Mixtape Movies #2

As I stated yesterday, there'll be several entries for Andy's blogathon on this blog. This is only another entry amid a short list.

Anyway, the theme for this one is "The Cost of Fame". We've all heard of and encountered those who want to become famous. (Hell, sometimes even we're such a person.) But what happens to those once they've gotten famous? Do they stay there or do they crash and burn? The list starts after the jump.

A Face in the Crowd (Kazan, 1957)

Man, what a hell of a debut for Andy Griffith. (He definitely isn't Andy Taylor here.) It just goes to show you that letting success go to your head is a very, very bad thing.

Network (Lumet, 1976)

This isn't just about the news anchor on the verge of madness. Network is also about the greedy network executives, straining to get their shows in the top ratings. (It's scary as to how much it relates to the present time as well.)

All That Jazz (Fosse, 1979)

What's more shocking: seeing Joe Gideon (Roy Scheider) wither away, or knowing that director Bob Fosse (whom Gideon is an expy of) endured a similar fate as him eight years later?

Boogie Nights (Anderson, 1997)

Another example of fame going straight to one's head in the worst way possible. Oh, vanity. Thou art a cruel mistress.

Control (Corbijn, 2007)

A number of musicians have gotten famous at a young age. Even more have self-destructed around the same time. Joy Division frontman Ian Curtis (Sam Riley) was no different.

And the wildcard is...

Quiz Show (Redford, 1994)

I say this film because the film focused on a TV game show that quizzed people on miscellaneous facts. Had Charles Van Doren (a fantastic Ralph Fiennes) not been given the answers beforehand, he would've been known for his intelligence rather than his lying to millions of viewers.

Okay, only a few more to go. Bear with me.