David Hyde Pierce names his five favourite movies
Considering that he’s brought laughter to millions as the punctilious brother Niles Crane in Frasier, lent his particular trademark neurosis to the nervous stick insect Slim in A Bug’s Life, earned a Tony Award for his on-stage role as Lieutenant Frank Cioffi in the hit comedy-mystery Curtains and even ventured into directing by helming the Broadway musical It Shoulda Been You, you could say that David Hyde Pierce is a man of many talents.
He’s also a man of many tastes, as demonstrated by the electric and sometimes unusual top-five pick of his favourite films. Ranging from outright classics to 1950s horror to obscure Russian adaptations, Pierce’s selection shines a light on his broad appetite for cinema and illuminates a varied palette of an exceptionally talented actor.
Speaking with Rotten Tomatoes before the release of his psychological thriller The Perfect Host, the multiple Primetime Emmy-winning actor shared five of his favourite films, listing a title shared by many in their top selections: The Godfather. Commenting on what in particular he loved about the movie so much, Pierce explained: “The palette of the movie, the colours. There’s something about the production design and the cinematography. I like the story, the characters, but the thing that catches me is always just its rich, rich, rich deep palette.”
Another classic that made it onto Pierce’s list was the outlaw biopic Bonnie and Clyde, which follows Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway as the bank-robbing couple in Depression-era America. “It’s perfectly cast, beautifully shot, and that ballet of death at the end was something unlike anything I’d ever seen before”. Pierce wasn’t alone; the infamously bloody ending, which sees Bonnie and Clyde getting riddled with bullets, was a milestone in American cinema and widely regarded as a defining moment for New Hollywood.
Contrasting the two heavy-duty crime films, Pierce lists Woody Allen’s A Midsummer Night’s Sex Comedy as one of his favourites. Set at the turn of the 20th century, the romantic comedy sees three couples spending a weekend in a country house, with much hilarity and amorous antics ensuing. “I don’t think it’s up there on most people’s lists,” concedes Pierce on one of his more unusual choices. “I just think it’s so beautiful. It’s very funny but very gentle, and it also deals with issues of life and death in a very serious way. I can remember every time I saw it crying at the end.”
Spanning multiple genres, Pierce’s love for cinema takes him even into Hammer Horror territory. Citing Horror of Dracula – known in the UK simply as Dracula – as one of his top five, the Frasier actor explains how the casting made such an impact on him. “The matchup of Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee was so brilliant. They were so great together.” He went on to talk about the ending and the legacy it left behind, stating: “Van Helsing takes two candlesticks and forms a cross. It’s just so cool. And I think that’s the first time anybody ever did that in a movie. But I just thought that was pretty brilliant writing.”
David Hyde Pierce’s favourite films:
- The Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola, 1973)
- Bonnie and Clyde (Arthur Penn, 1967)
- A Midsummer Night’s Sex Comedy (Woody Allen, 1982)
- Horror of Dracula (Terence Fisher, 1958)
- Unfinished Piece for the Player Piano (Nikita Mikhalkov, 1977)
On his final choice, Pierce gave Russian cinema and theatre some love, picking Nikita Mikhalkov’s Unfinished Piece for the Player Piano. Explaining how he was shown a screening of the film by a director whilst rehearsing for a Chekhov play, Pierce recalls why this adaptation of another Chekhov play (Platonov) impressed him so much: “It’s just a beautiful movie to look at, and also it was a great director, but it’s the characters, both the acting and the depiction of this wonderful, very specific group of Russian characters is unmatched.”
