FIVE OF OUR FAVOURITE MOVIES ABOUT MAKING MOVIES …

Lost in La Mancha

Lost in La Mancha chronicles part of Terry Gilliam’s infamous three-decade long struggle to make his Cervantes adaptation The Man Who Killed Don Quixote. The footage was shot during Gilliam’s first attempt to shoot the film in 2000, following an 11-year gestation, and was intended as a “making of.” As Gilliam’s film continued to unravel however, directors Keith Fulton and Louis Pepe repurposed their footage, renamed it, and released it as a cautionary tale on the horrors of the movie-making process in 2002. Gilliam’s own film screened at Cannes this year, and Fulton and Pepe have already announced a sequel following the next 18 years of Gilliam’s journey.

The Disaster Artist

James Franco directs and stars in this hilarious retelling of the story of the making of the “worst film ever made” The Room, and its mysterious, and probably clinically insane, creator Tommy Wiseau. Although the film is pure comedy, Franco deserves special mention for his immaculate portrayal of the larger-than-life Wiseau. The closing credits, where scenes from the movie are laid side-by-side with the original are testament to an amazing piece of method acting from Franco and the rest of the cast. It’s worth waiting until the credits finish rolling to see the scenes that didn’t make the cut, in which, Franco’s fictional version appears in scenes with his real-life inspiration.

Very Big Shot

Drug-dealing brothers Ziad (Alain Saadeh) and Joe (Tarek Yaacoub) are planning one last big delivery that will allow them to go down the straight and narrow on their brother’s release from prison in Mir-Jean Bou Chaaya’s 2015 Lebanese comedy. When they discover that unexposed reels of film are spared the x-ray machine at Beirut airport, a predictably half-baked plan is hatched to smuggle a million dollars’ worth of drugs into Syria. The pair become film producers on a feature directed by Charbel (Fouad Yammine), a talentless filmmaker and customer at their pizzeria, whose tab has vastly exceeded his means. Comedy ensues as their foolproof plan progresses.

Argo

Ben Affleck directs and stars in this incredible true story of the rescue of American embassy staff from Tehran following the Iranian Revolution in 1979. Affleck is Tony Mendez, a CIA operative specialising in extracting American citizens from war zones and similarly tight spots. Mendez poses as a movie producer, complete with fake production office, storyboards, scripts and publicity materials, scouting locations in Iran while the heavily disguised, trapped staff become his cast and crew in an astonishing tale of escape. The film, based on the real-life Mendez’s memoirs The Master of Disguise, won three Oscars, including Best Picture, from an impressive haul of seven nominations.

Shadow of the Vampire

Max Schreck’s performance as Count Orlock in F W Murnau’s classic Nosferatu is considered one of the most terrifying in the history of horror. In Shadow of the Vampire, a fictional “making of” Murnau’s film, E Elias Merhige asks the question: “What if Schreck was so good because he actually was a vampire, and wasn’t acting at all?” Merhige takes Murnau and his fictional crew on location to Czechoslovakia. As strange events begin to occur, the crew become increasingly suspicious of their lead actor’s true nature. Willem Dafoe stars as the iconic bloodsucker, and parttime actor, and John Malkovich is the movie’s visionary director.