Da’Vine Joy Randolph names her five favourite movies of all time
With a Tony nomination for ‘Best Featured Actress’ already under her belt for Ghost: The Musical, Da’Vine Joy Randolph had already showcased her talents before making her feature film debut via a minor role in the 2013 drama Mother of George.
In the years since, her star has continued rising through a string of well-received turns in a number of prominent projects, including Dolemite is My Name, The United States vs. Billie Holiday, Empire, and Only Murders in the Building. Randolph can currently be seen in Alexander Payne’s The Holdovers, where she’s already considered to be one of the front-runners for next year’s Academy Award for ‘Best Supporting Actress’.
While her career choices have covered a range of genres, the star’s own five favourite movies of all time – as revealed to A.Frame – showcase that her personal preferences are more attuned to emotionally-driven stories. Celebrating Marion Cotillard’s Oscar-winning turn as Édith Piaf in La Vien en Rose for being “such a beautiful example of sitting in the uncomfortable,” Randolph described the moment Piaf discovers her lover has passed away as “one of the most powerful scenes in cinema”.
Another Oscar-winning performance makes the cut, even if Randolph combined Jamie Foxx’s Ray with Will Smith’s Ali when explaining that “there’s just something very harrowing about what both of those actors did in portraying those two men”. Describing Taylor Hackford and Michael Mann’s films as “beautifully done” and “incredibly epic”, she acknowledges that she adores them both equally.
Dramatic comedy Corinna, Corinna was held up by Randolph as “a big reference point for The Holdovers“, with the story following a “platonic, interracial relationship that starts to grow into something more”. Whoopi Goldberg and Ray Liotta occupy the two main roles in the moving period piece set in the late 1950s, and the actor highlighted it for the way in which it “beautifully spotlights how grief allows you to be open and willing to try things that you wouldn’t normally try.”
An international sensation that shattered the record for highest-grossing non-English language movie of all time when it earned $426 million from cinemas, Randolph admits that she becomes “inconsolable whenever The Intouchables comes on.” The “softness and tenderness” of the relationship between a quadriplegic aristocrat and his caretaker always hits her squarely in the feels every time she revisits the film.
Like any self-respecting cinephile, Randolph appreciates the monolithic status of Francis Ford Coppola’s crime classic: “I mean, what can you say about The Godfather that hasn’t already been said?” Foregoing the original in favour of its equally-illustrious sequel, though, she named Part II as the best of the three on account of it being the “most jam-packed” from a storytelling perspective.
Da’Vine Joy Randolph’s favourite movies:
- La Vie en Rose (Olivier Dahan, 2007)
- Ray (Taylor Hackford, 2004)
- Corinna, Corinna (Jessie Nelson, 1994)
- The Intouchables (Olivier Nakache and Éric Toledano, 2011)
- The Godfather Part II (Francis Ford Coppola, 1974)
