Movie Magic: The Films That Celebrate Cinema

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Movie Magic: The Films That Celebrate Cinema
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Entering the foyer, getting your ticket checked, deciding on your snacks… whether you call it a cinema or a movie theatre, there is something magical about sitting in a room with a crowd of people and enjoying the latest work of movie wizardry. Every movie-goer has experienced that captivating moment when they looked up at the screen and gasped, coming away with a sense of having been transported to another place, another world. If you know that feeling, you aren’t alone. Most movie makers were once fans just like us, and are eager to tell stories about their love of the silver screen. So, sit back and relax as we take you through the films that capture why going to the movies is still so very special.

By Victoria Luxford

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Movie Magic: The Films That Celebrate Cinema.
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The Fabelmans (2022) – Whether you realise it or not, a lot of the way we enjoy mainstream movies is down to the success of one man: Steven Spielberg. His breakthrough film in the 1970s, Jaws, is considered by many to be the first summer blockbuster as we understand it today, and he perfected many techniques that we associate with great large-scale film. In 2022, he told a very personal story about his younger life in the semi-autobiographical tale of a young man who learns to turn his love of the movies into a career, overcoming issues within his family life. An award-winning drama, every beat of the story hinges around a screening, either of the films young Sonny Fabelman is making, or the ones that inspire him.

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Movie Magic: The Films That Celebrate Cinema.
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The Final Girls (2015) – The horror genre comes with a whole host of conventions and clichés, and a number of movies both celebrate and parody them. This tongue-in-cheek horror comedy gets inside a stereotypical slasher film, as it tells the story of the daughter of a late horror actress who is magically transported into her mother’s most famous film. There’s no time for confusion, however, as she must use her knowledge of the movie to survive. Filled with self-referential gags, what could have been a criticism of horror movies of the past is instead an affectionate ode to what we all love about them.

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Movie Magic: The Films That Celebrate Cinema.
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Save the Cinema (2022) – Movies are worth fighting for, and this warm comedy from Britain shows that this is especially true when the local cinema is a lifeline for a community. Samantha Morton (Minority Report) plays a Welsh hairdresser who turns to an unlikely source when her local cinema faces closure: movie legend Steven Spielberg. Full of pluck and good humour, the energy of the story mirrors Hollywood’s love for a true underdog tale. Incredibly, the tale is also based on real life, making the sentiment even more affecting.

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Movie Magic: The Films That Celebrate Cinema.
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Empire of Light (2022) – No matter how lonely life can get, the movies are always there for us to escape into when the lights go down. That’s the message behind Sam Mendes’ beautiful drama, set in a small seaside town in the 1980s, where the local cinema is facing difficult times. Oscar-winner Olivia Colman plays a long-time employee, Hilary, who passes her passion for the building on to charismatic new recruit Stephen (Michael Ward), just as the venue has a chance at revival with a regional premiere. A sweeping reminder of the majesty the silver screen brings to even the greying corners of life.

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Movie Magic: The Films That Celebrate Cinema.
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The Smallest Show on Earth (1957) – Over half a century before Empire of Light, another British cinema was fighting for its future in this film featuring the king of knockaround comedy, Peter Sellers. He stars alongside an ensemble cast in the story of a couple who inherit an ailing cinema and decide to renovate it when it becomes under threat by a nearby competitor. Any fandom has its eccentricities, and anyone who has been to a local independent cinema will recognise something in the collection of oddballs who make up the cinema’s staff!

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Gremlins (1984) – Joe Dante’s horror-comedy might not be a love letter to filmmaking, aside from its tribute to 1950s B movies. It does, however, have one of the funnier cinema scenes you’ll witness: having gone on a rampage after being let out by teenager Billy (Zach Galligan), one of the final showdowns comes when the legion of gremlins (or Mogwai) find their way to a cinema and are bizarrely subdued by a screening of Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. It’s an irreverent tribute to the power of cinema’s ability to soothe even the most savage monster!

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Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019) – A devotee of the movie-going experience, Quentin Tarantino celebrates Hollywood’s past in the fictional story of a washed-up actor (Leonardo DiCaprio) and a star on the rise (Margot Robbie). So many actors of the 1960s and ‘70s are referenced, but every character has a shared love for the movie business, flocking to the box office to see the latest hit. This is most evident when Robbie’s character, Sharon Tate, heads to a movie theatre to watch her movie debut. Witnessing the audience laughing at her antics as part of a comedy, she quietly enjoys the realisation of her dream.

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Matinee (1993) – One thing we all love about movies is the hype! Today that comes in the form of viral publicity stunts and trending trailers, but in the 1960s, it often took the shape of local towns buzzing with the arrival of an infamous promoter. John Goodman is never better as Lawrence Woolsey, the producer of B movie horror films who drums up interest in his new feature via staged outrage in the backdrop of the Cuban missile crisis. Filled with humour and nostalgia, it’s a tribute to one of the most enjoyable aspects of moviegoing: anticipating it with your friends!

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Singin’ in the Rain (1953) – If you think of images that define what it is to be in the movies, Gene Kelly smiling while hanging onto a lamppost is one of the earliest. A musical journey through the shift from silent film to “talkies”, Kelly leads a cast that explores every part of what makes the movies so exciting: action, love and, of course, making audiences laugh! It’s almost impossible for anyone who’s seen this film to not leave smiling, and sharing the characters’ affection for everything Hollywood stands for.

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The Last Action Hero (1993) – We’ve all wished at one point or another that we could step through the screen and be part of our favourite movie adventures. Released in the early 1990s, at the height of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s fame, this action comedy saw a young boy (Austin O’Brien) transported into the world of action hero Jack Slater (Schwarzenegger) via a magic golden ticket. A lovely fantasy romp which at its heart celebrates how everything seems better in the reel world. It also features one of the most interesting takes on Hamlet you’ll ever see!

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Sherlock Jr (1924) – One of the godfathers of silent cinema, Buster Keaton, takes a similarly themed journey in this classic from the 1920s. He plays a mild-mannered cinema projectionist who dreams about entering the movie screen and becoming “Sherlock Jr”, a great detective. Surreal in parts but also simple enough to just be entertaining, it’s a film that has endured for nearly a century because its themes of love and adventure never go out of fashion, particularly at the movies.

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Movie Magic: The Films That Celebrate Cinema.
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La La Land (2016) – One of the great love stories of modern cinema, La La Land is primarily the story of two dreamers who wish to be among the legends they grew up adoring. One of their biggest connections became Rebel without a Cause, the James Dean classic that Sebastian (Ryan Gosling) can’t believe Mia (Emma Stone) has never seen. So, they go on a date to see it, and create a cinema moment as beautiful as the Golden Age classics that inspired it. As they gaze up at the screen, it’s clear to see why both dreamers would be drawn to the City of Stars.

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The Majestic (2001) – The cinema becomes a symbol for redemption in one of Jim Carrey’s more dramatic movies. He plays a 1950s screenwriter who suffers from amnesia and is taken in by a small town believing him to be a missing war hero. The Majestic, the cinema that gives the film its title, becomes his project as he renovates and reopens the theatre for the town. Filled with sentimentality, it’s a film that reminds us just how much those bright lights can mean for people looking to regain what they’ve lost.

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Ed Wood (1994) – It might sound peculiar to include a film about a man considered the worst director in history, but Tim Burton’s loving tribute to the 1950s horror auteur Ed Wood Jr (Johnny Depp) is the story of a dreamer who wants to emulate the greats. There are many moments where Wood stares up in wonder at the big screen, and even gets a moment with his idol, the great Orson Welles (Vincent D’Onofrio). Depp’s bright-eyed need to see his dreams on the silver screen will resonate with anyone in love with the magic of the movies.

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Movie Magic: The Films That Celebrate Cinema.
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The Disaster Artist (2017) – Another Hollywood eccentric, Tommy Wiseau, came to prominence thanks to his 2003 ‘Disasterpiece’, The Room. This comedy follows the relationship between Wiseau (James Franco) and his leading man, Greg Sestero (Dave Franco), and how a love of James Dean drove them to create a film that would live in infamy for all the wrong reasons. Appreciation for the movies is woven throughout the film, but in particular it’s in the film’s conclusion, where Wiseau realises winning the affection of an audience is a triumph, even if the reaction isn’t what he was expecting.

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The Film Critic (2013) – Anyone who thinks film critics are too mean will get a refreshing dose of revenge in this light-hearted Argentinian comedy. A weary film critic is famous for eviscerating American rom coms, a genre he hates with a passion, until a new love means his life starts to resemble one and makes him believe that he is cursed! It’s an affectionate satire of the serious nature of some film experts, as well as a reminder that movies can be great for how they make us feel, rather than how much they make sense.

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A Useful Life (2010) – What happens when your passion is taken from you? This is the issue faced by manager Jorge (Jorge Jellinek) when the cinema he works for (the real life Cinemateca Uruguaya in Uruguayan capital Montevideo) collapses under financial problems. Pacing around the city, he realises that his purpose and meaning isn’t tied to any one place. This is a film about the love of film, what it means to us, and how absolutely nothing can extinguish that fire as long as we stay true to the reasons we became fans in the first place.

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Movie Magic: The Films That Celebrate Cinema.
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The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985) – A film inspired by another classic on this list, Sherlock Jr, but this time told from the perspective of a female moviegoer. Mia Farrow plays a woman enthralled by an adventurous movie character (Jeff Daniels), only for her personal life to become messy when he steps out of the screen to romance her. A very clever take on our love of movie stars and the characters they embody, as well as the expectations of life we get from the glamorous world of the movies.

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Goodbye, Dragon Inn (2003) – We head to Thailand for this comedy-drama that contemplates the meaning of cinemas in our lives, and what their closing means to those who hold their history in its walls. Fact meets fiction as the film tells the story of a closing cinema showing its last movie, the real life 1960s classic Dragon Inn. We follow the patrons, including real actors from that film, and their various reasons for attending. It’s a story that lets us see how watching the movies can conjure up old memories, and forge new directions in the lives of those watching it.

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Cinema Paradiso (1988) – Arguably the film everyone mentions when talking about a love of the cinema, and maybe one of the best films ever made. There are few tributes to the magic of movies as beautiful or sincere as Giuseppe Tornatore’s tale of Salvatore (Jacques Perrin), a celebrated film director who returns to his hometown to reminisce about the beginnings of his love of film. The most soul-soaring moments come from the simple joy of being in the auditorium with Salvatore – from his early years seeing his passion ignite, to the wonderful closing scene that reminds him of the beauty of storytelling.

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Movie Magic: The Films That Celebrate Cinema

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