MovieChat Forums > In a Lonely Place Discussion > meta-movie

meta-movie

posted 19 years ago by bethepinkdrink
18 replies | jump to latest

In a Lonely Place works as a movie about movies in a similar way as, say, Barton Fink or Contempt does. I mean this generally of course.

This settings opens up a fertile artistic landscape in which Ray (and others) can explore themes that deal with art itself (as cinema, or screen-writing, etc), and also to critique the hollywood environment as well. For me, these types of films are some of my favorites, as they seem virtually inexhaustable of meaning and subtlties.

My question is: What other movies, both earlier or later in the history of cinema, act similarly? I mentioned two films above, but there are tons more. Any ideas? Thanks

[–] paulo_luz 19 years ago

The first one that comes to mind is the Sunset Boulevard. Also an excellent picture.

[–] krasnegar 18 years ago

Ummm -- "Day for Night"?

[–] LynchNut77 19 years ago

There's also The Bad and the Beautiful with Kirk Douglas.

[–] exiled72 19 years ago

check out Fellini's "8 1/2"
with regards to movies made about movies - it is amazing...

[–] CornishHawk 18 years ago

The grapefruit scene is great. Pointing out that the best love scenes are ones where the characters don't just say "I love you". When Steele says that the worst love scenes are the ones where the dialogue makes it over obvious and then pointing out that we, the viewer, are watching a love scene is such a great in joke because she doesn't love him, or at least not enough to stay with him.
This was the first scene that made it clear to me what was coming.

[–] BitJam 18 years ago

Of course she loves him. The movie as a whole, and the ending in particular would be pointless if she didn't love him.

She makes it clear that she would have stayed with him if he was cleared of the murder before he tried to kill her.

[–] Goodbye_Ruby_Tuesday 17 years ago

To add to the ending, there was actually a moment that you can see in the trailer for the film but isn't in the final print: as Laurel says something like, "Yesterday this would've meant so much to us. Now it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter at all," Dix starts to leave. In the "lost moment", Laurel yells Dix's name, runs to them and they have one last embrace before Dix descends to the same place where the title suggests. I think that this further shows that she does, and probably still will in her own way, love him. And as BitJam said, if she didn't love him, the movie wouldn't matter.

Did he train you? Did he rehearse you? Did he tell you exactly what to do, what to say?!

[–] bruce-129 17 years ago

this is what is so great about the tension in this movie, how tangled it is.

because it is a movie, we want the romance to succeed.
because it is bogie, we don't want to give up on him.
because we do not know he is innocent, we wonder, is he guilty.
we love laurel, gloria grahame because she loved bogie and is so beautifule and nice.
we hate bogie because he goes nuts all the time.
bogie did send money to the guy he beat up for the paint job.
he does say he is sorry, but he seems unaware and mostly selfish.

this movie is brilliant in the way it fractures our motivations for the characters until we do not know what to think. i realized it was a tragedy when bogie hit the buy and almost killed him ... it was just a matter of playing it to the sad conclusion even as we would like some way of fixing it.

[–] ndrwdyng71 18 years ago

I agree that it's a meta-movie, but in a way that you haven't even mentioned.

True, it's a movie about movies. But it's also a commentary on the tough-talking, cool, cynical icon that Humphrey Bogart had created for himself in other movies. This movie takes on the whole Bogey mythos and shows its ragged edges, and the darkness that the icon conceals. It's really ahead of its time--most movies didn't take on a critique of Hollywood conventions until around the 70s.

Another movie that's ahead of its time in this way is John Ford's THE SEARCHERS, which began to unmask the Hollywood Western long before MCCABE AND MRS. MILLER or THE WILD BUNCH. Which is really amazing, when you consider that John Ford is essentially showing you the dark underbelly of the conventions he helped to create, and that John Wayne is unmasking his own iconic status.

[–] Irving-Joey 18 years ago

I agree with that point about The Searchers, which is coincidentally one of my favorite movies of all time. The Misfits, with Clark Gable, Marilyn Monroe and Montgomery Clift, is another western about the death of the Old West as shown in the movies, that shows cowboys struggling with a fading way of life that was fast becoming obsolete.

In a Lonely Place works on several different layers because it incorporates all these other intriguing subtexts into the mix. The deliberately sappy line in Dix's trashy romance screenplay --- "I was born when she kissed me, I died when she left me, I lived a few weeks while she loved me" --- takes on a cynical, ironic resonance given the dark situation of the two failed lovers in the movie.

[–] armchairathelete 18 years ago

I always interpreted those lines to refer Gloria Grahame (by inference) as the 'muse'she may represent in the film, and describe the painful 'birth' of a creative project. Were it not so.

I STILL love the movie and have to say it's one of my very favorites of his. Also like the one with Barbara Stanwyck (is that Suspicion?)

[–] 18 years ago

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[–] 18 years ago

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[–] daybeausweeper 15 years ago

Back to the topic of meta-movies, Singin' In The Rain and, to a much lesser extent, The Rocketeer make comments on movie-making; though, they are not usually viewed as contributing serious insights.

[–] 15 years ago

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[–] IFeedPigeons 13 years ago

a11111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111ww

^ Just thought I'd leave that in. While I went to double check the year of the movie I mention below, my bird was sitting on my keyboard, and "typed" the above! I love him so much!!!!

OK, the movie-about-the-movies that I recommend is "The Day of the Locust" from 1975. The novel, by Nathaniel West, is great too. VERY depressing, however. The ending is nuts!

[–] liscarkat (17028) 7 months ago

Reading that twelve years later, I reflect sadly that the bird has probably passed away by now.

[–] 13 years ago

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