Weird Beloved Films of Respected Directors

[caley]

Inspired by jae bringin up Stanley Kubrick's love of 'White Men Can't Jump'.

 

And it reminded me of this quote from Seth Rogen about Terrence Malick: "“And [Director David Gordon Green] said to me the other day, ‘Guess what Terrence Malick’s favorite movie of the last 10 years is?’” Okay, what? “Zoolander! He knows every word, watches it every week. Which just goes to show, you never can predict these things.”

 

Then, looking up the 'Creature From the Black Lagoon' IMDB page has this tidbit: "Ingmar Bergman watched this film every year on his birthday." inspired me to look around and see if there any other good ones.

 

Paul Thomas Anderson is, apparently, a big fan of 'Heavyweights'.  Per Judd Apatow: "For a few years [he and Anderson] had the same agent, and he told me he was a big fan of 'Heavyweights'.  He was working with Adam [sandler] on 'Punch Drunk Love'.  And it was a great point of pride for me.

 

Also, Quentin Tarantino loves 'Money Talks', while Roman Polanski loves 'Rush Hour'.

 

BTW, I'm not passing judgement on any of these films, it's just funny, I love it that they profess a love for something that goes against the norm instead of sticking to stuff that everyone loves like 'Citizen Kane' or 'Dr. Strangelove'.  

 

Anyone got any other good ones?!

[odessasteps]

Given QT's love of grindhouse, kung fu and blaxploitation movies, he almost should be DQ from this discussion.

[caley]

Given QT's love of grindhouse, kung fu and blaxploitation movies, he almost should be DQ from this discussion.

Though that wouldn't be really bizarre choices, given his MO.  But, 'Money Talks'...

[Swift]

For unusual choices from Tarantino, I've seen him mention Dogville, Lost In Translation, His Girl Friday and Bad News Bears.

 

But then, he always has eclectic end of year lists - 2010, for a random example...

 

1. Toy Story 3, 2. The Social Network, 3. Animal Kingdom, 4. I Am Love, 5. Tangled , 6. True Grit, 7. The Town, 8. Greenberg, 9. Cyrus, 10. Enter The Void (“Hands down best credit scene of the year … Maybe best credit scene of the decade. One of the greatest in cinema history.” – QT), 11. Kick Ass.

12. Knight and Day, 13. Get Him To The Greek, 14. The Fighter, 15. The Kings Speech, 16. The Kids Are All Right, 17. How To Train Your Dragon, 18. Robin Hood, 19. Amer, 20. Jackass 3-D 

 

Knight And Day???

[Swift]

An interesting piece on Kubrick's viewing habits - http://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/sight-sound-magazine/polls-surveys/stanley-kubrick-cinephile

[jaedmc]

The Terrence Mallick/Zoolander is no joke either. He curated a small program of three or four films recently and the main event was Zoolander.

 

It's kind of the opposite of what you're talking about, but I LOVE looking over Roger Corman's Top 10 Criterion flicks: http://www.criterion.com/explore/201-roger-corman-s-top-10 Love that the guy who directed all this amazingly awesome schlock likes L'Aventura.

 

David O Russel included Groundhog's Day on his Sight and Sound Top 10 films of all time list.

[Craig H]

Not a director, and not a movie, but I always get a kick out of Patrick Stewart's love of Beavis and Butthead. I think he called it one of the most brilliant works of satire of the 20th century.

[Death From Above]

Not a director, and not a movie, but I always get a kick out of Patrick Stewart's love of Beavis and Butthead. I think he called it one of the most brilliant works of satire of the 20th century.

 

I had no idea about this but that's a thousand kinds of great.

[caley]

Not a director, and not a movie, but I always get a kick out of Patrick Stewart's love of Beavis and Butthead. I think he called it one of the most brilliant works of satire of the 20th century.

He's not wrong.

[Craig H]

You're right about that. It almost feels like validation.

[J.T.]

According to Mark Twain, B&B is the highest form of satire because it is most beloved by the kind of people it is making fun of.

 

It serves as a warning claxon for the rest of civilized society.  If you are watching B&B with friends and one of them says, "Hey, I set fire to my sofa once, too!", you should probably stop associating with that person.

[jaedmc]

I was listening to an interview with Robert K Elder who wrote two books in which he interviews film makers about important movies to them. Something he noted was that there are many directors consider RAISING ARIZONA as a higly influential film. I love that movie and it's certainly one of my favorites, but it's fascinating to see people list it over a more obvious choice like FARGO.

Spike Lee recently released his list he considers essential films for filmmakers. He gives it out on the first day of class. While some filmmakers get mutliple films(Hitchcock, Kurosawa, etc.) There is only one by the Coens - RAISING ARIZONA.

http://www.indiewire.com/article/spike-lees-list-of-films-all-aspiring-filmmakers-must-see

[Jingus]

It's kind of the opposite of what you're talking about, but I LOVE looking over Roger Corman's Top 10 Criterion flicks: http://www.criterion.com/explore/201-roger-corman-s-top-10 Love that the guy who directed all this amazingly awesome schlock likes L'Aventura.

 

Corman's an interesting case because he's mostly known for his total Z-grade crap, but he's produced his fair share of startlingly ambitious artistic works.  Didya ever see his The Masque of the Red Death?  That shit's practically an American version of The Seventh Seal.  He did social commentary films like The Intruder, in which William Shatner plays a manipulative demagogue who uses racist rhetoric to inflame a small town against the local black population. He did a whole bunch of counterculture movies in the late 60s and early 70s, like The Trip which is literally a feature-length depiction of the inside of Peter Fonda's head while he's tripping on acid.  Also in the 70s he got into distributing high-class foreign stuff in America:Roger Corman is the reason why you've seen Cries and Whispers.

[Johnny Sorrow]

Raising Arizona is better than Fargo is the answer.

[Victator]

I first saw Raising Arizona when I was eight and I loved it, I love it more with each viewing. 

[jaedmc]

 

It's kind of the opposite of what you're talking about, but I LOVE looking over Roger Corman's Top 10 Criterion flicks: http://www.criterion.com/explore/201-roger-corman-s-top-10 Love that the guy who directed all this amazingly awesome schlock likes L'Aventura.

 

  Didya ever see his The Masque of the Red Death?  That shit's practically an American version of The Seventh Seal.  

I think I voted for it in the 60's poll. I probably could have included all the Poe/Corman movies. Masque of the Red Death is really damn good, and features some wild sequences and sets. I'm also a huge fan of The Pit and The Pendulum.

 

 

I first saw Raising Arizona when I was eight and I loved it, I love it more with each viewing. 

I'm sure I was the same way. When I was a kid, it was probably the first Coen Brothers film I ever saw, and its madness was blowing my mind. I remember John Goodman yelling for what felt like an eternity and thinking this shit is crazy I LOVE IT. I think there's a lot of filmmakers of our generation who are the same way, who saw it when they were kids and it just opened the door the Coen oeuvre. I think Hudsucker Proxy was one of the first time that I knew who the director just by the style and not through the credits. I stumbled up on it late one night and I thought, "holy shit this has to be by the same guys who did Raising Arizona."