Benny Safdie names “probably the best movie ever made”
The list of directors who have been inspired by the great Martin Scorsese is so enormous that if we were to write it out, it would likely stretch from Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, down the Walk of Fame and past the iconic Hollywood hills. Yet, some filmmakers are more directly inspired by their work than others, with the recent emergence of the Safdie brothers being spiritual successors to the work of Scorsese, one of America’s finest-ever filmmakers.
Helming several short films since the dawn of the new millennium, brothers Benny and Josh Safdie announced themselves onto the global film scene with the release of Daddy Longlegs in 2009, a low-key independent drama about a father trying to develop a relationship with his young kids. A formative domestic drama, not unlike Scorsese’s early work of Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, the award-winner would open several doors for the Safdie’s to develop their craft.
Feature films Buttons, Lenny Cooke and Heaven Knows What would follow in 2011, 2013 and 2014, respectively, but it wasn’t until their work with Pattinson for 2017’s Good Time that they would truly be respected as burgeoning contemporary creatives. A pulpy, stylistic drama, the tone of their film was carried over to Uncut Gems, their follow-up made two years later, which remains their magnum opus.
Aside from Scorsese’s Taxi Driver, After Hours and Goodfellas, there are few other films that perfectly reflect the pace and frenetic chaos of New York City better than the Safdie brothers’ Uncut Gems, a film about a manic jeweller and betting addict.
The brotherly duo make no secrets about their influences either, naming Scorsese among their favourite filmmakers, alongside the likes of John Cassavetes, Robert Altman and Sidney Lumet. Yet, despite their love for each of these filmmakers, and Scorsese in particular, Benny Safdie diverts from such creatives when he chooses his pick for “the best movie ever made”.
Speaking in an interview with Le Cinéma Club, Benny, one half of the directorial duo, brought up the 1956 Robert Bresson movie A Man Escaped, stating that it was “probably the best movie ever made. Every time I watch it I cry when they hit freedom”.
A constant fixture on lists that outline the greatest movies ever made, Bresson’s film tells the story of a French Resistance fighter in WWII who hatches a plan to escape from a Nazi prison. Starring François Leterrier, the film is a seminal release in the history of French cinema.
Elsewhere on the same list, Benny Safdie highlighted a selection of his favourite films, naming Altman’s Nashville, as well as Jacques Tati’s Monsieur Hulot’s Holiday, Wim Wenders’ Kings of the Road and the underrated Mike Leigh classic Nuts in May.
Check out the trailer for A Man Escaped below.
