Film à clef
A film à clef or film à clé ([film‿a kle], French for "film with a key"), is a film describing real life, behind a façade of fiction.[1] "Key" in this context means a table one can use to swap out the names. It is the film equivalent of the roman à clef.
Notable films à clef
- 8½ is based on Federico Fellini's experience suffering from "director's block."
- Annie Hall, believed to be a version of Woody Allen's own relationship with Diane Keaton. Allen has denied this in interviews, however.
- Citizen Kane, a thinly disguised biographical film about William Randolph Hearst.
- The Celebration was based on an alleged real-life story that director Thomas Vinterberg heard on Danish radio.
- Magnolia, is loosely inspired by Paul Thomas Anderson's experience in dealing with his father's death from cancer.
- Adaptation.; while parts of the film are adapted from Susan Orlean's non-fiction book The Orchid Thief, most of the film is a heavily fictionalized account of Charlie Kaufman's difficulty in adapting the book into a screenplay.
- The Last Samurai, inspired by the 1876 Satsuma Rebellion and also on the story of Jules Brunet, a French army captain who fought in the Boshin War.
- Lost in Translation; Charlotte and John are believed to be based loosely on writer-director Sofia Coppola and her ex-husband, Spike Jonze.
- The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, which features a protagonist based loosely on Jacques-Yves Cousteau.
- Dreamgirls, the musical film based on the career of The Supremes.
- Last Days (2005), a barely concealed dramatization of Kurt Cobain's final days.
- I'm Not There, a series of stories loosely inspired by the life of Bob Dylan. While some segments are more literal interpretations of parts of Dylan's life (such as the segment featuring Cate Blanchett), others are heavily fictionalized accounts inspired by Dylan's music (such as the segment featuring Richard Gere).
- Alpha Dog, based on the story of Jesse James Hollywood and the murder of Nicholas Markowitz.
See also
References