Anthony Hopkins names his ten favourite movies
Few actors have captured what it is to exist on the fringes of human society as eloquently as Anthony Hopkins. A veteran of stage and screen, the Welsh actor has built a reputation for portraying characters on the brink, appearing in such films as Remains of The Day, The Silence of The Lambs, and The Father. But it isn’t Hopkin’s filmography we’ll be focusing on here. Instead, we’ll be looking at the revered actor’s ten favourite movies.
The list below comes from John Davies, who gathered the list from Hopkins “around the turn of the millennium”. Hopkins’ century-spanning list begins with 1931’s City Lights, which follows the misadventures of a hapless tramp played by the great Charlie Chaplin. Set on the streets of New York, this touching silent film makes up in heart for what it lacks in dialogue, tracing the tramp’s attempts to win the heart of a blind flower girl, all of which end in disaster. But when he saves the life of a drunken millionaire, the tramp suddenly finds himself in possession of enough money to change the flower girl’s life ten times over. It is the ultimate celebration of human kindness and is more than worthy of inclusion.
It wouldn’t do to discuss Hopkins’ favourite films and not mention his affection for Marlon Brando. The method maestro was 12 years older than Hopkins and seems to have served as a sort of role model for the actor. It’s no surprise, then, that his list includes three of Brando’s most celebrated movies: On The Waterfront, The Godfather and Apocolypse Now, the latter of which stars Brando as the mysterious Colonel Walter E. Kurtz.
Hopkins is also rather fond of Orson Welles. As well as the director’s 1949 picture The Third Man, he includes the oh-so-sensual 1947 feature The Lady from Shanghai and 1942’s The Magnificent Ambersons on the list of his favourite films. Perhaps the most celebrated of those three films, The Third Man, takes place in postwar Vienna and stars Joseph Cotten as a pulp novelist who pays a visit to his childhood friend Harry Lime – played by Welles – only to find him dead. Interestingly, the Ferris wheel from which Cotten and Lime reveal their respective moral codes is the same one featured in Richard Linklater’s Before Sunrise.
Make sure you check out Hopkins’ full selection below.
Anthony Hopkins’ 10 favourite movies
- City Lights (Charles Chaplin, 1931)
- The Magnificent Ambersons (Orson Welles, 1942)
- The Lady from Shanghai (Orson Welles, 1947)
- The Third Man (Carol Reed, 1949)
- Shane, (George Stevens, 1952)
- On the Waterfront (Elia Kazan, 1954)
- Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Mike Nichols, 1966)
- Five Easy Pieces (Bob Rafelson, 1970)
- The Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola, 1972)
- Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola, 1979)
