The French Lieutenant's Woman?

I have only seen the film...so I don't know if the book was written that way as well.

Really? I don't remember a film being mentioned in The French Lieutenant's Woman. In fact, I'm thinking it was set in a time period before films. Maybe my memory is fogged up.

Angela Carter's Wise Children is set in the theatrical milieu; the two main characters, Dora and Nora, also appear in their famous thespian father's film version of The Midsummer Night's Dream. Part of the novel is set in Hollywood during the making of the film.

Kathy, I was just looking at your link and if you are at the festival on Sunday 4th look out for Night Mail, the famous UK 1936 documentary short produced by the UK GPO film unit. It was written by poet W H Auden with music by Benjamin Britten. Really evocative of a bygone age . . . even before my time!

The only book I can think of is the children's story The Painted Garden by Noel Streatfield (remember 'Ballet Shoes'?) In it the daughter of an English family visiting Hollywood in the late '40's is offered the part of Mary from 'The Secret Garden', because she has such a sulky expression. Lots of detail about film shooting etc. Very glamorous for Post War UK children; all that sunshime and food.

Thanks for the tip, Vee. We have obtained tickets to quite a few films, but not the Sunday morning shorts. However, we still have time to juggle tickets, so we'll put that one on our "short list." -- Kathy

Well, Agatha Christie's The Body in the Library and The Mirror Crack'd have the filming of a movie as "action off," but it doesn't affect the plot much.

The French Lieutenant's Woman is quite a clever film within a film - but the book certainly has no reference to the film at all.

The book has two endings - the film quite cleverly managed to do both endings.

Back to the original question - a film in a book...

Best I can manage is Smokescreen by Dick Francis - the hero of the story is a film actor, and the story has a lot to do with a film called Man in a Car which he is starring in.

But if you mean a real film - I'm stumped.

>I have only seen the film...so I don't know if the book was written that way as well.

Nope - only in the film. And if you haven't read the book, you must do so. The film does it justice, but oh I loved that read.

I'm not sure what you are asking. I can probably come up with books that mention a movie title. Do you mean books about making movies?

Cindy and Martin, Thanks for setting me straight. I remember trying to read the book and not liking it all that much. Maybe I will have to give it a try. Just what I need, another suggested book to read.

Not a real film as far as I know. James Lee Burke's In the Electric Mist with Confederate Dead involves murder at a film location and I can recall Parker's Spenser doing security for a star in one novel.

I'm not sure if this is what you're looking for, but Laughter in the Dark by Nabokov uses a cinema as setting and film as a major part of the beginning of the novel. It's also written in a rather cinematic style.

Murder on the Yellow Brick Road by Stuart M. Kaminsky revolves around the murder of a former Munchkin who is found dead, in full costume, on the set of the movie. Judy Garland calls in the PI who solves the case.

The Ya-Yas in Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood go to a premiere of Gone with the Wind wearing period costumes, all of them ready to shout their disapproval of Vivien Leigh (they think an American actress should have played Scarlett), but all of them end up convinced that Vivien was the perfect Scarlett.

The film:

The film:

Gunfight at the OK Corral

is mentioned in the novel:

A Kind of Loving by Stan Barstow.

Dido

I know there is a novel I read that mentions Rebel Without A Cause but I don't think I could recall it if I sat here all week!

I've just remembered - The Unconsoled by Kazuo Ishiguro has quite a long scene in a cinema where the hero of our story (Ryder) is watching some parallel version of 2001 - A Space Odyssey starring Clint Eastwood and Yul Brynner....

Perks of Being a Wallflower. The teens in this book go to several Rocky Horror Picture Show midnight showingsÂthey get all dressed up and stuff. So great to read that.

Kathy_T, I just noticed the location of your film link. I used to live in Columbia, and it is nice to know that the old Missouri Theatre is still around. A great place to see a film! I have fond memories...

The film festival was wonderful. I managed to take in 8 documentary films. Of the 75 filmmakers represented, 73 attended and made themselves available to answer questions after their film screenings. I listened to directors from Denmark, the Netherlands and Israel, as well as the U.S. Quite fascinating.

Vee - I did not make it to Night Mail as I had five hungry women to feed Sunday morning. But we have an excellent little Indy theater in town that often gives us a second chance at films we missed during the festival. I'll keep an eye on the schedule.

Georgia Peach - How interesting that you once lived in Columbia. Something to do with the University, I would guess? The Missouri Theater is indeed struggling along. A few bits have been beautifully restored, but most of it is quite shabby. However, a tremendous amount of money has been raised and it is scheduled to close soon for a major renovation. We'll have to manage a year without it, but oh it will be a jewel come back to life by June 2008.

All - I'm quite amazed at the number of "films within a book" you are coming up with. I couldn't think of a single one! -- Kathy

The only thing I can think of off the top of my head would be Michael Connelly's books. One of Connelly's books, Blood Work, was made into a movie. Evidently, Connelly was not very happy with the way the movie turned out because in one of the subsequent books, the characters are complaining about the way they were portrayed in the movie.

That's very funny!

I admit that it made me laugh out loud.

Does anyone remember the final film mentioned in Larry McMurty's The Last Picture Show ?

I'm thinking something with John Wayne but I could be confusing the book with the movie.

In The True and Outstanding Adventures of the Hunt Sisters one of the sisters is a movie producer, and she is working on getting a movie produced based on Don Quixote. The movie figures pretty prominently in the plot.