Chloë Sevigny names her five favourite movies
Few actors have been unanimously declared the height of indie cool quite like Chloë Sevigny. From the moment she burst onto the scene in the early 1990s, Sevigny was dubbed a New York it girl, known for her unconventional and slightly androgynous style.
After getting scouted in the streets as a teenager, she began modelling, forming a close association with Sonic Youth’s Kim Gordon through her cult clothing brand X-Girl and starring in one of the band’s music videos. As the decade rolled on, she appeared in more videos and continued to model while working as a seamstress.
However, after befriending Harmony Korine, she found herself cast in the independent coming-of-age drama Kids, directed by Larry Clark, who recruited the young Korine to write the screenplay. The movie follows a group of teenagers as they navigate the AIDS crisis in New York City, with Sevigny playing one of the lead characters, Jennie. She reunited with Korine again for Gummo, acting and providing costume design, and a few years later, she also starred in his movie Julien Donkey-Boy.
Sevigny has continued to star in a variety of predominantly independent or offbeat productions, including Boys Don’t Cry, American Psycho, The Brown Bunny, Demonlover and Bones and All. Naturally, Sevigny’s favourite movies are just as unconventional as her style and filmography.
One of Sevigny’s favourite movies is A Very Curious Girl by Nelly Kaplan, which she told Le Cinema Club was a “feminist call to arms” and “punk as fuck”. The movie follows Bernadette Lafont’s Marie as she decides to seek revenge on those in her village who see her as nothing but a sexual object. Sevigny added, “Perfectly described by writer-director Nelly Kaplan as about ‘a witch who doesn’t let herself be burned’.”
Next up is Jack Conway’s Red-Headed Woman, which similarly focuses on a woman who uses sex in an attempt to find personal freedom. The movie was released in 1932 and stars Jean Harlow as the promiscuous lead character, shocking audiences with her brazen attitude towards sexuality. Sevigny said, “A pre-code Jean Harlow unabashedly ploughing through men, in dresses cut to kill by Adrian.”
Elsewhere, Sevigny is a fan of the movie that gave Matt Dillon his first role, Over the Edge. Directed by Jonathan Kaplan, the film is a crime-themed coming-of-age drama in which a group of teenagers rebel against authority. She explained: “1970s Americana, teen suburban angst, all buttery. Sexiest pick-up scene cut to ‘You Really Got Me’.”
The actor also selected Peter Mullan’s The Magdalene Sisters, a 2002 drama about ‘fallen’ women sent to Magdalene asylums. The movie has often been described as a religious horror movie due to the sheer brutality it depicts. Sevigny called the film “an unsentimental handling of a small portion of the atrocities the Catholic Church raged on Ireland”.
She also picked a non-fiction choice: Depeche Mode: 101, a documentary directed by David Dawkins, Chris Hegedus and D. A. Pennebaker. Offering listeners a unique behind-the-scenes look at the band’s 1988 American tour, Sevigny elucidated: “For fans and about the fans, in a perfect cocktail”.
Chloë Sevigny’s favourite movies:
- A Very Curious Girl (Nelly Kaplan, 1969)
- Red-Headed Woman (Jack Conway, 1932)
- Over the Edge (Jonathan Kaplan, 1979)
- The Magdalene Sisters (Peter Mullan, 2002)
- Depeche Mode: 101 (David Dawkins, Chris Hegedus and D. A. Pennebaker)
