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Films with theme "Films about television", sorted by revenue
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I'll Cry Tomorrow (1955)
, 1h57Directed by Daniel Mann
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Biography, Melodrama
Themes Films about alcoholism, Medical-themed films, Films about music and musicians, Films about drugs, Films about television
Actors Susan Hayward, Richard Conte, Eddie Albert, Margo, Jo Van Fleet, Don Taylor
Eight-year-old Lillian Roth (Carole Ann Campbell) is constantly pushed by her domineering stage mom, Katie (Jo Van Fleet), to audition and act even though she is merely a child. One day, Katie finally secures an opportunity in Chicago, which leads to Lillian, now older (Susan Hayward), to having a successful musical career. Even though 20 years have passed, Katie is still managing Lillian as well as running her life and career choices.
Requiem for a Dream (2000)
, 1h50Directed by Darren Aronofsky
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Thriller, Horror, Crime
Themes Medical-themed films, Films about drugs, Films about sexuality, Films about television, Erotic films, LGBT-related films, Films about prostitution, Films about psychiatry, Films set in psychiatric hospitals, LGBT-related film, Lesbian-related films
Actors Ellen Burstyn, Jared Leto, Jennifer Connelly, Marlon Wayans, Christopher McDonald, Louise Lasser
During the summer in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, elderly widow Sara Goldfarb (Ellen Burstyn) constantly watches television, particularly infomercials hosted by Tappy Tibbons (Christopher McDonald). After receiving an unexpected phone call that she has won a spot to participate on a television game show, she becomes obsessed with regaining the youthful appearance she possesses in an old photograph from her son Harry's (Jared Leto) graduation many years earlier. In order to fit into her old red dress seen in the picture, the favorite one of her deceased husband Seymour, she goes on a crash diet. In order to reach her goal sooner, she goes to a doctor to discuss weight loss. The doctor gives her a prescription for weight-loss amphetamine pills throughout the day and a sedative at night. Harry warns her about amphetamine dependence and risk of life-threatening consequences, but she rebuffs him and insists that the chance to be on television has given her a reason to live. As the months go by, Sara's tolerance for the pills adjust and as a result she is no longer able to feel the same high the pills once gave her. When her invitation has still not arrived, she wrongfully increases her dosage from double to triple and, as a result, begins to suffer from amphetamine psychosis. Soon, her delusions worsen and she is driven to the brink of madness when she suffers a hallucination that she appears on the game show as the principal subject while being attacked by her monstrous, anthropomorphized refrigerator.
The Barefoot Contessa (1954)
, 2h8Directed by Jean-Pierre Mocky, Joseph L. Mankiewicz, Bernard Vorhaus
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Crime, Romance
Themes Films about films, La provence, Films about television
Actors Ava Gardner, Humphrey Bogart, Edmond O'Brien, Olga San Juan, Valentina Cortese, Rossano Brazzi
Down on his luck, veteran movie director and writer Harry Dawes (Humphrey Bogart) is reduced to working for abusive, emotionally stunted business tycoon Kirk Edwards (Warren Stevens), who has decided he wants to produce a film to stroke his monumental ego. Looking for a fresh leading lady, they discover, in a Madrid night club, stunning dancer Maria Vargas (Ava Gardner), a blithe but proud spirit who likes to go barefoot and has a troubled home life.
Rough Cut (2008)
, 1h53Directed by Kim Ki-duk, So Ji-sub, Jang Hoon
Origin Coree du sud
Genres Drama, Action, Crime
Themes Films about television
Actors So Ji-sub, Kang Ji-hwan, Hong Soo-hyun, Ko Chang-seok, Jang Hee-jin, Jung Man-sik
Gang-pae, played by So Ji-sub, is a local organized crime leader who still wishes he could be in movies. Soo-ta, played by Kang Ji-hwan, is a haughty actor who is easy to provoke. Within his latest film, where he plays a gangster, he gets into the role too much and sends one of the stuntmen to the hospital. The two men meet by chance at a room salon and Soo-ta enlists Gang-pae to join the production. But this real life gangster will only join the production if the fights are real. The two main characters continue to try and one-up the other every chance they get.
Singin' in the Rain (1952)
, 1h43Directed by Gene Kelly, Stanley Donen
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Comedy, Musical theatre, Romantic comedy, Musical, Romance
Themes Films about films, Dance films, Films about music and musicians, Films about television, Musical films
Actors Gene Kelly, Donald O'Connor, Debbie Reynolds, Jean Hagen, Millard Mitchell, Cyd Charisse
Don Lockwood (Kelly) is a popular silent film star with humble roots as a singer, dancer and stuntman. Don barely tolerates his vapid, shallow leading lady, Lina Lamont (Hagen), though their studio, Monumental Pictures, links them romantically to increase their popularity. Lina herself is convinced they are in love, despite Don's protestations otherwise.
, 1h28Directed by Pedro Almodóvar
Origin Espagne
Genres Drama, Comedy, Comedy-drama
Themes Feminist films, Medical-themed films, Films about suicide, Films about television, Films about terrorism, Films about psychiatry, Political films
Actors Carmen Maura, Antonio Banderas, Rossy de Palma, Julieta Serrano, María Barranco, Chus Lampreave
The film plot takes its starting point from the French play The Human Voice (La Voix humaine, 1930) by Jean Cocteau where a desperate woman tries to avoid being dumped by her lover through a series of phone calls. In the film TV actress Pepa Marcos (Carmen Maura) is depressed and taking sleeping pills because her boyfriend Iván (Fernando Guillén) has just left her. Both she and Iván work as voice-over actors who dub foreign films, notably Johnny Guitar with Joan Crawford and Sterling Hayden. The voice he uses to sweet-talk her (and many other women) is the same one he uses in his work. He is about to leave on a trip and has asked Pepa to pack his things in a suitcase that he will pick up later.
Hairspray (1988)
, 1h32Directed by John Waters
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Comedy, Romantic comedy, Musical, Romance
Themes Medical-themed films, Films about music and musicians, Obésité, Films about racism, Films about television, Musical films, Films about disabilities
Actors Ricki Lake, Debbie Harry, Sonny Bono, Divine, Jerry Stiller, Leslie Ann Powers
Tracy Turnblad (Ricki Lake) and her best friend, Penny Pingleton (Leslie Ann Powers), audition for The Corny Collins Show, a popular Baltimore teenage dance show based on the real-life Buddy Deane Show. Penny is too nervous and stumbles over her answers, and another girl, Nadine, is cut for being black (there is a 'Negro Day' on the show on the last Thursday of every month, she is told). However, despite being overweight, Tracy is a strong enough dancer to become a regular on the show, infuriating the show's reigning queen, Amber Von Tussle (Colleen Fitzpatrick), a mean, privileged, beautiful high school classmate whose pushy stage parents, Velma (Debbie Harry) and Franklin Von Tussle (Sonny Bono), own Tilted Acres amusement park (based on Baltimore's Gwynn Oak Amusement Park, where racial problems occurred). Tracy steals Amber's boyfriend, Link Larkin (Michael St. Gerard), and competes against her for the title of Miss Auto Show 1963, fueling Amber's hatred of her.
UHF (1989)
, 1h37Origin USA
Genres Drama, Science fiction, Comedy
Themes Films about television
Actors Fran Drescher, Victoria Jackson, David Bowe, Kevin McCarthy, Michael Richards, Anthony Geary
George Newman ("Weird Al" Yankovic) is a Walter Mitty-esque daydreamer whose hyperactive imagination keeps him and his friend Bob (David Bowe) from holding a steady job. George's uncle Harvey Bilchik (Stanley Brock) wins the deed to Channel 62, a UHF television station on the verge of bankruptcy, through gambling in a game of poker, with a couple of sevens ("I was bluffing!"). After prodding by his wife Esther (Sue Ane Langdon), Harvey reluctantly gives control of Channel 62 to George. George and Bob meet the Channel 62 staff which is made up of the receptionist and wannabe reporter Pamela Finklestein (Fran Drescher), dwarf photojournalist and cameraman Noodles MacIntosh (Billy Barty), an unnamed overweight cameraman, (Lou B. Washington), and eccentric engineer Philo (Anthony Geary). George attempts to introduce himself to the rival VHF network station, Channel 8, but its owner, the cynical R. J. Fletcher (Kevin McCarthy), angrily chases him out. On his way out of the station he encounters janitor Stanley Spadowski (Michael Richards), who was recently unjustly fired by Fletcher. George offers him a janitorial job at Channel 62.
Ed Wood (1994)
, 2h7Directed by Tim Burton
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Biography, Comedy, Comedy-drama, Historical
Themes Films about films, Films about sexuality, Films about television, LGBT-related films, Transgender in film, LGBT-related films, LGBT-related film, Cross-dressing in film
Actors Johnny Depp, Martin Landau, Patricia Arquette, Sarah Jessica Parker, Jeffrey Jones, Lisa Marie
In 1952, Ed Wood (Johnny Depp) is struggling to join the film industry. Upon hearing of an announcement in Variety magazine that producer George Weiss (Mike Starr) is trying to purchase Christine Jorgensen's life story, Ed is inspired to meet Weiss in person. Weiss explains that Variety 's announcement was a news leak, and it is impossible to purchase Jorgensen's rights. The producer decides to "fictionalize" the film, titled I Changed My Sex!. Ed tries to convince Weiss that he is perfect to direct I Changed My Sex! because he is a transvestite, but is unsuccessful since Weiss wants a director with experience. One day, Ed meets his longtime idol Bela Lugosi (Martin Landau), after spotting him trying out a casket. Ed drives Bela home and the two become friends. Later, Wood persuades Weiss to let him direct I Changed My Sex! by convincing him that having a star in the film would sell tickets, and they could sign Bela for a low price.
Gable and Lombard (1976)
, 2h11Directed by Sidney J. Furie
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Biography, Romance
Themes Films about television
Actors James Brolin, Jill Clayburgh, Morgan Brittany, Melanie Mayron, Allen Garfield, Red Buttons
The pair meet at a Hollywood party, where rugged leading man Gable eschews evening wear and screwball comedienne Lombard arrives in an ambulance that wrecks his car. They argue. He threatens to spank her. She punches him on the jaw. The two clearly dislike each other, and intensely so, but as fate conspires to bring them together again and again, they begin to admire each other and fall in love.
Delirious (1991)
, 1h32Directed by Tom Mankiewicz
Origin USA
Genres Science fiction, Fantastic, Comedy, Fantasy, Romance
Themes Films about films, Films about television
Actors John Candy, Mariel Hemingway, Emma Samms, David Rasche, Raymond Burr, Dylan Walsh
Jack Gable (Candy) is the New York City-based lead writer and producer of the soap opera "Beyond Our Dreams". Consumed by his work, he harbors an unspoken attraction to Laura Claybourne (Samms), the selfish actress playing the lead character of Rachel Hedison.
For Your Consideration (2006)
, 1h26Directed by Christopher Guest
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Comedy, Musical theatre, Documentary
Themes Films about films, Films about music and musicians, Films about sexuality, Films about television, LGBT-related films, Musical films, LGBT-related films, LGBT-related film, Lesbian-related films
Actors Bob Balaban, Ed Begley Jr., Jennifer Coolidge, Stephen Rannazzisi, Eugene Levy, John Michael Higgins
Character actress Marilyn Hack (O'Hara), despite having been in the industry for 30 years, is best known for playing a blind prostitute in a film from the late 1980s. Victor Allen Miller (Shearer) is also an acting veteran who is known to the public as the hot-dog wearing mascot for a kosher line of frankfurters. Together they are cast in a new low-budget film called Home for Purim as the patriarch and dying matriarch of a Southern U.S. Jewish family in the 1940s.
, 1h31Directed by Robert Butler, Christopher Hibler, Arthur J. Vitarelli
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Science fiction, Comedy, Comic science fiction
Themes Films about education, Films about computing, Films about television, Comedy science fiction films, Children's films
Actors Kurt Russell, Cesar Romero, Joe Flynn, Johnny Flynn, William Schallert, Alan Hewitt
Dexter Reilly (Kurt Russell) and his friends attend small, private Medfield College, which cannot afford to buy a computer. The students persuade wealthy businessman A.J. Arno (Cesar Romero) to donate an old computer to the college. Arno is the secret head of a large illegal gambling ring, which used the computer for its operations.
Medium Cool (1969)
, 1h51Directed by Haskell Wexler
Origin USA
Genres Drama, Documentary
Themes Films about writers, Films about journalists, Films about television, Political films
Actors Robert Forster, Verna Bloom, Peter Bonerz, Marianna Hill, Peter Boyle, Haskell Wexler
John Cassellis is a television news cameraman. In one of the opening scenes, a group of cameramen and journalists are discussing the ethical responsibilities within their profession: When should filming a gruesome scene end and human responsibility to try to save a life begin? As viewers we are presented with issues such as violence as spectacle, political and social discontent, extreme racism, and class divisions. The film is constantly juggling documentary footage with feature film image. Among his sources, Wexler uses footage from military training camps in Illinois for military troops preparing for planned demonstrations by students and anti-war activists during the Democratic National Convention later that summer.
Heartbreak Hotel (1988)
, 1h37Directed by Chris Columbus
Origin USA
Genres Comedy, Musical, Romance
Themes Films about music and musicians, Films about television, Musical films
Actors David Keith, Tuesday Weld, Charlie Schlatter, Angela Goethals, Chris Mulkey, Dana Barron
The story opens on a single mother and her two children, a teenage son and nine-year-old daughter, who run a boarding house. The mother is hurt in a car accident after her drunkard boyfriend crashed, so the son kidnaps her favorite singer, Elvis Presley, for her birthday, getting the owner of a local pizzeria who looks eerily like Elvis' mother to pose as his mother's ghost as a distraction. Elvis awakens, after being drugged by the boy, in the boarding house. Elvis and the boy don't get along at first. The boy has no respect for the 70's Elvis saying that he sold out to Vegas. Through the course of the movie, however, the boy and Elvis get to know each other and develop a friendship. Elvis even plays "Heartbreak Hotel" with the boy's band at a talent show.