Top 10 Films Within Films
By Rob Stevens
10th July 2009

1 Sherlock Jr (Sherlock Jr)
Possibly the oldest example of a film-within-a-film, Buster Keaton’s wonderful meta moment is still the high watermark of the concept. Keaton plays a cinema projectionist, who dreams of being Sherlock Holmes, during a screening of Sherlock Jr he gets to live out all his fantasies as he actually steps into (and is thrown out of) the screen, literally. Dazzling now, let alone in 1924.

2 The Orchid Thief (Adaptation)
Charlie Kaufman loves going down the rabbit hole, and nowhere was that better realised than here. The Orchid Thief is a genuine unremarkable nonfiction book that Kaufman (as carachatured by Nic Cage) is trying to adapt. So it’s a film, written by Charlie Kaufman, about Charlie Kaufman trying to write a film about…Nevermind.

3 Odyssey (Les Mepris)
The French New Wave was a naturally reflexive way of filmmaking, and Godard had a lot of fun with it here. The setting of the film is the filmset of Fritz Lang undertaking Homer’s Odyssey. This gives Godard ample opportunity to not only live out his Lang fantasies, but analyse the role of the artist, as he explores the actual making of a film from the other side of the camera.

4 Stab (Scream 2)
The original Scream was of course a reflexive enough take on the whole slasher subgenre. So where do you go from there? Well you get the cast of the second film to effectively be able to watch the first film, via Stab, a film within a film. In terms of within the story, its effectively a comment on Hollywood making films of actual murders, with plenty of nod-winkery toward the audience.

5 Hail to the Chimp (The Simpsons)
Alright so its not a film within a film, but a film within a TV show, but its still a brilliant moment. On the surface a simple pun, deep down a parody of the idea of presidency. A chimp has been elected President and anyone who disagrees with him gets scratched in the face. “That’s what you get for not hailing to the chimp” notes Homer sagely.

The Simpson's "Hail to the Chimp"

6 The Man Who Killed Don Quixote (Lost in La Mancha)
A bit different from all the other stuff in this list, because well, Lost in La Mancha is a direct documentary about the failure to actually make the Don Quixote film. And boy was it a nightmare. Still out of the films on this list, this is the one that I’d most like to see made – and it seems closer than ever.

7 Don’t (Grindhouse)
The main problem with Death Proof and Planet Terror was encapsulated in the faux-trailers shown before the films. The idea of doing a super-ridiculous Grindhouse movie is really funny when you can do it over a 4 minute trailer, where you can pitch as outrageous an idea as you like (Eli Roth wanted to do “Bear Witness” about a Grizzly put in witness protection) but actually making the film pushes the joke too far. Doesn’t stop the trailers – especially Edgar Wrights Don’t – being hilarious though. 

8 Cock and Bull Story (Cock and Bull Story)
How do you film a book-within-a-book? By doing a film-within-a-film. Of course. Micheal Winterbottom’s film perfectly captures the meandering spirit of the book, by not actually trying to adapt the book, but by showing a folly attempt at trying to adapt the book. If that sounds all very portentous, it needn’t do, because the Steve Coogan/Rob Brydon double act is very, very funny.

9 Good Will Hunting 2 (Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back)
Kevin Smith’s attempt to push his two perfieral characters into the foreground is very messy indeed. But it does have the occasional high-point, including a nod to his friend Ben Affleck’s Oscar win, and a knock at Hollywood’s attempt to make a sequel from anything. Kudos to Gus Van Saant and Matt Damon for mugging up fantastically.

10 Austinpussy (Austin Powers in Goldmember)
Credit for being the only funny joke in the lamentable third Austin Powers film, which opens with a film adaptation of Austin’s life (complete with perfectly-toothed Tom Cruise playing the lead role, and Steven Speilberg in the directors chair). Pity that after this one inventive joke, Mike Myers stuck to what worked in the last ones, again.
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