Best Documentary about Directors/Actors/Movies

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It was just recently released, but I highly recommend Inmate #1: The Rise of Danny Trejo.
Watched this last night, and was very impressed. Trejo himself is a fascinating study, and his story and fame is what made the documentary.

TBH I wasn't too impressed with the actual production itself. I shouldn't be too critical about that because I couldn't do something 1/10th as good as what Brett Harvey and Scott Dodds have done.

Since Trejo is a recovered alcoholic & addict, as well as a reformed criminal, it would have been more powerful to have somehow cinematized that. Naturally there is no footage of him wasted, or of performing robberies, but somehow the visual impact of that life should be shown.

Nevertheless it was an absorbing film, and had personal meaning for me. Trejo is certainly a great inspiration to people --especially young ones-- who are exposed to that danger and temptation, or who are locked in those clutches.

~Doc



S is for Stanley Kubrick
Took your tip and watched this last night. It was a very enjoyable "behind the scenes" look at Kubrick via Kubrick's chauffeur and right hand man, Emilio D'Alessandro.

I'd forgotten what a detailed and thoroughly picky individual Kubrick was. His continuous notes writing put me in mind a little of Howard Hughes. He certainly made some genuinely great movies.

IMO the story and the emotional ties made the production, rather than the photography, editing, etc. Took me awhile to realize that it was actually an Italian production. What we are seeing is more of less an English translation.

Good suggestion!

~Doc



matt72582's Avatar
Please Quote/Tag Or I'll Miss Your Responses
Took your tip and watched this last night. It was a very enjoyable "behind the scenes" look at Kubrick via Kubrick's chauffeur and right hand man, Emilio D'Alessandro.

I'd forgotten what a detailed and thoroughly picky individual Kubrick was. His continuous notes writing put me in mind a little of Howard Hughes. He certainly made some genuinely great movies.

IMO the story and the emotional ties made the production, rather than the photography, editing, etc. Took me awhile to realize that it was actually an Italian production. What we are seeing is more of less an English translation.

Good suggestion!

~Doc
Glad you liked it, Doc! The emotional ties and loyalty were very touching. I've seen every Kubrick documentary, except "Kubrick on Kubrick" which I heard from a German movie fan (from another forum) after he saw it on TV there... Very meticulous guy. I also read Kubrick would freak out driving over 35mph, and remember (and just looked this up) that Malcolm McDowell said Kubrick wore a "crash helmet" and not a football helmet as reported by some English newspaper.
Is it just me, or did Emilio sound more Hungarian than Italian. He sounded more like the movie critic John Simon!



Watched this last night, and was very impressed. Trejo himself is a fascinating study, and his story and fame is what made the documentary.

TBH I wasn't too impressed with the actual production itself. I shouldn't be too critical about that because I couldn't do something 1/10th as good as what Brett Harvey and Scott Dodds have done.

Since Trejo is a recovered alcoholic & addict, as well as a reformed criminal, it would have been more powerful to have somehow cinematized that. Naturally there is no footage of him wasted, or of performing robberies, but somehow the visual impact of that life should be shown.

Nevertheless it was an absorbing film, and had personal meaning for me. Trejo is certainly a great inspiration to people --especially young ones-- who are exposed to that danger and temptation, or who are locked in those clutches.

~Doc

Aw man, I gotta watch this!



I really liked Lost Soul: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley’s “Island of Dr. Moreau”. Fans of Hearts of Darkness, Jodorowsky's Dune, Lost in La Mancha; in short, anyone who finds stories about troubled productions are bound to dig it.



Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse, for me.



De Palma
American Movie
Not Quite Hollywood: The Wild, Untold Story of Ozploitation!
American Grindhouse
Going to Pieces: The Rise and Fall of the Slasher Film
Machete Maidens Unleashed!
Popatopolis
King Cohen: The Wild World of Filmmaker Larry Cohen


American Movie and King Cohen: The Wild World of Filmmaker Larry Cohen are my favorites.



No Subtitles Necessary: Laszlo & Vilmos
Room 237
Stanley Kubrick's Boxes
A. K.
They'll Love Me When I'm Dead
The American Dreamer
Filmmaker (Lucas shooting Coppola on Rain People)
Clouzot's Inferno



matt72582's Avatar
Please Quote/Tag Or I'll Miss Your Responses
No Subtitles Necessary: Laszlo & Vilmos
Room 237
Stanley Kubrick's Boxes
A. K.
They'll Love Me When I'm Dead
The American Dreamer
Filmmaker (Lucas shooting Coppola on Rain People)
Clouzot's Inferno
Some good ones...


I recommend Wim Wenders "Room 666" - he has a lot of fine directors on there to answer a few questions.



Clouzot's Inferno
I recall seeing part of this on TV once. Left a deep impression on me. Talk about commitment from the director no matter what the problem, to the point of his own destruction. What a guy!



[quote=mattiasflgrtll6;1893831]The Disaster Artist is a great movie, but a documentary it is not.

De Palma is highly recommended if you're a fan of the director. Instead of just getting several people to talk about how great it is, he tells it completely from his own perspective. I thought that was pretty cool.


I liked De Palma, but it would have been nice hearing from actors who had worked with him. It was like the Robert Evans documentary The Kid Stays in the Picture...the only person interviewed is Evans.



"Honor is not in the Weapon. It is in the Man"
Scream, Queen: My Nightmare on Elm Street, about Mark Patton and what he dealt with starring in A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge


To Hell and Back: The Kane Hodder Story, about the actor who played Jason Voorhees the most times in the Friday the 13th franchise and how he overcame a 1977 fire accident that almost killed him, let alone his career and his resurgence to play Jason and becoming a well known stuntman and stunt coordinator.


Smoke and Mirrors, the story of legendary special effects artist Tom Savini, whose career as a combat photographer during the Vietnam War led to him becoming one of cinema's greatest and influential special effects artists.
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I remember watching Listen to Me Marlon and enjoying the inquire and introspective he did. I didn't enjoy him much as an actor though. I Am Heath Ledger was also very interesting from the point of view of any aspiring actor, and also to try to understand the man. There's also Bergman and Fårö Island that made me dislike him even more, I don't see any connection with Bergman whatsoever.