Greatest film documentary about cinema?

Discussion in 'Visual Arts' started by White_Noise, Aug 23, 2017.

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  1. White_Noise

    White_Noise Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Templeton, MA
    For general documentaries it's a four way tie, not exactly original but:

    Errol Morris - Fog of War
    Frederick Wiseman - Near Death
    Ken Burns - The Civil War (yeah I know)
    BBC's World at War

    But aside from blood gore and death, I'm especially interested in documentaries about cinema. So far, the most captivating and educational of all I've seen is Martin Scorsese's 1995 A Personal Journey Through American Movies (The full three part BBC version, not the cut version currently available).

    What other documentaries about cinema do you recommend? There's a 13 hour one on the Silent Era I've heard is great, but the name eludes me right now.
     
  2. philly67

    philly67 Forum Resident

    Writing With Light. Been ages since i've seen it but it was the first thing that popped to mind when i read your post. It's about cinematography and centers around Vittorio Storaro's work.
     
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  3. harmonica98

    harmonica98 Senior Member

    Location:
    London, UK
    Is that Hollywood (1980) by any chance? This was made by Thames Television and written by the great film scholar Kevin Brownlow. It is in rights hell so has never been issued in the digital era but full episodes appear to be on YouTube. Highly recommended.
     
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  4. Vidiot

    Vidiot Now in 4K HDR!

    Location:
    Hollywood, USA
    The 13-hour Thames TV documentary Hollywood, which is mostly about silent film, is a pretty amazing work. It's a crime that due to rights disputes, it was only briefly available on home video in the 1990s and was never issued on DVD.

    Edit: Holy moley! Great minds think alike.
     
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  5. Maccaroni

    Maccaroni Forum Resident

    Location:
    Bay Area, CA
    I was going to (incorrectly) correct you and wonder whether you meant "Visions of Light", another 1992 documentary on cinematography which is very, very good but now I've realised there's another one I need to see!

    Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse made by Eleanor Coppola on the making of Apocalypse Now has to get my vote on the "narrow" side (i.e. the story of making one film).
     
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  6. philly67

    philly67 Forum Resident

    Hah, correct away on me 'cause i initially thought the same thing, that it was Visions instead of Writing. But the first searches i did kept popping up as a book only. Oh well, you can't go wrong with either i imagine!
     
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  7. stepeanut

    stepeanut The gloves are off

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  8. Rufus McDufus

    Rufus McDufus Forum Resident

    Location:
    London
    'The World At War' was a Thames TV production as well, not BBC.
     
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  9. Jimi Bat

    Jimi Bat Forum Resident

    Location:
    tx usa
    From Caligari To Hitler.
    Not the greatest but worth seeing.
     
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  10. not a straight documentary but Godard's Histoire(s) du Cinema video essay series is pretty fascinating and thought provoking
     
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  11. White_Noise

    White_Noise Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Templeton, MA
    I seem to
    Good Catch. For some reason I always assumed it was BBC. Maybe because of the similarly exhaustive Great War documentary from the previous decade.

    I have to say the Keanu Reeves-narrated Netflix documentary comparing digital and film cinematography was fairly well done and interesting.
     
  12. The Hud

    The Hud Breath of the Kingdom, Tears of the Wild

  13. ando here

    ando here Forum Resident

    Location:
    North Pole
    A. Cinema is far too subjective an experience for anyone to claim a greatest anything - unless they're merely considering box office returns.
    B. Although just over a century old the medium is far too vast for any one person to claim to have watched all of the most important and/or influential films ever made.

    Therefore, imo, the best retrospectives claiming to survey the best films are those that are limited to a clearly defined criteria. Martin Scorsese's My Voyage to Italy (1999) is a great example. Not that his choices aren't subjective but he does make an effort to examine the most influential Italian filmmakers and their work.
     
  14. JozefK

    JozefK Forum Resident

    Location:
    Dixie
    Hollywood is my favorite documentary series, period.
     
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  15. Carl Swanson

    Carl Swanson Senior Member

    I enjoyed that one. Thought for the longest time it was Alan Cumming doing the narration, dunno why. But Cousins wrote the book, the script, directed and narrated.

    There was also an interstitial on Turner Classic Movies some years ago that encapsulated 100 years of cinema in a few minutes; nothing like a documentary, of course, but very nicely done. TCM's "fillers" are usually well-produced; their "TCM Remembers" can choke you up.
     
  16. doubleaapn

    doubleaapn Forum Resident

    Location:
    Trophy Club, TX
    Another series I recommend is "Cinema Europe: The Other Hollywood" which came out in the 90's and also featured Kevin Brownlow's involvement. It's roughly 6 hours long and covers the silent era from a European perspective. Not sure about its availability - I recorded it off of (I believe) TCM many years ago - but it's a fascinating piece of work.
    The aforementioned "Visions of Light" is also an essential and tremendously rewarding/entertaining film, and one I revisit frequently.
    Finally, I'd also like to mention "The Cutting Edge: The Magic of Movie Editing" which I have as a bonus feature on my BD of "Bullitt". Again, I'm not sure where else to find it but it's also well worth tracking down for those interested in editing.

    Aaron
     
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  17. JozefK

    JozefK Forum Resident

    Location:
    Dixie
    After Hollywood Brownlow made a number of excellent film documentaries, including Cinema Europe as well as biographies of Chaplin, Keaton, Lloyd, D.W. Griffith, Cecil B. DeMille, and John Ford. All really are must-sees for the serious movie buff.

    Special mention should be made of The Unknown Chaplin, as it features extensive clips of never-released outtakes and alternate scenes -- even "new" scenes edited by Brownlow from raw, never-edited footage.
     
  18. Dave Garrett

    Dave Garrett Senior Member

    Location:
    Houston, TX
    If I could only keep one laserdisc (OK, laserdisc box set), it would be this one.

    [​IMG]
     
  19. Left Field

    Left Field #1 Shinboner

    Not Quite Hollywood. A great little documentary about a greatly under appreciated National Cinema. Or at least it's B-grade Cinema.
     
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