Lee Tracy costars as a manipulative press agent in this snappy screwball satire of Hollywood fame and publicity. Victor Fleming directs.
Category: movies about movies
![TITLE: SUNSET BOULEVARD PERS: VON STROHEIM, ERICH / SWANSON, GLORIA YEAR: 1950 DIR: WILDER, BILLY REF: SUN025AL CREDIT: [ THE KOBAL COLLECTION / PARAMOUNT ]](https://i2.wp.com/streamondemandathome.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Sunset-Blvd.jpeg?fit=230%2C178&ssl=1)
‘Sunset Boulevard’ on Amazon Prime and Criterion Channel
William Holden and Gloria Swanson star in this Gothic Hollywood noir, the darkest of Hollywood’s self-portraits, directed by Billy Wilder.
‘Not Quite Hollywood’ – The Wild, Untold Story of Ozploitation on Amazon Prime
Mark Hartley’s survey of Australian exploitation cinema is one of the most entertaining and affectionate documentaries about cinema that you’ll ever see.
‘The Stunt Man’ on HBO Max
Richard Rush’s brilliant little backstage drama of illusion and reality and moviemaking sleight of hand, earned three Oscar nominations and universally glowing reviews, yet was barely seen on its initial release, becoming an almost instant cult classic.
‘Hail, Caesar!’ from the Coen Bros. on Netflix
Hail, Caesar! (2015), the Coen Bros.’s sly lampoon of 1950s Hollywood, is an affectionate and satirical tribute to studio filmmaking and a wittily skewed comedy of cultural politics in early 1950s America, the beginning of the end of the studio era. Set at the fictional Capitol Pictures, an MGM-like studio, and centered on Eddie Mannix […]
‘Boogie Nights’ – Porn in the USA on Netflix
Boogie Nights (1997), the sophomore feature from Paul Thomas Anderson, is a surprisingly vibrant, funny, and at times quite warm story of a dysfunctional filmmaking family in the adult film industry of the late 1970s. Partially inspired by the life of porno star John Holmes, it stars Burt Reynolds as a quiet but firm director […]
Last chance: David Lynch’s ‘Mulholland Dr.’ on HBO Max
Mulholland Dr. (2001) – David Lynch pulled a near magic trick in what can only be an exercise in creative rewriting and re-conception. Taking an open ended TV pilot rejected by the networks, he added 45 minutes and created closure in a weird, mystical logic that, in its unique Lynchian way, makes a twisted emotional […]
’78/52: Hitchcock’s Shower Scene’ – exploring ‘Psycho’ on Hulu
The title of 78/52: Hitchcock’s Shower Scene (2017), a documentary on the legendary sequence in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1961 classic Psycho, refers to the 78 camera set-ups and 52 cuts in the three-minute scene, an astounding attention to detail to a brief sequence that shocked American audiences with transgressions suggested but not actually shown on screen. […]
Martin Scorsese’s ‘The Aviator’ on Paramount+
The Aviator (2004), Martin Scorsese’s epic biography of the life of Howard Hughes, is his love-letter to the old-Hollywood bio-pic. This is high-style filmmaking wrapped up in a tormented hero whose soaring flights of greatness are matched by the mortal pull of his devils, which Scorsese establishes (perhaps too patly) in a childhood prologue bathed […]
Brian De Palma’s ‘Blow Out’ on Amazon Prime
Is it too sweeping to call Jack Terry, the movie soundman of Brian De Palma’s Blow Out (1981), John Travolta’s best performance ever? So be it. Who knew that De Palma—a director still more often than not dismissed as a technician with a Hitchcock obsession, a facility for bravura camerawork, and a penchant for split […]