Brie Larson names her five favourite films
Brie Larson must be one of the most versatile American actors on the scene. The Sacramento native rose to fame following her compelling performance as a young woman imprisoned by a sexual predator in the 2015 film Room, which earned her an Academy Award. As well as cementing herself as a familiar face on TV, Larson has gone on to star in a number of action blockbusters, including 2017’s Kong: Skull Island, Captain Marvel and Avengers: Endgame. However, she’s a real sucker for the classics when it comes to her favourite movies.
Back in July 2012, Larson’s short film The Arm had just won a special jury prize at the Sundance Film Festival. Shortly after, she was invited to sit down with Criterion to name some of her favourite movies. At the top of the list was her “favourite [Jean-Luc] Godard film”, A Woman Is A Woman, which stars Godard’s partner Anna Karina as a broody stripper pursuing another man to make her husband jealous. “The first time I watched it, I was heartbroken because I thought my DVD was defective: the sound kept cutting out,” Larson said.
Adding: “In researching further I learned I was the fool—Godard was playing with sound design. It was in a way I had never heard before. His use of long camera pans with text explaining what our heroes think but would never say is absolutely brilliant. Between Anna Karina, her red tights, and the celebration of American musicals, it manages to sum up all my favourite things.”
Larson also has a soft spot for another left-bank director, the great Luis Buñuel, whose film The Exterminating Angel also made her list. “It begins with elegance and, as the story unfolds, reveals the dark, desperate, and very human parts of us,” she said of the 1962 picture. “I enjoy films that take place in one setting if done correctly. It allows the audience to focus on the characters that drive the plot without any fancy trickery. Such a fun, mysterious ride”.
Larson then proceeded to sing the praises of John Cassavetes’ Opening Night, which tells the story of Myrtle Gordon, an actress who undertakes a spiritual quest of self-discovery shortly before the opening night of her new play. “Gena Rowlands is absolutely stunning in every way in this film,” Larson said. “I love watching her and John act together, especially with her drunk during an improvised play for hundreds of extras who showed up because John took an ad out in the paper.”
Next up is Red Desert by esteemed post-neo-realist director Michaelangelo Antonioni. “I felt like I was opening my eyes for the first time,” Larson said of the director’s first colour film, which stars Monica Vitti as an anxious mother losing her grip on reality amid the smog of an industrial wasteland. “An incredible palette and commitment to tone. He actually painted trees whites and grays! I have always wanted to talk technicalities with someone about this film. The fog? How did he do the fog?!”
Brie Larson’s five favourite films:
- A Woman Is A Woman (Jean-Luc Godard, 1961)
- The Exterminating Angel (Luis Buñuel, 1962)
- Opening Night (John Cassavetes, 1977)
- Red Desert (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1964)
- The Third Man (Carol Reed, 1949)
No favourite film list is complete without a bonafide noir classic. Enter, The Third Man, which Larson said boasts one of her “favourite scores, next to Days of Being Wild.” The 1949 film tells the story of Pulp novelist Holly Martins, who travels to postwar Vienna only to wind up investigating the mysterious death of his old friend Harry Lime – played by Orsen Welles. “An incredible use of depth and contrast and the word Lime. God, I love the way they say ‘Lime'”.
