Anthony Bourdain’s favourite American movies: “Superb and uncompromising”
He may have been born and raised in America, but the career of Anthony Bourdain made it clear he was a man of the world, and that even filtered down into his love of cinema.
The celebrity chef, author, and travel documentarian may have become famous for his culinary expertise and far-flung adventures to all corners of the globe to dig into the society and subculture that influenced the tastebuds of the locals and beyond, but Bourdain doubled as an avid cinephile.
Not that he turned that love of the moving image into a string of gratuitous cameos, though, with Bourdain rarely accepting what was no doubt a litany of offers to pop up in any number of film and/or television projects. He was much more of a watcher than a participant, then, with his in-depth love of the medium inspiring him to single out the films that affected him deeper than the rest.
Capturing his expansive admiration for the moving image, Bourdain curated a list of his ten favourites for Criterion that were separated by decades and hailed from multiple continents. In fact, only 40% of his picks came from his native United States, and even at that they couldn’t have been more different from each other.
Peter Yates’ noir The Friends of Eddie Coyle featured Robert Mitchum’s ageing gunrunner being coerced into handing sensitive criminal information to the authorities in a dicey game of deceit. For Bourdain, it was “a superb and uncompromising adaptation of George V Higgins’ bleak masterpiece of low-level criminality,” and he even suggested it boasted the “finest performance” of Mitchum’s legendary career.
Sticking with noir – albeit of a very different kind – Robert Aldrich’s Kiss Me Deadly won points for being “easily the ugliest, greasiest, darkest, and most influential noir of its day,” which in Bourdain’s book made it more than worthy of inclusion among his favourite-ever flicks.
Carrying all of the verbose and intricately constructed dialogue synonymous with the playwright and filmmaker, Bourdain saluted House of Games as the “best film” in David Mamet’s career. No appraisal is complete without passing judgment on the screenplay, of course, which he praised for being “delightfully convoluted” in Mamet’s own distinctive way.
Last but by no means least, timeless comedy Sullivan’s Travels was celebrated for being “simply one of the best films ever made” that “perfectly conveys everything you need to know about films”. Preston Sturges’ seminal satire hasn’t only held the test of time, but it wins higher praise than any of the other American movies Bourdain felt compelled to pass comment on.
Anthony Bourdain’s favourite American movies:
- The Friends of Eddie Coyle (Peter Yates, 1973)
- Kiss Me Deadly (Robert Aldrich, 1955)
- House of Games (David Mamet, 1987)
- Sullivan’s Travels (Preston Sturges, 1941)
