From Mishima to Chinaski: 7 movies about writers both real and fictional

"Misery"

Drama, Thriller | 4.21 out of 5 on MyShows | 1990

Writer Paul Sheldon gets into an accident on a snowy Colorado road. He is rescued by former nurse Annie Wilkes, who is a big fan of Sheldon's work. She brings him to her remote mountain home so he can recover and wait out the snow storm. As a thank you, Paul offers to read her a draft of the last novel in which he killed off the main character Misery Chastain, not realizing where it would lead.

For this selection, we tried to gather not the most obvious movies, but it's impossible to avoid "Misery". In the novel by Stephen King, on which the film is based, the author explores the anxieties associated with the process of writing books. King created a tense, claustrophobic nightmare, and director Rob Reiner and screenwriter William Goldman masterfully managed to bring it to the big screens.

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"The Words"

Drama, thriller | 3.93 out of 5 on MyShows | 2012

Talented young writer Rory Jensen has finally achieved his long-awaited success with the publication of a masterpiece novel. But there's a catch — he didn't write it. Rory found a long-forgotten manuscript and passed it off as his own. Jensen's popularity is growing by the day, but soon he will have to pay a heavy price for stealing someone else's work and answer the question that haunts him: will he ever be as good a writer as the real author of his novel?

Directors and screenwriters of the movie Brian Klugman and Lee Sternthal grew up in Philadelphia, where they met Bradley Cooper, who played the main role in the film. Along with him in the project starred Olivia Wilde, Zoe Saldana, Jeremy Irons, and Ben Barnes.

"Beautiful movie, watched it in one breath. The cast is great", — Varyast.

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"Swimming Pool"

Crime, thriller | 3.77 out of 5 on MyShows | 2003

François Ozon's psychological thriller tells the story of famous British writer Sarah Morton. Tired of London, she travels to France to the home of her publisher to find inspiration and finish a novel. Arriving, Sarah is delighted to find that the quiet countryside and the leisurely pace of life are just right for the work. But Sarah's personal life and the events of her new novel are unexpectedly mixed when Julie, the liberated daughter of a publisher, shows up at her door.

Ozon called the image of Sarah his self-portrait: "I wanted to tell of my way of working and my process of creation. I had the idea of telling this through the character of an English writer, where I could talk about something very intimate, while still hiding myself".

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"Through a Glass Darkly" / Såsom i en spegel

Drama | 4 out of 5 on MyShows | 1961

Ingmar Bergman's movie is about Karin, recently released from a psychiatric hospital, who returns home to her family — her husband, younger brother and widowed father. The movie explores themes of religion and God, as well as parent-child relationships. This includes the relationship between David's estranged writer father and his daughter Karin, who discovers that David wants to use her mental illness as the subject of a new novel.

Some critics see this plot branch of the film as Bergman's reflection on his own tendency to use other people's experiences in his works and exploit their lives for the sake of art.

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"Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters"

Drama | 3.5 out of 5 on MyShows | 1985

A biopic about Japanese writer Yukio Mishima. The film begins on November 25, 1970, the last day in Mishima's life. After finishing his manuscript, he and four associates go to a Japanese Self-Defense Forces ground base to stage a coup d'état. Along the way, Mishima recalls his own life, from his painful youth to becoming one of Japan's most famous postwar writers.

Producers of the picture were Francis Ford Coppola and George Luca, and the production was handled by Paul Schrader — screenwriter of "Taxi Driver" and "Raging Bull" by Martin Scorsese. In "Mishima", Schrader also explores issues of militarism and masculinity, weaving theatrical scenes from three of the writer's novels into the narrative framework of the film.

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"Buckthorn Summer"

Drama | 4.18 out of 5 on MyShows | 2018

Alexander Vampilov, a young and talented playwright, writes honest plays about ordinary people and their problems, but this does not suit the Soviet regime. Vampilov can never find a sense of calm and escape from the closed circle of stuffy offices until he comes to Baikal, not yet suspecting that he will stay here forever.

Biographical drama about the great Alexander Vampilov — author of the plays "Duck Hunt" and "The Eldest Son". His role is played by Andrei Merzlikin ("Hello again!", "Bumer"), and put the picture Victor Alferov — director of the theater "Practice".

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"Barfly"

Drama, comedy, romance | 4 out of 5 on MyShows | 1987

The movie is about Henry Chinaski (played by Mickey Rourke) who spends his days drinking, listening to the radio, and street fighting. Sometimes he even finds time to write a poem or a short story.

A screen adaptation of Charles Bukowski's autobiographical novel, filmed from his own script. By the way, the writer himself appeared in the movie in a small cameo — he played a visitor to the bar Kenmore.

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