About two years ago, I wrote a noun explanation on the topic of "meta-movies."
What is a meta-movie? Metafilms, born in the 1920s, was born during this period when soviet director Gyga Vertov made a film [Movie Eyes].
The story is simple, to put it bluntly, it's a movie about movies.
Of course, it can also be interpreted academically: taking the film as the theme, quoting, paying tribute to, and criticizing other film texts in the film, or a film that reflects the film's own production process.
Woody Allen was pretty good at it.
In [Stardust Past], he played a well-known comedy film director, who was loved by the public, and even female fans entered his bed to spend the Spring Festival with him. But the film is not about the beauty of spring supper, but about a director's creative process under the guidance of film critics and the obstruction of the film system.
The background of [Cairo Purple Rose] is the United States in the Great Depression of the 30s, and the heroine has to go to the theater every day to see [Cairo Violet], and gradually even the lines and expressions in the film can be memorized - Woody wants to retain the obsession of the audience in the 30s for movies, "wear elegant and grand clothes, watch the movie and then go to a nearby bar for a drink and talk about the movie." He said so.
[Song in the Rain] in 1952 and [Artist] in 2011 are representatives of meta-cinema, both of which depict the ups and downs of filmmakers at the turning point in the history of sound entering film.
In 1988, "Cinema Paradiso" and in 2004, "Movie Past" were in the form of meta-films, telling the connection between film and life, like two love letters sent to the film.
The 1998 [Pornographic Men and Women] and the 2015 [A Film Scene Not ng], directly reflect the production process of the three ■ films and a films.
It can be said that in the body of the history of world cinema, there is a meta-film history lurking. And what this article is going to tell you, there's more.
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[Day to night] (1973)
"Card! Think again from another angle! ”
"Card! This one is good, let's do it again! ”
At the entrance of the subway station, a young man in a gray suit strode forward, with a dignified face, passing by bars, bakeries, and men driving red sports cars, walked straight to the opposite side of a middle-aged man, and slapped him hard.
"Ok, card!" The director shouted with a loudspeaker, obviously he was not satisfied with this part of the shooting, "All the actors go back to their original positions and do it again." ”
Filmmaking is a trivial and complicated job, behind a coherent and smooth movie, there is a place of chicken feathers, such as the hair color of the actor, the waiter's clothing, and the first few seconds of the bus. Each crew also has their own bad points, such as the heroine with anxiety disorders, and the small animals that do not listen to the call at all.
Even so, it is still necessary to work together and work diligently to complete each picture. It is not only the embodiment of professionalism, but also from their enthusiasm for the film industry.
As executive director Joel said, "It's okay for me to give up men for movies, but it's impossible for me to give up movies for men." ”
[Ed Wood] (1994)
"Mr. Orson Wells, do you think it's worth it?"
"It's worth it when the movie starts, Ed, the movie is worth fighting for him."
Two actors dressed in soldier uniforms with sluggish expressions sat in front of the background cloth on the stage and read their lines stiffly, with no acting skills at all.
Four days later, after filming, Ed excitedly called the producers to ask for the release time, only to get a scolding: "You fool!" This is the worst video I've ever seen! I wish I hadn't been involved in making this disgusting movie! ”
Ed was disappointed, but only embarrassed but politely smiled and said briskly: "My next film must be good." ”
The next one, the next one, but unfortunately, the real-life Ed has never made a good film in his life.
As a second-rate B-movie director in Hollywood's silent film period, Ed Wood wrote about 47 screenplays, directed 18 films, and produced 12 films, all of which were standard bad films.
But even if people around him deny his work, even if the angry audience in the movie theater throws eggs and vegetable leaves at the screen, even if he is the worst one in the industry, it does not shake his attachment to film.
[King of Comedy] (1994)
"According to the setting of this character, when I die, I want to be naughty with a little contradiction." "Let you die how many things to die!"
"Because my setting for him is naughty, the subtext in his heart is that he doesn't want to die." "Then how do you go home and want to die!" Don't come back! ”
Yin Tianqiu is intoxicated with acting, and studies "The Self-Cultivation of Actors" every day, but in reality, he is a dragon set that does not even have lines.
Despite this, he still takes each character seriously, thinks about the character positioning, psychology, and even if he is killed by a shot, he will die "dramatically".
Unfortunately, for the dragon set at the bottom, persistence, seriousness, and diligence are not self-sufficient in the eyes of others, and no one will value such a dispensable and extremely low sense of existence.
Fortunately, he met Bo Le, Juan Jie, who appreciated his dedication and promoted him as the male lead in the new play.
But for some reason, the producers decided to change people, and Tianqiu only got a three-line lawyer role. When the staff took away the script, he grabbed the corner of the page with such force that his fingertips were already white, reflecting the reluctance and unwillingness in his heart.
[Sacred Car Dealership] (2012)
"What's driving you forward?"
"Motivation is the charm of performance."
"Charm, people say it's hidden in the eyes of the audience."
"What if there is no audience one day?"
The client complained that Oscar was tired at work, and the boss gave him a soul torture, so there was a conversation between them.
Oscar pursues a special profession - an actor who lives in various roles 24 hours a day, and only the gap and fatigue of role switching belong to him.
In the early morning, he wakes up from his previous character, gets into his own car, and completes the makeup of his next character in it. It was the beginning of his day, and then he spent the day in one role after another, and finally returned to rest in the "home" that belonged to the character, not The real home of Oscar.
After a cigarette of time to escape, he finally opened the door and entered the role state. I don't know if it's someone else's life or my own. Although the characters are different, the emptiness brought about by the repetition is the same.
[Barton Fink] (1991)
"Whether it's being sought after by critics or making a fortune like a producer, it's not the success I want. The success we dream of creates a whole new, living drama – belonging to the civilians, about the civilians, for the civilians. ”
Broadrope's compilation drama Barton Fink didn't want to get into Hollywood's Vanity Fair, only wanted to write a play about civilians. The agent told him that after going to Hollywood to make a fortune, the civilians he cared about were still there, and he could write as many plays as he wanted.
Patton Fink was shaken, and he came to Hollywood, stayed in a hotel, and began to create. He met the owner of the studio, chattering like a manic person. Everyone is chasing time, chasing money, and doesn't care what he thinks.
The studio just asked him to write a script for a B-movie about wrestling, and he tried to write a great script about civilians, only to be scolded by his boss for being out of style.
In the eyes of the boss, he has 20 contracted writers to do Fink's work, and Fink's little beautiful story about civilians is worthless in his place.
Fink was fired. He is not the kind of screenwriter who is so famous that he can be conceited and proud, and can only silently integrate personal ambitions into his creation, and he is questioned and insulted and does not know how to refute it.
In the face of capital, he is just a pawn. His persistence left his back lonely and lonely.
[Nankai Shisanro] (1997)
Nanhai Thirteen Lang has been gifted since childhood, lively in nature, and when he grows up, he is even more unfettered and goes his own way. He effortlessly became a gold-medal screenwriter of Cantonese opera, with arrogant talents and unlimited scenery.
The world is unpredictable, the war smashed the stage team, and Nanhai Thirteen Lang lost his job. So I went to the front line to do a condolence performance, still writing a script that guides people to be kind and enlightens life, and naturally can't win the dance of the long-legged girl.
After the war, traditional Cantonese opera was no longer popular, but he still wrote serious plot stories, and finally no one asked him to write scripts.
Incompatible with the customs, Nanhai Thirteen Lang became a madman in the eyes of others, and his life was turbulent and displaced, and he really became a madman in the end.
He has all the unspeakable pain of the creators in the face of the times and the times. Genius and idiot, scenery and depravity, between a thought. Many of those who oppose capital and customs have become islands where no one cares.
[City of Philharmonic] (2016)
"That's the dream! There are conflicts, there are compromises, and it's very, very exciting! ”
When Mia got home, she didn't even bother to change her shirt with coffee, and she plunged into the quilt, unable to remember how many times she had been rejected.
In order to become an actress, she entered a café in Los Angeles as a waiter, and in her spare time, she kept participating in auditions and failed repeatedly. In self-doubt, Mia was in a trance, not knowing when such a day would be the end of her life, and whether she would really have a chance to go to the screen.
Hollywood is a place of dreams, and many people come here with the hope of movies, eager to leave their mark on the screen. However, when life and ideals have a game, whether to adhere to the original intention or compromise with reality becomes a difficult choice in front of everyone.
[Why Hell Is Bad] (2013)
A group of unassuming teenagers formed a film group and enthusiastically made a random shot.
Ten years later, they have grown into more unassuming adults, not doing their jobs, continuing to shoot randomly, and their original enthusiasm for love has not changed, which is reflexively stimulated by the film.
Fate favored this group of prepared people, the underworld gangster invested in filming for his daughter's fake boyfriend, who pretended to be a director and did not know how to make movies, so he moved to them as rescuers.
The style of painting suddenly changes, the gangsters set up lights, carry the camera, put on the headphones, learn and sell now, form a lighting group, a photography group, a recording group, a focused look, very cute, full of fans' passion and concentration.
The so-called spirit of cinema is buried in such madness, passion and concentration. In fact, this is the quality of life and work that everyone expects, dissolved in the trivialities of everyday life, not often found, but does exist.
[Camera don't stop] (2017)
"Don't use acting! To emanate naturally, I want real emotions! ”
"I'll tell you why you're acting fake, because your whole life is fake!"
The director is reprimanding the actors for their performances, but the scene is only a prelude to a play within a play, and in the second half, the audience will see the production process of the unsightly amateur short film in front of it.
Back 11 hours ago, the movie [One Dead to the End] is preparing for the start-up, and accompanied by live television, the main one-shot gimmick, once the boot can not stop, the crew is waiting.
But when it came time to shoot, two important actors had a car accident, the photographer was drunk and unconscious, the recording engineer had diarrhea, and the 250,000 or 80,000 male actors who dragged them also came to add to the chaos, asking the director " Why did you beat me, my father never beat me."
This 30-minute long shot is full of flaws and disasters, but the hour after that is like witnessing the miracle of a child from the beginning of pregnancy to birth.
The hardships, passions, and tensions unknown to laypeople are unreservedly displayed on the screen.
At that moment, as if its childishness and shoddiness had a reason to be tolerated, and it became a rare shining point for this film about filmmaking.