Ari Aster names his five favourite ’90s movies
While most of the discourse surrounding contemporary cinema is currently aimed at the existential crises generated by Marvel productions, some exciting new voices have caught the mainstream’s attention. Ari Aster, the director of acclaimed films like Hereditary and Midsommar, is definitely among them.
Although Aster has only done two projects so far, he has garnered widespread critical praise for his unique cinematic vision and inventiveness with the horror genre frameworks. Alongside Aster, other promising filmmakers such as Robert Eggers have proved to be a worthy counterpoint to the dominance of commercialised superhero productions.
Born in New York City, Aster was drawn to the magical visions presented in horror films from a very early age. Although he did not start making amateur productions, Aster was so moved by the films he saw that he began writing screenplays which would later help him with his singular explorations in Hereditary and Midsommar.
Pioneers such as Martin Scorsese have praised Aster’s vision. Scorsese wrote: “A couple of years ago, I watched a first film called Hereditary by a director named Ari Aster. Right from the start, I was impressed. Here was a young filmmaker that obviously knew cinema. The formal control, the precision of the framing and the movement within the frame, the pacing of the action, the sound — it was all there, immediately evident.”
When asked about his favourite films from the 1990s, Aster took to Twitter to make an extensive list of his selections from the highly eventful decade. Despite the fact that he named tens of acclaimed gems from that period, the director narrowed his focus to a Top 5, which contains works by directors like Scorsese and Stanley Kubrick.
Check out the full list below.
Ari Aster’s favourite ’90s movies:
- Goodfellas (Martin Scorsese, 1990)
- A Brighter Summer Day (Edward Yang, 1991)
- Breaking the Waves (Lars von Trier, 1996)
- Eyes Wide Shut (Stanley Kubrick, 1999)
- Defending Your Life (Albert Brooks, 1991)
Stanley Kubrick has been a major inspiration for Aster, especially Kubrick’s 1980 horror opus The Shining. According to Aster, he tried to replicate The Shining’s “dollhouse aesthetic” while making Hereditary, but it proved to be a painstaking process.
In addition to the aforementioned classics, Aster also cited the Coen brothers’ Big Lebowski and The Hudsucker Proxy. Aster’s full selection is the perfect starting point for anyone interested in learning more about ’90s cinema.
