As 2005 drew to a close, the members of the Chlotrudis Society for Independent Film turned our minds to this year’s list of Best Films. Past years have seen lists of Chlotrudis favorite international and horror films. For 2005, we would try something a little different. This year’s Top 100 focuses on films about the arts. It is subdivided into five inidivual Top 20’s: Best movies about movies; best movies about music; best movies about literature/writing; best movies about art; best movies about theatre/dance. To create this list, members were asked to come up with their Top 10 films in each category. After receiving all of the lists, numerical values were assigned to each of the rankings, and each movie was given a point total. The number of lists a movie appears on is also a factor. A total of 307 films were represented on the individual lists. Films spanning 8 decades of cinema made the cut, with the earliest to appear being 42ND STREET, in the Movies about Theatre/Dance category. Surprisingly, the most recent film to show up on the list was CAPOTE, coming in at a strong #3 on the Best films about literature/writing list. One other 2005 film is represented; Miranda July’s ME AND YOU AND EVERYONE WE KNOW, which came in at #9 on the Best films about art list. So print this list out and take it to your local video store (or to your Netflix queue) and you’ve got a bunch of great films about the arts to watch!
We hope you enjoy our list of the 100 Best Films About the Arts.
Top 20 Movies about Movies |
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| 01 | Ed Wood | Tim Burton | USA | 1994 |
| 02 | 8 1/2 | Federico Fellini | Italy/France | 1963 |
| 03 | Sunset Blvd. | Billy Wilder | USA | 1950 |
| 04 | Singin’ in the Rain | Stanley Donen/Gene Kelly | USA | 1952 |
| 05 | Good Bye Dragon Inn | Tsai Ming Liang | Taiwan | 2003 |
| 06 | After Life | Hirokazu Koreeda | Japan | 1998 |
| 07 | Gods and Monsters | Bill Condon | UK/USA | 1998 |
| 08 | Boogie Nights | Paul Thomas Anderson | USA | 1997 |
| 09 | Bad Education | Pedro Almodóvar | Spain | 2004 |
| 10 | Mullholland Dr. | David Lynch | France/USA | 1957 |
| 11 | The Player | Robert Altman | USA | 1992 |
| 12 | Sullivan’s Travels | Preston Sturges | USA | 1941 |
| 13 | sex, lies and videotape | Steven Soderbergh | USA | 1989 |
| 14 | Adaptation | Spike Jonze | USA | 2002 |
| 15 | American Movie | Chris Smith | USA | 1999 |
| 16 | Ararat | Atom Egoyan | Canada/France | 2002 |
| 17 | Living in Oblivion | Tom DiCillo | USA | 1995 |
| 18 | Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? | Robert Aldrich | USA | 1962 |
| 19 | State and Main | David Mamet | France/USA | 2000 |
| 20 | Double Dare | Amanda Micheli | USA | 2004 |
Top 20 Movies About Music |
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| 01 | Nashville | Robert Altman | USA | 1975 |
| 02 | The Piano Teacher | Michael Haneke | France/Austria | 2001 |
| 03 | This is Spinal Tap | Rob Reiner | USA | 1984 |
| 04 | Hedwig and the Angry Inch | John Cameron Mitchell | USA | 2001 |
| 05 | The Sound of Music | Robert Wise | USA | 1965 |
| 06 | Velvet Goldmine | Todd Haynes | UK/USA | 1998 |
| 07 | A Mighty Wind | Christopher Guest | USA | 2003 |
| 08 | The Saddest Music in the World | Guy Maddin | Canada | 2003 |
| 09 | High Fidelity | Stephen Frears | UK/USA | 2000 |
| 10 | Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story | Todd Haynes | USA | 1987 |
| 11 | The Buena Vista Social Club | Wim Wenders | Germany/USA/UK/ France/Cuba |
1999 |
| 12 | Some Like It Hot | Billy Wilder | USA | 1959 |
| 13 | 24 Hour Party People | Michael Winterbottom | UK/France/Netherlands | 2002 |
| 14 | Impromptu | James Lapine | UK/France | 1991 |
| 15 | Amadaeus | Milos Forman | USA | 1984 |
| 16 | Almost Famous | Cameron Crowe | USA | 2000 |
| 17 | DiG! | Ondi Timoner | USA | 2004 |
| 18 | Sid and Nancy | Alex Cox | UK/USA | 1986 |
| 19 | Grace of My Heart | Allison Anders | USA | 1996 |
| 20 | Lili Marleen | Rainer Werner Fassbinder | West Germany | 1981 |
Movies About Literature/Writing |
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| 01 | American Splendor | Sheri Springer Berman/ Robert Pulcini | USA | 2003 |
| 02 | Swimming Pool | François Ozon | France/UK | 2003 |
| 03 | Capote | Bennett Miller | USA | 2005 |
| 04 | 2046 | Wong Kar Wai | China/France/Germany/ Hong Kong | 2004 |
| 05 | The Princess Bride | Rob Reiner | USA | 1987 |
| 06 | Before Night Falls | Julian Schnabel | USA | 2000 |
| 07 | An Angel at My Table | Jane Campion | UK/Australia/New Zealand | 1990 |
| 08 | The Royal Tenenbaums | Wes Anderson | USA | 2001 |
| 09 | Wonder Boys | Curtis Hanson | UK/Germany/USA/Japan | 2000 |
| 10 | Naked Lunch | David Cronenberg | Canada/UK/Japan | 1991 |
| 11 | Henry Fool | Hal Hartley | USA | 1997 |
| 12 | Reconstruction | Christoffer Boe | Denmark | 2003 |
| 13 | The Shining | Stanley Kubrick | USA/UK | 1980 |
| 14 | The Third Man | Carol Reed | UK | 1949 |
| 15 | La Dolce Vita | Federico Fellini | Italy/France | 1960 |
| 16 | Prick Up Your Ears | Stephen Frears | UK | 1987 |
| 17 | The Hours | Stephen Daldry | USA | 2002 |
| 18 | Gothic | Ken Russell | UK | 1986 |
| 19 | Breakfast at Tiffany’s | Blake Edwards | USA | 1961 |
| 20 | Wilde | Brian Gilbert | UK/Germany/Japan | 1997 |
Movies About Art |
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| 01 | I’ve Heard the Mermaids Singing | Patricia Rozema | Canada | 1987 |
| 02 | Pollack | Ed Harris | USA | 2000 |
| 03 | In the Realms of the Unreal | Jessica Wu | USA | 2004 |
| 04 | An American in Paris | Vincente Minnelli | USA | 1951 |
| 05 | Frida | Julie Taymor | USA/Canada/Mexico | 2002 |
| 06 | I Shot Andy Warhol | Mary Harron | UK/USA | 1996 |
| 07 | High Art | Lisa Cholodenko | Canada/USA | 1998 |
| 08 | Basquiat | Julian Schnabel | USA | 1996 |
| 09 | Me and You and Everyone We Know | Miranda July | USA | 2005 |
| 10 | Ghost World | Terry Zwigoff | USA/UK/Germany | 2001 |
| 11 | Crumb | Terry Zwigoff | USA | 1994 |
| 12 | Vincent & Theo | Robert Altman | Netherlands/UK/France | 1996 |
| 13 | Chasing Amy | Robert Smith | USA | 1997 |
| 14 | Love is the Devil | John Maybury | UK/France/Japan | 1998 |
| 15 | Blow-Up | Michelangelo Antonioni | UK/Italy | 1966 |
| 16 | Camille Claudel | Bruno Nuytten | France | 1988 |
| 17 | Russian Ark | Aleksandr Sokurov | Russia/Germany | 2002 |
| 18 | My Left Foot | Jim Sheridan | Ireland/UK | 1989 |
| 19 | Bagdad Café | Percy Adlon | West Germany/USA | 1987 |
| 20 | Laura | Otto Preminger | USA | 1944 |
Movies About Theatre/Dance |
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| 01 | All About Eve | Joseph L. Mankiewicz | USA | 1950 |
| 02 | All That Jazz | Bob Fosse | USA | 1979 |
| 03 | Waiting for Guffman | Christopher Guest | USA | 1996 |
| 04 | Topsy-Turvy | Mike Leigh | UK | 1999 |
| 05 | Vanya on 42nd Street | Louis Malle | USA/UK | 1994 |
| 06 | Cradle Will Rock | Tim Robbins | USA | 1999 |
| 07 | Shall We Dance? | Masayuji Suo | Japan | 1996 |
| 08 | Shakespeare in Love | John Madden | UK/USA | 1998 |
| 09 | OT: Our Town | Scott Hamilton Kennedy | USA | 2002 |
| 10 | Noises Off | Peter Bogdanovich | USA | 1992 |
| 11 | The Producers | Mel Brooks | USA | 1968 |
| 12 | Cabaret | Bob Fosse | USA | 1972 |
| 13 | The Red Shoes | Michael Powell/Emeric Pressburger | UK | 1948 |
| 14 | Withnail & I | Bruce Robinson | UK | 1987 |
| 15 | Being Julia | István Szabó | Canada/USA/Hungary/ UK | 2004 |
| 16 | Mephisto | István Szabó | WestGermany/Hungary/ Austria | 1981 |
| 17 | Jésus de Montréal | Denys Arcand | Canada/France | 1989 |
| 18 | 42nd Street | Lloyd Bacon | USA | 1933 |
| 19 | The Dresser | Peter Yates | UK | 1983 |
| 20 | Stage Beauty | Richard Eyre | UK/Germany/USA | 2004 |