Clearly then, film is a vain art, and some of the most familiar movies are those that take an inward-look at the history and process of movie-making. Less explored, though no less important, are the films that tell us something about film itself: what it is, what it can do and what it can reveal to us. The films in this list offer a commentary on the meaning of film's own apparatus. They explore cinema's relationship with history; some tell us about how film mirrors human desire; others, about how it mirrors identity. Memory is a consistent theme throughout this list, as is the relativity of truth.
Here are ten films, each that use the medium in some way to make a bold commentary about what film is and what it can do. Some are more overtly 'meta' than others, whereas others were perhaps not made with these allegoric meanings in mind, instead having them thrust upon them in the years following the film's release.
