsulated in. Whether they’re intended to be humorous or simply a framing device within a film about a film, one thing can be certain: they’re such a treat on-screen and a real opportunity for the filmmaker(s) to air their grievances about the process of moviemaking as a whole. After all is said and done, these are the best films-within-films.
films within films
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Angels Live In My Town, Boogie Nights (1997)
Mark Wahlberg might ask God for forgiveness for appearing in Paul Thomas Anderson’s Boogie Nights, but audiences should thank God for Wahlberg’s comedic gold throughout the film. One of the greatest examples is Wahlberg’s performance in Angels Live in My Town.
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Je Vous Présente Paméla, Day for Night (1973)
Francois Truffaut revolutionized the French New Wave back in the late 50s and early 60s, but his obsession with moviemaking existed long before and remained long after the release of his most important films. One such example is the filmmaker’s 1973 film Day for Night, which tracks the tumultuous production of Je Vous Présente Paméla.
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Bonjour, Diamond Jim, Tim and Eric's Billion Dollar Movie (2013)
Tim and Eric are responsible for all kinds of advances in the world of comedy as of late, from editing styles to acting styles to general aesthetics overall. Case in point: Tim and Eric’s Billion Dollar Movie, which opens with a fake movie called Bonjour, Diamond Jim.
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Mant, Matinee (1993)
Joe Dante’s filmography is unlike anything else before or after. A loving tribute to the B-movies of the 40s, 50s, and 60s while doubling as a satire of the modern moviegoing experience, Matinee is a little-known comedy from the early 90s that features a faux B-movie called Mant. It’s done so well that, if you didn’t know it was fake, some audiences might actually believe Mant was a real movie.
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Nation's Pride, Inglorious Basterds (2009)
Quentin Tarantino is a movie lover through and through. He doesn’t have any film school under his belt—the movies he grew up on did a good enough job, it seems. Parodying Nazi propaganda in his 2009 film Inglorious Basterds, the Nation’s Pride sequence proves to be one of the funniest and most memorable parts of the film.
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The Other Side of the Wind, The Other Side of the Wind (2018)
In Orson Welles’s last film, released decades after the movie was shot and the director’s subsequent death, The Other Side of the Wind features a few clips from the ridiculous film-within-the-film of the same name. It’s a parody of airy, worthless sensual dramas of the time, resulting in plenty of clever jabs at fellow filmmakers as well.
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The Sylvia North Story, Mulholland Drive (2001)
David Lynch loves the 50s. That’s why it’s so fitting to see the Justin Theroux’s character, a particularly Lynch-looking director named Adam Kesher, throughout the process of filming The Sylvia North Story—the movie seems to be all about Hollywood in the 50s, complete with cutesy musical sequences and set design straight out of a diner.
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Adventure #12: The Jaguar Shark (Part 1), The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004)
Like many filmmakers currently working today, Wes Anderson is a film lover above all else. It only makes sense that his 2004 film, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, would feature an aside where the titular marine documentarian Steve Zissou would show off one of his many short films.
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The Dancing Cavalier, Singin' in the Rain (1952)
Stanley Donen’s masterpiece Singin’ in the Rain revolves around the production of a silent film-turned—talkie at a pivotal moment in the film industry where studios transitioned from silent films to sound films. The picture in question, The Dueling Cavalier, is later dubbed The Dancing Cavalier in a truly ridiculous series of reshoots.
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Tropic Thunder, Tropic Thunder (2008)
A movie about making a movie that employs some seriously dark comedy in order to make its point about Hollywood filmmaking in the 21st century, 2008’s Tropic Thunder is all about the making of a war film starring a bunch of washed up actors called Tropic Thunder. In reality, they’ve been thrusted into a very real wartime scenario, but they all think they’re shooting a movie.
