Armando Iannucci’s 10 favourite films of all time
When it comes to modern comedy, very few filmmakers have the innate understanding of the genre like Armando Iannucci has. Ranging from the incredibly popular political satire show Veep to modern classics like The Death of Stalin, Iannucci exercises an impressive command over the infinite possibilities that the genre has to offer. His latest project – the HBO show Avenue 5 – ventured into the domain of sci-fi comedy, featuring Hugh Laurie and Josh Gad as the leads.
Last year, the publication of the BFI Sight and Sound poll generated a lot of discourse about cinema and film history, especially due to the emergence of Chantal Akerman’s Jeanne Dielman as “the greatest film of all time”. To influence the pollings, Iannucci also submitted his picks for the ten best cinematic masterpieces ever made. Including the works of directors like Charlie Chaplin and Stanley Kubrick, this is essential viewing for all fans.
Iannucci singled out The Great Dictator as Chaplin’s finest: “Chaplin shows us why movie comedy is not just entertaining but essential. An attack on the bluster and blood of fascism, mocking and exposing the moral emptiness of Hitler long before the world caught up. Chaplin uses cinema to create an endlessly inventive parade of shock, buffoonery and emotion to dare the world to take on hate. And, for someone defined by the silent era, Chaplin shows us the emptiness behind the public rhetoric of autocrats. Brilliant.”
While elaborating on the brilliance of Akira Kurosawa, Iannucci heaped praise on the Japanese director’s 1985 masterpiece Ran. He noted: “Amazing set pieces and epic battles handled with such control and beauty. Stylised and yet emotionally unpredictable, this retelling of the King Lear story is the apogee of Kurosawa’s storytelling craft. An ageing director giving us one of his last dramas; it’s ravishing, haunting, cruel, and forever memorable.”
Iannccui also expressed admiration for Robert Altman, calling him the American Fellini. The director explained: “America’s Fellini, Altman revels in sprawl, rawness, improvisation, and multiple characters and storylines, to come up with something truly whole and original. At once heartbreakingly personal and yet ambitiously satirical, a whole country and culture is summed up brilliantly in one place at one time. This ambition has never been bettered.”
Check out the list below.
Armando Iannucci’s favourite films
- 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1968)
- The Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola, 1972)
- The Battle of Algiers (Gillo Pontecorvo, 1966)
- The Great Dictator (Charles Chaplin, 1940)
- Nashville (Robert Altman, 1975)
- Annie Hall (Woody Allen, 1977)
- Alien (Ridley Scott, 1979)
- Festen (Thomas Vinterberg, 1998)
- Ran (Akira Kurosawa, 1985)
- Monty Python’s Life of Brian (Terry Jones, 1979)
The selections of Chaplin and Monty Python shed some light on Iannucci’s comedic influences, which have shaped his trajectory as a filmmaker. In addition to those, he also pointed out the significance of Woody Allen’s Annie Hall – one of the landmark achievements of the New Hollywood movement that ended up redefining American cinema.
Iannucci emphasised the groundbreaking metafictional comedy of Annie Hall: “Allen shows how comedy can be much more inventive and free in its storytelling than straight linear drama. Flashback, animation, subtitles, breaking the fourth wall; it could all be a box of tricks were it not underpinned by an emotional honesty and focus on the joy and fracture of a relationship.”
