George Miller’s 10 favourite films
It takes a lot of skill to master the art of cinematic spectacles, and George Miller is truly an expert. Known as the creative powerhouse behind the Mad Max franchise, the Australian auteur has demonstrated incredible versatility throughout his career. Ranging from the action-packed despair of the Mad Max series to the life-affirming motion of Happy Feet, Miller has routinely delivered unique cinematic experiences to audiences around the world.
Last year, the director made another fascinating addition to his filmography in the form of Three Thousand Years of Longing. Starring Idris Elba and Tilda Swinton, Miller conducted a fascinating examination of traditional narrative structures and tried to uncover what storytelling is all about. 2022 also saw the publication of the highly anticipated BFI Sight and Sound poll, where Miller sent in the list of his ten favourite films.
Miller’s selections in the poll corresponded with his picks in a Rotten Tomatoes feature which took place earlier in the year. In the interview, he championed Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather II: “When I saw that film, it felt like it was one of the most complete films I’ve seen. Again, rich, sprawling. Not one dissonant frame. That’s a film I’ve seen many times, simply because if it happens to be on somewhere, I just go back to it. So I know every shot, every frame.”
The filmmaker also recalled the significance of Robert Altman’s MASH: “I remember the experience of seeing it. I walked past this theatre, and I saw a poster, which was two female legs and the ‘V’ sign. It was during the Vietnam War, and I walked into the cinema, and I saw a film unlike any that I’d seen before. It seemed to resonate with the times very much, even though it was set in Korea. Its tone was ironic, but it somehow seemed deeply truthful and accurate according to the times. I walked out of the cinema into the daylight, and I walked straight back in and saw it a second time.”
In addition to arthouse classics such as The Battle of Algiers, Miller also admitted that Groundhog Day will always be one of his favourites. He said: “I remember seeing it several times, mainly to try to unfold its mysteries because it affected me as a full human being. It affected me visually, emotionally, and intellectually. It’s very broad, universal. It went from the specific of that story to very universal ideas, which all good stories do.”
Check out the list below.
George Miller’s favourite films:
- The Godfather Part II (Francis Ford Coppola, 1974)
- The Battle of Algiers (Gillo Pontecorvo, 1966)
- Pinocchio (Ben Sharpsteen, Hamilton Luske, 1940)
- Groundhog Day (Harold Ramis, 1993)
- MASH (Robert Altman, 1969)
- Boyhood (Richard Linklater, 2014)
- Alien (Ridley Scott, 1979)
- Parasite (Bong Joon-ho, 2019)
- The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson, 2014)
- Schindler’s List (Steven Spielberg, 1993)
Richard Linklater also found a place in Miller’s selection in the form of Boyhood, the 2014 epic coming-of-age drama. According to Miller, the arduous production process of Boyhood – which lasted over a decade – left a lasting impression on his psyche and raised important questions about his own experiences as a filmmaker.
Miller explained: “The circumstance of making the film and the truth of that film that you saw and the feelings it gave, having become a parent and gone through that experience myself, had deep resonances to me on something where there was no fantasy in the film. There was no flamboyance or extravagance. But its resonances were very powerful.”
