Emily Blunt’s five favourite movies of all time: “It hasn’t dated one inch”
Operating at the very height of modern cinema, Emily Blunt rose to prominence throughout the late 2000s, appearing in the likes of The Devil Wears Prada and The Young Victoria as she climbed her way up the Hollywood ladder.
Thanks to recent roles in the horror series A Quiet Place as well as Disney’s live-action remake Mary Poppins Returns, and Academy Award-winning Oppenheimer, Blunt has secured her space among the finest modern actors.
Blunt could have easily fallen by the wayside when she got her first major roles. Often cast as an antagonist or a femme fatale of sorts, the journey from hot new thing to cold leftovers can be a surprisingly short one for some actors. However, she defied the odds and used her charisma to earn herself more and more inspiring roles. Only now, in fact, are we starting to see the best of Blunt.
Her position as one of Britain’s leading female actors is a cherishable but well-earned role. She has worked with some of the finest directors and most gifted actors, meaning she knows a thing or two about what makes a great movie.
As she becomes an increasingly more significant icon in modern cinema, Blunt has started to share her own thoughts on the industry, revealing to Rotten Tomatoes her list of five favourite films. With eclectic tastes, the actor’s all-time favourites mirror her own vibrant choices of film roles, choosing the projects of such filmmakers as Steven Spielberg, Robert Benton, Rob Reiner and Miloš Forman.
Her first pick goes to Spielberg’s revolutionary blockbuster, Jaws starring Roy Scheider and Richard Dreyfuss that Blunt describes as “my favourite film of all time”. Believing the film is more than a drama about a Great White shark, Blunt states, “I think it’s a film about people and relationships — and I just think the performances are fantastic”. Gushing in her adoration for the film, Blunt adds: “It has amazing characters and it has this very commercial, suspenseful backdrop, so I do think it’s a perfect movie”.
The wrought emotional drama Kramer vs. Kramer is Blunt’s second choice, stating the film “makes me weep”, as it follows the heated custody battle between two long-time lovers. “I love that offset of the dynamic,” Blunt describes, clarifying, “Of the father being the main caretaker and his life being put into uproar in trying to adapt and take care of this little boy”. Shedding light on the surprising performance of the small boy, Billy, in the film, Blunt adds: “I think that little boy is extraordinary in it; obviously he’s not a little boy anymore, but he’ll always be that little boy to me”.
“Princess Bride is obviously a given,” Blunt announces, picking the Rob Reiner film as her third choice, adding, “Everyone loves that and can quote it”. Starring Cary Elwes, Robin Wright, Billy Crystal and Mandy Patinkin, Reiner’s film became a cult sensation upon its release in 1987, with Emily Blunt recalling, “I’ve seen that many times as a child and it swept me away every time. I loved it”.
The Best-Picture winning classic One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest from Miloš Forman is the penultimate film on Blunt’s list, calling the influential film starring Jack Nicholson, “a timeless movie”. Detailing further, she said: “You watch it now and it hasn’t dated one inch. I think it’s incredibly… it’s just staggering, and it’s so moving,” Blunt explains, crediting Forman for the true genius of the multi-award-winning film.
The final and most recent film on Emily Blunt’s list is the 2006 post-war drama The Lives of Others by the German director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, following a secret police agent conducting surveillance on a writer in 1984 East Berlin. “I just really got swept away by it,” Blunt says of the Oscar-winning film, remembering one particular ‘book scene’ as she recalls her love for the modern classic.
Embodying Blunt’s love of cinema, the actor goes on to explain, “You realise there are these moments in movies that just stay with you forever; it’s wonderful. You get these imprinted moments: a line or a word, or a look, and they stay with you forever”.
Emily Blunt’s five favourite films:
- Jaws (Steven Spielberg, 1975)
- Kramer vs. Kramer (Robert Benton, 1979)
- The Princess Bride (Rob Reiner, 1987)
- One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (Miloš Forman, 1975)
- The Lives of Others (Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, 2006)
