Films about filming

Thinking about films: Which "film friend" doesn't like to do this, almost automatically? It is exciting and stimulating to deal with a film intellectually and/or linguistically, because in doing so one assures oneself of one's own taste as well as of one's own (value) judgements: Why did I particularly like one film and not so much another? Why do I see a film differently today than I did years ago, for example at its cinema premiere? Basically, film criticism does nothing else, quasi on behalf of the individual. Films themselves also sometimes think about filming and about themselves. Filmmakers analyse the cinematic work of other, usually more famous, colleagues, make documentaries about them and accompany them with appropriate film clips. Another path is taken by feature films that reflect on the medium of film or on cinema in their staged stories, often as a "film within a film", as reflexive cinema. They work with cinematic quotations, allusions or hidden meanings that often only cineastes can (or should) understand. Just as often, films make shooting the subject, sometimes parodically, sometimes (self-)critically, reflectively towards their own medium. Our collection gathers delightful examples on the theme of "films about filming". The palette ranges from portraits to historical documentaries to staged films. Children's films also make the theme their own, for example when they creatively discover the world through the film camera.