Movies and Film: Some Films Worth Viewing

Some Films Worth Viewing

These films concentrate on the process of trying to make a film.

  • Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (1957). Jayne Mansfield takes on the media industry.
  • Nickelodeon (1976). Peter Bogdonavich's comedy-drama about trying to make silent movies in the shadow of D.W. Griffith.
  • The Kentucky Fried Movie (1977). Hilarious satire of our expectations of how films—and commercials and television—are made.
  • The French Lieutenant's Woman (1981). A great but very loose adaptation of the John Fowles novel. Unlike the novel, this movie is a meditation on making a period (nineteenth-century) film.
  • Soapdish (1991). While this film is about television soap operas rather than movies, it's a hilarious vision of how the backstabbing and infighting works for every aspect of the entertainment industry.
  • Watermelon Woman (1996). In this absolutely stunning fiction feature, an African American lesbian filmmaker makes a film about a lesbian African American actress.
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Excerpted from The Complete Idiot's Guide to Movies and Film © 2001 by Mark Winokur and Bruce Holsinger. All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. Used by arrangement with Alpha Books, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

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