Gaspar Noé names the 10 greatest movies of all time
Gaspar Noé is one of contemporary cinema’s most controversial directors, never afraid to push the medium’s boundaries, both thematically and stylistically. The director frequently explores sex and violence, often focusing on the intersection between the two. From his directorial debut, I Stand Alone, which follows an incestuous butcher, to Irreversible, featuring a highly contested ten-minute rape scene, Noé is not one to shy away from intense topics.
Noé’s films can best be described as intoxicating. His movies are often laced with psychedelic overtones – disorientating viewers through daring formal techniques such as incredibly long takes, split screens, and non-linearity, complete with hard-hitting plotlines that refuse the audience complacency. In 2015, the director released his notorious erotic drama, Love, which featured a 3D shot of a penis ejaculating towards the camera; in 2019, there was Lux Æterna, which used extreme epilepsy-inducing strobe lighting.
Making a name for himself during the New French Extremity movement, Noé is one of Europe’s most established directors working today. The Argentinian filmmaker, based in France, strays far from mainstream Hollywood moviemaking. He has frequently expressed a distaste for blockbusters, stating: “I mostly get bored by comedies, action movies, science fiction movies, they are so predictable. I tried Black Panther, I escaped from the cinema after 20 minutes. I thought it was as bad as Star Wars, I hated Star Wars.“
Thus, it is no surprise that when asked by Sight and Sound to list the greatest films of all time, Noé mainly chose European arthouse films, with a few exceptions made for American movies, most of which are independent and experimental productions. Firstly, the filmmaker cites Luis Buñuel’s landmark surreal short film Un Chien Andalou, released in 1929, as one of the best films ever made. He wrote: “If there’s one premiere I dream of attending, it’s this film, which was decades ahead of its time. There are many directors whose films inspire envy, but in the case of Buñuel, it’s also his life that does it. More of a cry of happiness than a call to murder.”
Jean Eustache’s La Maman et la Putain (The Mother and the Whore) is another of Noé’s picks, which he calls “the most existentialist, raw, deep film about the impossible nature of romantic love in the modern Western world.” The film, over three and a half hours long, stars Jean-Pierre Leaud, Bernadette Lafont and Françoise Lebrun, the latter of whom Noé recruited for his heartbreaking film Vortex. Released in 1973, La Maman et la Putain is one of the most significant yet controversial French films of the 1970s, delving deep into the relationship between sex and love.
However, perhaps the most controversial pick on his list is Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom, Pier Paolo Pasolini’s extraordinary examination of fascism, violence, and capitalism. The film is hugely important, yet it has famously divided critics due to its extreme depiction of sex and brutal torture. Noé described it as “the film my mother considered it essential to take me to see on the eve of my 18th birthday. I was old enough to learn the torture and the reptilian nature of human relationships. To this day, I consider it as the most educational film about man’s domination by man.”
Noé cites 2001: A Space Odyssey as changing his life. “My life altered when I discovered it when I was about seven,” he declared. “It was my first hallucinogenic experience, my great artistic turning point and also the moment when my mother finally explained what a foetus was and how I came into the world…without this film, I would never have become a director.” Furthermore, another movie that led Noé to want to create films was David Lynch’s Eraserhead. “For me, it’s the film that best reproduces the language of dreams and nightmares. Apparently, Kubrick once said that he regretted not having directed it himself.”
Gaspar Noé’s 10 favourite films:
- Un Chien Andalou (Luis Buñuel, 1929)
- La Maman et la Putain (Jean Eustache, 1973)
- Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom (Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1975)
- 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1968)
- Eraserhead (David Lynch, 1977)
- King Kong (Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack, 1933)
- Taxi Driver (Martin Scorsese, 1976)
- Angst (Gerald Kargl, 1983)
- Scorpio Rising (Kenneth Anger, 1963)
- I Am Cuba (Mikhail Kalatozov, 1964)
Alongside 2001: A Space Odyssey and Metropolis, Noé refers to the 1933 production of King Kong as one of “the most ambitious films of all time.” He calls the film “the greatest spectacle of entertainment that I know of” and “as perfect as it is extraordinary.” The filmmaker also cites Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver as one of the greatest films ever made, writing: “If there’s a cinematic hero I dream of being, it’s Travis Bickle.” Similarly, Noé mentions Angst by Gerald Kargl, an Austrian horror film he describes as “the most emotional film about a murderer that I’ve ever seen.”
Also briefly mentioned were Kenneth Anger’s experimental short film Scorpio Rising and Mikhail Kalatozov’s I Am Cuba. Noé’s list couldn’t be more Noé if he tried, and it is clear that these daring and innovative films have greatly influenced the director’s unique style.
