The best films about filmmaking

With its iconic monster ape and special effects, the 1933 version of "King Kong" was a milestone in film history. Many remakes were to follow, including the 2005 version by Peter Jackson (photo). A love story and a thriller, the movie also follows a film team traveling to Skull Island, where they find the colossal ape.

This silent film comedy from 1924 is presumably the first film to bring viewers behind the scenes of a movie. "Sherlock Jr." is the story of Buster, a film projectionist who dreams he is part of a movie in which he is a master detective who solves a case and wins a girl's love. Back in real life, Buster imitates his movie hero. "Sherlock Jr." is regarded as one of Keaton's most important works.

This 1952 movie is all about Hollywood actors in the 1920s who had to learn the ropes again after sound film replaced silent films. Suddenly, they had to speak, and even big names waned. "Singin' in the Rain" with Gene Kelly (pictured) and Debbie Reynolds in legendary song and dance sequences is also a tribute to musical films.

This French film from 2011 is an homage to the silent film era and a declaration of love to filmmaking. It was shot in black and white, using intertitles and not much dialogue. Here, too, actors are in transition to sound film. In 2012, "The Artist" won five Oscars and three Golden Globes - just to name a few of the prizes.

In this drama from 1950, director Billy Wilder tells the story of the unsuccessful filmmaker Joe Gillis (William Holden, right) and of the forgotten actress Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson). The result is a merciless portrait of the so-called dream factory - Hollywood. Wilder avoided revealing the plot to his producers as long as he could, as he expected they would try to soften his tone.

Jean-Luc Godard also portrayed Hollywood and the commercialization of cinema in "Le Mépris" (1963). Brigitte Bardot (pictured left) plays the wife of screenwriter Paul Javal (Michel Piccoli). Godard celebrated his passion for films and the art of making them in this French-Italian production.

In 1994, Tim Burton shot this black-and-white biopic featuring Hollywood in the 1950s and filmmaker Ed Wood (Johnny Depp, bottom right). Wood was an admirer of Orson Welles, but he didn't quite have the same talent. He nevertheless went on making many low-budget B-movies, with some featuring fading film star Bela Lugosi. Martin Landau's interpretation of Lugosi in the Burton film won him an Oscar.

Filmmaker Friedrich Munro's production faces financial problems in Wim Wenders' movie "The State of Things" (1982). When payments expected from Los Angeles don't come in, Munro (Patrick Bauchau) travels there himself. In his movie, Wenders built in many references to other films or filmmakers, such as Friedrich Murnau and Fritz Lang.

David Mamet's comedy "State and Main" (2000) is the story of a chaotic film production: A film crew is in Vermont to shoot "The Old Mill." Once they get there, they realize that the town no longer has a mill. The lead actress suddenly wants way more money for her role, the screenwriter is paralyzed by writer's block, and the leading actor flirts with a local teen (Julia Stiles, pictured).

The film '8 1/2' is centered on director Guido Anselmi (played by Marcello Mastroianni), who's struggling with creative block. Italian master Federico Fellini built in his own problems as a filmmaker in this classic from 1963. Claudia Cardinale (pictured) plays the role of the ideal woman. The movie won two Oscars in 1964 and remains one of the most celebrated movies about filmmaking.

"Boogie Nights" tells the story of the rise and fall of porn film star Dirk Diggler (Mark Wahlberg, left), chronicling the Golden Age of Porn in the 1970s and its decline in the early 80s. Paul Thomas Anderson's movie, with Burt Reynolds (right) as a porn filmmaker, is also a portrait of people reaching out for their dreams. It obtained two Oscar nominations in 1998.

This movie focuses on the problem-solving producer Eddie Mannix, who has to find out what happened to Baird Whitlock (George Clooney, pictured), a lead star who vanishes from the set of a Roman epic production. This 2016 comedy by Ethan and Joel Coen celebrates Hollywood in the 1950s, a transitional period for the film industry, then threatened by the competition of early television.