Movies about Writing?

Delhomeboy

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Anybody know some good ones? I love Finding Forrester, but I'm afraid I'm going to get tired of it if it's the only movie of it's type I have.
 

dclary

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Movies about writing are, by their nature -- like movies about painting -- extraordinarily boring. Writing is exciting. Watching someone write is like watching someone watch clouds.


That said:

Sylvia
Wonder Boys
Kafka
Barton Fink
Quills
Shadowlands
Shakespeare in Love


These are all taken, btw, from:
 

Silver King

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A few I've enjoyed, some of which are far better than Forrester:

Barton Fink
Deconstructing Harry
Manhattan
Barfly
Bright Lights, Big City
Naked Lunch
Sylvia
Capote
Almost Famous
The Hours
Stranger than Fiction
Adaptation
Quills
The Lost Weekend
Sideways
Bullets over Broadway

Saw another good one recently, and I can't remember the title, but it's fairly recent and follows a grad student working on her thesis who becomes close to her subject, a reclusive author. Nice film, and someone here might have better luck with the title than I have at the moment.
 

Kris

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It's not a movie, but the Showtime series "The L Word" has an incredibly loathesome writer character, and some despicably arty "creative process" scenes, where the words the writer-person is thinking float around the room, or she re-lives the scenes that scarred her in life in her incredibly arty writer-persona. Hilarious campy fun. Bonus: lots of hot girl-on-girl action (can we say that on this forum?)

Also "Californication" gets a lot wrong about what it's like to be a novelist, so I hear from my novelist friends.

I also like a movie called "Zero Kelvin," wherein a sensitive poet decides to go ice-fishing in Greenland and ends up with a James-Hetfield-lookalike -- who also happens to be a complete psycho -- for a hut-mate. Sensitive poet returns a changed man, unable to relate to his bourgeois girlfriend any longer. Which is the best thing that can happen to any writer. At least that's how I remember it-- been years since I've seen it.

I also love the tragically flawed film "Out of Africa" wherein details of the writer Isak Dineson's life are distorted to the point that it seems as though an American enviromentalist from the 1980s time-travelled to 1900's Kenya to spur Karen Blixen to cheat on her cheating husband and begin her writing career.
 

sunday morning

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My favorite writing related movies:

The Hours
The Shining (not that he wrote anything other than "All work and no play...)
As Good As It Gets
Girl Interrupted
 

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It's not a movie, but the Showtime series "The L Word" has an incredibly loathesome writer character, and some despicably arty "creative process" scenes, where the words the writer-person is thinking float around the room, or she re-lives the scenes that scarred her in life in her incredibly arty writer-persona. Hilarious campy fun. Bonus: lots of hot girl-on-girl action (can we say that on this forum?)


Oh god I hate Jenny so so so much! But yeah, it is great fun to watch her write about all her friends' messed-up love lives, steal her friend's screenplay treatments, let success totally go to her head, etc.


The first season of "Castle" just aired this year, with Nathan Fillion as lovable rascal/bestselling author/pain in the ass. It's a very entertaining show, bordering on silly, but still great. One episode actually had him playing poker with a bunch of real-life famous authors, which was neat.

Oh yeah: MOULIN ROUGE! Great flick.
 

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I LOVE Castle!

Well, actually I love Nathan Fillion and will pretty much watch anything he's in. I always smile when I see Robvowels avvy because of it. :D

I also forgot to mention 84 Charing Cross Road. GREAT movie with Anthony Hopkins and Ann Bancroft.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090570/
 

Leah_Michelle

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The first season of "Castle" just aired this year, with Nathan Fillion as lovable rascal/bestselling author/pain in the ass. It's a very entertaining show, bordering on silly, but still great. One episode actually had him playing poker with a bunch of real-life famous authors, which was neat.

Me and my best friend are head-over-heals in love with Castle. I love Nathan Fillion from Firefly, and the show is about an author. Combining them...brilliant! Such a funny show and saucy moments between him and the cop :D
 

Clair Dickson

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Delerious-- older movie with John Candy. He's a soap opera writer and ends up where what he writes... happens to him. Amusing.

Stranger than Fiction is AWESOME!
 

ChunkyC

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Throw Momma From The Train

Hilarious movie. Love the scene near the beginning when Larry -- Billy Crystal's character -- is teaching his adult creative writing class. The lady with her submarine story is funny as hell, but the guy with his idea for a coffeetable book on the women he'd like to boink had me rolling on the floor.

*SMALL SPOILER ALERT* Best line from the movie, though, is delivered by Owen's mom: "The night was sultry." The look on Billy Crystal's face was priceless.
 
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dgiharris

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Thought I'd give you a couple that sneak in under the radar

Just Write is a wonderful fun romantic comedy about writing.

Barfly is a an interesting dark comedy about a dysfunctional alcoholic writer (you mean there are other kinds? :) )

Another movie that isn't about writing per say but has the same spirit is Hustle and Flow. Its a urban story about a hustler becoming a rapper. I know many people don't like to think this but rappers are incredible writers in their own right.

Oh, and thanks to ChuckC's list, Funny Farm just came to mind. Vintage Chevy Chase.

And Scarletpeaches choice Secret Window is a must see. Great great writers movie. Suspense.

Anyways, those are my recommendations.

Just Write if you're in the mood for a romantic comedy
Barfly if you're in a wierd dark mood
Hustle and Flow if you're in an urban mood and feelin gangsta and need some inspiration (very inspirational film)
Funny Farm if you want to laugh (though the actual art of writing is more of a backstory)
Secret Window if you want a little suspense. GREAT FILM!

Mel...
 
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maestrowork

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Misery.

Duplex (though not particularly good because I can't stand Ben Stiller as a writer).

Miss Potter.

The Whole Wide World (about Robert E. Howard).

Finding Neverland (about James Barrie and the inspiration behind Peter Pan)

Il Postino

Total Eclipse



I liked quite a number of the films mentioned already, such as Stranger Than Fiction or Shakespeare in Love.
 
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