38 Films on the Love of Films

Just like being in love with love itself is often diagnosed in lovers, being passionate about films that celebrate the passion for films is a common malaise for cinema buffs. So here it is. 38 films on the love of films. Making them, watching them, and talking about them, killing people over them, being reborn because of them and myriad other uplifting and demeaning shades of cinephilia run through these films, handpicked from all over the world.

The list is neither exhaustive, nor definitive, merely subjective and alphabetical. Feel free to love / despise / enhance / edit this collection. The comments section is wide open.

1. 8½ (1963)
   This Italian masterpiece by Federico Felini is about the passion for filmmaking burning out and then being rekindled. The muse has left the protagonist, a celebrated film director, right in the middle of making his latest film. When the pressure builds up from all fronts, he takes refuge in his childhood memories and grown-up fantasies. And right there, he finds his muse again.

   Watch a trailer for the movie here.

2. A Star is Born (1937)
   The starry-eyed love for acting in films grows sour and bitter in this vintage Hollywood classic. When an wannabe actress catches the eye of her screen idol, she thinks she is finally in charge of her own destiny. But the ruthless Hollywood glamour machine chews her up and spits the dregs out on the boulevard of broken dreams.
   
   Watch a trailer for the movie here. 
3. Amator (Camera Buff) (1979)
   This Polish film from master filmmaker Krzysztof Kieslowski chronicles the love of a man for his 8 mm camera, the very first in town, and how that growing love brings him hurt and strife from places he least expected them.

   Watch a trailer for the movie here.
   

4. Arrebato (1980)
   Obsession for watching films takes a sickly, paranormal hue in this Spanish cult film. A B-Grade Horror Movie Director can’t stop himself from watching a found videotape, over and over and over again. The stream of seemingly random images first take over his mind, then his body.

   Watch a trailer for the movie here.
   

5. Badasssss! (2003)
   This documentary stands witness to the incurable love for filmmaking that doesn’t stop at anything and in the process rewrites the history of a community. The director recounts the making of his father’s 1971 film – Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song - the very first black Indie film - made possible by the endless grit, artifice, sacrifice and resourcefulness of one man and his ragtag film crew.
   
   Watch a trailer for the movie here. 
6. Be Kind, Rewind (2008)
   We all heart the easy charms of homemade films. Director Michael Gondry is no exception in this charmer of a film. When the good-for-nothing assistant (Jack Black) at the Videotape Rental Library gets accidentally magnetized and erases all the tapes clean, him and the owner have only one option left to stop going bust. To make these blockbusters themselves and tape over.

   Watch a trailer for the movie here. 
   

7. Benny's Video (1992)
   When love of films overtakes the love for life, things are bound to go haywire. The video of a pig-slaughter kindles the urge for filming in young, lonely and repressed Benny. He yearns for an opportunity to make his very own DIY masterpiece. Along comes a girl – naïve, trusting and obedient.

   Watch a trailer for the movie here. 

8. Cinema Paradiso (1988)
   The gold standard of films on love of films, Cinema Paradiso tells the charming childhood story of the lead, a famous director, in flashbacks. How his love for films was awakened in the neighbourhood theatre, how it was nurtured by the elderly projectionist there and how all good things eventually turn to dust and ashes. Full of enchantment, nostalgia and heartbreaks, his Italian magnum opus is one of the greatest movies ever made.

   Watch a trailer for the movie here.
   

9. Cinemania (2002)
   Cinephilia is at its most acute in this documentary about five film-obsessed New Yorkers. The real lives of these pro film watchers are vestigial. In order to spend time with the make-believe, they often forego work, sleep, food and even sex, without thinking twice. Their virulent passion for films and encyclopaedic knowledge about them are bound to stir up awe, pity and many other unnamed emotions in you.

   Watch a trailer for the movie here.  

10. Close-up (Nema-ye Nazdik) (1990)
    In this unique documentary, Abbas Kiarostami showcases a unique side of film-obsession: identity-theft of the director. It’s based on the real case of a man who impersonated the auteur Mohsen Makhmalbaf and infiltrated a wealthy family under the guise of making a film. When Kiarostami delves deeper into the why, he
    unravels startling truths about filmmaking and himself.
    Watch a scene from the movie here. 
11. Dancer in the Dark (2000)
    Lars Von Trier directs Björk in this film, where the deep love for all-singing, all-dancing classic musicals is the only light in a rapidly darkening room called life. A Czechoslovakian immigrant in rural America is  losing her vision day by day from a genetic disorder, as if life is not hard enough for her already. The same fate awaits her son unless he undergoes an expensive operation. The musicals she is so fond of never has a tragic ending, so why should her life?

    Watch a trailer for the movie here.

12. Day for Night (La Nuit Américaine)  (1973)
    The unbearable heaviness of being a film director weighs upon this Francois Truffaut masterpiece, while the impossible love for it shines through. A writer-director is doing his best to shoot his latest with an emotionally unstable lead, lothario stunt man, lovelorn production designer and alcoholic crewmembers. Yet he won’t exchange this for anything else in the world.

    Watch a trailer for the movie here.  

Part 2: More shades of Cinephilia: Pioneering, Nostagic, Criminal, Delusional.