Highest-Rated Movies about 'Classic Films'

Harold and Lillian: A Hollywood Love Story (2015), Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures (2001), S Is for Stanley (2015), Natalie Wood: What Remains Behind (2020), The Celluloid Closet (1996), Visions of Light: The Art of Cinematography (1993), A Decade Under the Influence (2003), Score: A Film Music Documentary (2016) ... Let's take a look at the ranked list of the best Classic Films movies.

#2. Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures (2001)

Storyline: Narrated by Tom Cruise, "Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures" goes through each one of his movies and talks to various participants about their memories of working with Kubrick. For those who know very little about Kubrick, the documentary is an excellent career overview. Kubrick film clips include "Fear and Desire," "Killer's Kiss," "The Killing," "Paths of Glory," "Spartacus," "Lolita," "Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb," "2001: A Space Odyssey," "A Clockwork Orange," "Barry Lyndon," "The Shining," "Full Metal Jacket" and "Eyes Wide Shut." Those appearing include: Arthur C. Clarke, Keir Dullea, Shelley Duvall, James B. Harris, Richard Schickel, Michael Herr, Nicole Kidman, Anya Kubrick, Christiane Kubrick, Gert Kubrick, Katharina Kubrick, Paul Mazursky, Jack Nicholson, Malcolm McDowell, Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, Woody Allen, Douglas Trumbull, Marie Windsor, Matthew Modine, Sydney Pollack and Peter Ustinov.—alfiehitchie

Plot Keywords: biography, documentary, director, filmmaking, film history, hollywood, behind the scenes ...

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#5. The Celluloid Closet (1996)

Storyline: This documentary highlights the historical contexts that gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgenders have occupied in cinema history, and shows the evolution of the entertainment industry's role in shaping perceptions of LGBT figures. The issues addressed include secrecy -- which initially defined homosexuality -- as well as the demonization of the homosexual community with the advent of AIDS, and finally the shift toward acceptance and positivity in the modern era.

Plot Keywords: documentary, lgbtq+, film history, hollywood, film industry, historical, adaptation ...

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#6. Visions of Light: The Art of Cinematography (1993)

Storyline: Cameramen and women discuss the craft and art of cinematography and of the "DP" (the director of photography), illustrating their points with clips from 100 films, from Birth of a Nation to Do the Right Thing. Themes: the DP tells people where to look; changes in movies (the arrival of sound, color, and wide screens) required creative responses from DPs; and, these artisans constantly invent new equipment and try new things, with wonderful results. The narration takes us through the identifiable studio styles of the 30s, the emergence of noir, the New York look, and the impact of Europeans. Citizen Kane, The Conformist, and Gordon Willis get special attention.—<jhailey@hotmail.com>

Plot Keywords: documentary, cinematography, art, film history, hollywood, visual art, interviews ...

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#7. A Decade Under the Influence (2003)

Storyline: Between the death of the old Hollywood studio system and the rise of the counterculture, the late 1960s and early '70s were a near-revolutionary time in American filmmaking, as detailed in this documentary by Ted Demme and Richard LaGravanese. Equally influenced by the foreign films of art-house cinemas and the cheap B-movies of late-night TV, eager young filmmakers and actors rewrote Hollywood's rules. This film includes interviews with most of the era's leading figures.

Plot Keywords: documentary, film history, hollywood, 1970s, directors, producers, actors ...

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#8. Score: A Film Music Documentary (2016)

Storyline: For a predominately visual medium like cinema, its musical component plays a vital role as well, especially its score. In that essential musical accompaniment, the soul of the film is expressed whether it be sweepingly majestic fanfares or delicate lyrical pieces. This documentary explores the artistic role of this special musical discipline that completes the cinematic artistic creation process and the artists who have devoted their careers to this contribution. We explore the form's history and examine the masters who defined it with their own distinctive artistic vision. In doing so, the various components of this delicate creative process are revealed as they create a musical compositional work that has inspired a popular appreciation of music in all its forms, which gave some old musical ways their own new lease on life.—Kenneth Chisholm (kchishol@rogers.com)

Plot Keywords: film music, documentary, soundtrack, hollywood, music composition, filmmaking, orchestra ...

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#9. Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films (2014)

Storyline: A documentary about Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus - two movie-obsessed cousins whose passion for cinema changed the way movies were made and marketed - and the tale of how this passion ultimately led to the demise of the company they built together.—Anonymous

Plot Keywords: documentary, film history, behind the scenes, independent film, b-movie, film production, hollywood ...

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#10. The Kid Stays in the Picture (2002)

Storyline: This documentary captures the life story of legendary Hollywood producer and studio chief Robert Evans. The first actor to ever to run a film studio, Robert Evans' film career started in 1956, poolside at the Beverly Hills Hotel. His good looks, charm and overwhelming confidence captured the eye of screen legend Norma Shearer, who offered him a film role. After a glamorous--but short-lived--career as a movie star, Evans tried out producing. At the age of 34, with no producing credits to his name, he landed a job as chief of production at Paramount Pictures. Evans ran the studio from 1966-1974. During his tenure, he was responsible for such revolutionary films as The Godfather, Rosemary's Baby, Love Story, The Odd Couple, Harold and Maude and Chinatown. By the early '80s, the Golden Boy of Hollywood was losing his luster. After a failed marriage to Ali MacGraw, a cocaine bust and rumored involvement with the Cotton Club murder, he disappeared into near-obscurity. Only through tremendous will and uncanny luck did he once again rise as the kid who stays in the picture.—Sujit R. Varma

Plot Keywords: biography, documentary, hollywood, producer, film industry, celebrity, behind the scenes ...

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#12. Steve McQueen: American Icon (2017)

Storyline: Steve McQueen truly is an American Icon. One of America's most endearing and intriguing movie stars, he "is still the King of Cool" according to Esquire Magazine-50 years after the zenith of his career. The strangest thing about him, however, is barely known, despite countless biographies and articles. Steve McQueen was a believer in Jesus Christ. On the surface McQueen had everything he could want-fame, cars, homes, more money than he could spend in a lifetime. An avid fan of the actor (and owner of a replica of McQueen's car in the classic film Bullitt), Pastor Greg Laurie hits the road in his mint Mustang, traveling the country in search of the true, untold story of McQueen's redemption-filled final chapters.—Greg Laurie

Plot Keywords: biography, documentary, steve mcqueen, actor, hollywood, film history, legend ...

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#14. Friedkin Uncut (2018)

Storyline: Oscar®-winning, Chicago-born director William Friedkin achieved fame with his 1973 horror blockbuster The Exorcist. But this illuminating documentary shows the director's unwavering commitment to rawness and realism across his career, from The French Connection (1972) to Killer Joe (2011). Featuring interviews with Ellen Burstyn, Willem Dafoe, and Quentin Tarantino, among others, Friedkin Uncut reveals a savvy craftsman who is unapologetic about his no-nonsense approach to moviemaking.—AMBI Distribution

Plot Keywords: documentary, director, filmmaking, hollywood, film history, interviews, behind the scenes ...

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#15. Altman (2014)

Storyline: The life of Robert Altman over the course of his career as a filmmaker is told in roughly chronological order. It is presented largely through archival footage, including of his interviews and of his and his longtime wife Kathryn Reed's home movies. It includes his rocky start in Hollywood as an aspiring screenwriter, which instead led to him working as a general filmmaker for an industrial film company. This work led to directing assignments for a number of television series back in Hollywood, where he butted heads with a number of studio executives and producers who did not appreciate his style of filmmaking in his desire to insert a sense a realism in whatever the project, that realism which includes hanging story-lines and overlapping dialogue, often in multiple equally important conversations in a single setting which forces the viewer to decide which conversation he/she wants to focus. This situation often led to him trying to achieve what he wanted either in not telling or flying beneath the radar of the studio executive and producers. Altman's cachet in Hollywood took a meteoric turn upward with the film M*A*S*H (1970) which all other directors approached had turned down, it which ended up being a box-office smash and critically acclaimed, including winning that year's coveted Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. Over the remaining course of his filmmaking life which included some highs and lows (including a string of box office and critical failures in the late 1970s and early 1980s), he tried to instill a sense of of family among the cast and crew of his sets. Beyond his marriage to Kathryn, the personal side to the story includes his being father to a number of children and step-children who would enter into the business, and some health issues, one which ended up in him having a heart transplant of which he did not tell the public until ten years after the fact. Interspersed with the archive footage is a number of celebrities - actors who have worked in his films and contemporaries influenced by his work - who give their definition of the adjective "Altmanesque".—Huggo

Plot Keywords: documentary, director, hollywood, film history, biography, filmmaking, independent film ...

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