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June 19, 2008

A style of movie I'd like to see ()

by fluffy at 10:41 PM
I think it would be very compelling, stylistically, to have a movie in which the movie was blatantly a work of fiction while the characters themselves were still in the fiction. What I mean is having the film and sound crew visible, which would allow for scenes shot in a single take but from multiple angles which still get cut together (and there could even be some rough spots around the edges on purpose, like actors breaking and returning into character and so on). Basically, something like the "making of," except the whole movie, and with some additional tropes allowed by this.

In a sense it would be a movie which is about the making of itself, except the story would not be the making of the film - the "window dressing" would eventually fade into the woodwork even though it'd remain visible throughout the whole film.

Are there any movies like this? I'd expect there to be at least one movie which is basically a stage production committed to film in this way, but I can't think of anything even though the concept is familiar.

I think I might want to write a screenplay.

Comments

#11001 06/20/2008 04:21 am
It's not exactly what you're looking for, but I strongly recommend Adaptation if you haven't seen it. It's not about the filming of itself, but it is about the writing of itself.
#11002 06/20/2008 08:34 am
Tristam Shandy had some of that, though arguably it was a movie about the making of a movie.
#11003 06/20/2008 09:08 am
I don't want a movie which is about its own creation, I want a movie where the elements of its creation are plainly visible but not in the forefront. Like, if Lost in La Mancha were an actual telling of Don Quixote, rather than a telling of a failed telling of Don Quixote. But not quite that style. (It is hard to explain this in terms which are clear and precise and not-at-all contradictory because of all the baggage and lack of a clear single reference and such.)

I think the best actual example of the visual style I'm thinking of is "Cook Like A Chef" (which I can't find clips of but there are torrents available), only instead of a cooking show done like that I'd like to see a work of completely un-self-aware fiction done like that.

The important thing is that the story needs to not be self-aware. While the elements of the filmmaking are visible, I don't want it to be a film about itself.
#11004 06/20/2008 04:13 pm
"It's Garry Shandling's Show" was a self-aware sitcom where all the characters knew they were on a TV show set in a soundstage with a studio audience, who they could address directly.
#11005 06/20/2008 04:19 pm
I do remember that, and I liked that show, but that's still pretty much the exact opposite of what I'm talking about.
#11008 06/21/2008 11:46 am
"Vanya on 42nd Street," though again imperfect, has some neat stuff along those lines. Specifically it starts out and you meet the actors and they talk about their day, then at some point they're rehearsing the play, in street clothes.
#11009 06/21/2008 12:58 pm
Okay, that's sounding more like it! I'll definitely check that one out.

It's in my Netflix queue now but it's not yet out on DVD so I have no idea when I'll see it.
#11010 06/22/2008 07:40 pm
Hmm, when I saw it it was on a DVD. Looks like it's out-of-print, $15 on amazon marketplace and nothing available right now on eBay.
#11011 06/22/2008 07:44 pm
Oh, blah, probably one of those movies that Netflix doesn't have because people keep "losing" it, then.
#11012 06/23/2008 12:29 pm
One guy that would do something like that would be Tom Stoppard, but he usually works in plays rather than movies. I was in this play The Real Inspector Hound in college (I played a dead guy - it's surprisingly difficult not to move for an hour). Anyway it has some interesting audience - play within a play interactions. Not what you were asking about, but interesting nonetheless, I think.
-bill
#13052 04/29/2010 11:11 pm
So it turns out that Slipstream (by Anthony Hopkins) is pretty much not what I had in mind, but I liked it anyway.

I don't remember why I wanted the thing I was describing though.