Best movies like Big Star

Italian immigrant Rudolph Valentino makes it big in silent Hollywood, but he ends up struggling between his career and the woman he loves.

The life and career of comedian Rose Marie is documented through interviews with friends and colleagues as well as never-before-seen home movies shot by the actress herself.

An egocentric artillery captain and his venomous wife engage in savage unremitting battles in their isolated island fortress of the coast of Sweden at the turn of the century. Alice, a former actress who sacrificed her career for secluded military life with Edgar, reveals on the occasion of their 25th wedding anniversary, the veritable hell their marriage has been. Edgar, an aging schizoid who refuses to acknowledge his severe illness, struggles to sustain his ferocity and arrogance with an animal disregard for other people.

Tommy and Gary are criminals engaging in grand thefts in order to make ends meet. They are opportunists and have no fear. After a routine robbery goes awry, the friends are forced to put their criminal activity behind them. As Tommy's relationship flourishes with his new girlfriend Scarlet, his economic hardships become obvious. Scarlet soon proposes a notion that will make all their money troubles vanish - the heist of a half a million dollar painting. With just a short window of opportunity, Tommy and Gary design an ambitious plan, one that will ultimately determine their fate.

A motley crew of aspiring performers come under the guidance of an eccentric and volatile acting coach.

Funloving Pearl White, working in a garment sweatshop, gets her big chance when she "opens" for a delayed Shakespeare play...with a comic vaudeville performance. Her brief stage career leads her into those "horrible" moving pictures, where she comes to love the chaotic world of silent movies, becoming queen of the serials. But the consequences of movie stardom may be more than her leading man can take

in the summer of 1966, in Beloeil, Québec, where a young girl named Élise is enjoying summer vacation. Summer 1966. It's time to enjoy the summer holiday, total freedom. Suddenly her mother leaves her family to pursue her journalism career in London. Her urge to leave is triggered when she coincidentally listens in on a conversation between her husband and his male lover. Her brother Coco seeks solace in the garage, building a super racing car. Her youngest brother Benoît throws himself into his own inner world. The father seems absolutely knocked out by the situation. Élise decides to take control of her family, in an eloquent attempt to save them. With the assistance of flourishing nature around her, she stands on the threshold of an incomparable summer.

This film is about Japanese women, escape, glamour and dreams. The Takarazuka Revue is an enormously successful spectacular where the all-women cast create fantasies of erotic love and sensitive men. It is also a world for young girls desperate to do something different with their lives. In return for living a highly disciplined and reclusive existence, they will be adored and envied by many thousands of Japanese women. They will look, act and behave like young men while having no real men in their lives. Dream Girls explores the nature of sexual identity and the contradictory tensions that face young women in Japan today.

Public Sex, Private Lives is an intimate look at the professional and private lives of porn performers Lorelei Lee, Princess Donna, and Isis Love. Capturing moments of joy and struggle, this film follows the characters as they navigate their lives as artists, daughters, mothers, writers, and women who have made careers in the adult industry. Asked to defend their choices to their families, communities, and even the United States Government, these women share their unique motivations and shifting visions for the future.

Three sisters come to Hollywood to be movie stars. Complications arise when two of them fall in love with the same man.

A television producer decides to find out the whereabouts of a former movie actress whose career has long since faded, then discovers that his inquiries have set off a string of murders.

In 1995, at the urging of her then-husband, an Oklahoma housewife submitted a topless photo of herself to a men's magazine, thus launching her phenomenal career as porn star Stacy Valentine. In this eye-opening and refreshingly even-handed film, Valentine candidly discusses the inner-workings and occupational hazards of the adult entertainment world, touching on the glamour -- and frequent emptiness -- of life in "the business."

Mostly Sunny is a documentary that tells the remarkable story of Sunny Leone, the Canadian-born, American-bred adult film star who is pursuing her dreams of Bollywood stardom.

Out of hit ideas and seemingly in the twilight of his career, Broadway producer Russ Ward decides to give up the game. But when Russ lays off his nubile secretary, Ellie Brown, she shocks him with a declaration of love. Inspired, Ward commands playwright MacDonald to rewrite his latest show as a May-December romance starring Brown herself. Ward struggles to make a comeback as his ex-wife, Kathryn, plots to end his new relationship.

Hollywood stuntman falls in love with a big name actress but still wants to pursue his risky career. The women gives him a choice-the stunts or her. He chooses the stunts and still manages to get her.

After claiming countless lives, the fairies won the great battle with the demons. However, the leader of their Kunlun sect Yu Qingzi died for his young apprentice Xiao He. 500 tranquil years later, Xiao He finds himself face to face with a resurrected Yu Qingzi.

A biopic on singer Céline Dion.

Behind the headlines... Behind the laughter... there's an unforgettable story you've never heard before.

A tutor recounts a frantic night that culminated in a 16-year old girl's disappearance. Unfolding in front of a video camera direct from a psychiatric ward, Gaby Winters (Jennifer Morrison) recalls a dreadful babysitting job that sent her on a frantic search for a missing teenager out into the heart of a mysterious city. Woven into the story are a multitude of subplots that add up to one chaotic night that Gaby will never forget.

DEAR SANTA, I NEED A DATE tells the comedic story of two successful and ambitious siblings Janelle Vaughn (Gomez-Preston) and Jason Vaughn (Ray J). Their parents, Mr. Vaughn (Jay DeVon Johnson) and Mrs. Vaughn (Johnson), are proud of their children’s flourishing careers but are displeased with their dating lives. Every holiday season, the Vaughn’s anxiously prepare for their children to bring home a significant other only to be disappointed. This year, The Vaughn’s apply pressure by expressing their concerns to Jason and Janelle, which sparks a bet between the siblings on who can find a date by Christmas.

Actress Sally Field looks at the dramatic life and successful career of the superb actress Barbara Stanwyck (1907-90), a Hollywood legend.

Following the life of Marlene Dietrich through her films (including home movies) and interviews with family, friends, co-workers, acquaintances, and presumed lovers. From the cabaret scene in 1920's Berlin, silent films in Germany, her triumph in _The Blue Angel_ in 1930 (for which her screen test is included in this film), to Hollywood with Josef von Sternberg. The highest paid female star of her time, the luster dimmed by 1935. and in the later part of the decade she might be the most valuable actress in the world but also the most unemployable. But with _Destry Rides Again_ Marlene became a sex symbol who could play comedy and the most remarkable comeback in Hollywood was a reality. She was one of the most active entertainers of the allied troops during WW II. After the war movies were infrequent, but a new career on the stage continued for another 20 years, until she retired into seclusion for the last decade of her life.

Director Robert Parrish's 1955 drama, spanning many years, stars Jane Wyman as a spirited western shopkeeper who watches as her small store flourishes and grows into a hugely profitable business empire. The cast also includes Charlton Heston, Claire Trevor, Thelma Ritter, William Demarest and Wallace Ford.

A struggling actress contemplates becoming a nude centerfold hoping that it will jump-start her career, but begins to have second thoughts when she meets some of the people who run the business.

Denny Traynor has the idyllic life a loving wife and family, a flourishing career. Seems like life is perfect until some policemen from another break into their home one night and arrest him for a twenty year old murder. Initially, Denny denies the accusations made against him but when evidence is presented that implicates him, he is then extradited to stand trial. When his wife, whose faith has been shaken asks him what happened, he tells her that he did kill the man they said he killed but in self-defense. However, when there is no evidence that supports his claim, his wife wonders if he has told her the truth, and if she should continue to support him.

Two singers step in to help an aspiring actress whose grandmother opposes her bid to launch a show-business career

Joan Terry, from Kansas City, comes to New York to get a job on the stage. But until she finds an opportunity, she stays at a boarding house where other talent is also waiting. To get a better chance, the people there decide to build a talent pool, where the person with the most chances for a job gets the full support, trying to get jobs for the others there too - and Joan is chosen to do that. But this is not so easy when her fiance is trying to keep her away from the stage...

Binkie Stuart, a child star whose career briefly flourished before the outbreak of war in 1939, takes the titular role in this heart-warming musical charting the adventures of a little orphan girl in the difficult days of pre-war Ireland. Starring alongside Hollywood siren Maureen O Hara in an early role, Britain's answer to Shirley Temple plays a spirited young girl left in the clutches of a cruel guardian aunt.

Aboard a passenger train enroute from Los Angeles to Chicago, a Christian movie actress named Mary meets an elderly woman and openly shares the struggles of her career and young faith. To her surprise, the lady next to her is 85-year-old Lettie Cowman, the author of the most beloved devotional of all time, Streams in the Desert. As the two women converse, Lettie reflects on the experiences and heartbreak that inspired her to write her famous book. As a girl growing up in small-town Iowa, Lettie falls in love with Charles Cowman, a telegraph operator at the Western Union office. A job promotion prompts them to move to a mining town in Colorado after marriage. However, Lettie soon becomes deathly ill, leading Charles to make a vow of service to the Lord that will change both of their lives forever.

In a sleepy coastal village a curse lies waiting. Legend has it one night centuries ago when a smuggler was delivering his illicit wares, the excise men pounced. One of the villagers had betrayed him. The smuggler was caught and quickly hanged as an example but, his widow was more than she seemed, the practitioner of an ancient religion of magic and sorcery. The villagers formed a mob to hunt her down as a witch, they brutalised her, tarred and feathered her, but before they could kill her she put one last curse upon the land; that nothing should flourish, no life or love, before taking her own life and spilling her blood upon the land.

Abbey Grace wants nothing more than to find her place in the world as she flourishes into a beautiful young woman. There's just one problem she's the daughter of a notorious serial killer, and the whole world knows it. As she struggles to break from her father's shadow, Abbey finds romance in the unlikeliest of places in this twisted, dark comedic tale that proves love knows no bounds.

In her own words, through personal video and diaries, Pamela Anderson shares the story of her rise to fame, rocky romances and infamous sex tape scandal.

When a sexual assault occurs on a film set during the filming of a sex scene, an actress must choose whether to pursue accusations or complete the film that could start her career.

This documentary traces the life and work of the legendary "America's Sweetheart" Mary Pickford, silent film star, movie pioneer and keen businesswoman. Pickford's life also parallels an even larger story, telling of the birth of the cinema itself.

Mark and Andrew are two disabled men. When they meet, an incredible attraction between them emerges but it can only flourish as a "mental construct". What they have is a virtual kind of love, a fantasy, but also the awareness that nothing will ever be the same again.