In real life writers are admired, but in films they often meet a sticky end
Writing is a lonely art, and as a result films about writers need to be spiced up. Writers onscreen either turn mad or fall for someone unsuitable, then end up dead or emotionally wounded.
Interestingly, two of the creepiest movies about the profession are based on books by bestselling author Stephen King. Any aspiring writer who has seen Misery, the story of a romance novel writer (James Caan) abducted and tortured by his number one fan (Kathy Bates), or The Shining, which charts the transformation of a writer (chillingly played by Jack Nicholson) from a loving dad to an axe-wielding maniac, must surely have been dissuaded from pursuing that career.
A writer in love is another popular approach. Cyrano de Bergerac, the 1990 Academy Award-winning French film starring Gerard Depardieu as a big-nosed Parisian poet, is a classic example. He helps a handsome young man write love letters to the woman he himself loves. It is not until the end of his sad life of unrequited love that he professes his love.
Another romantic movie about writing is Il Postino, the 1994 Italian-language film directed by Michael Radford. The film tells a fictional story about the real-life Chilean poet Pablo Neruda teaching a postman (Massimo Troisi) to win the love of a beautiful lady by using poetry. Swayed by the communist ideals of the poet, the postman dies in a protest march.
In real life, Troisi, who was reported to have postponed a heart surgery so that he could complete the movie, suffered a fatal heart attack shortly after filming was completed.