John Turturro names his five favourite movies of all time
The American actor John Turturro may not be the first name that comes to mind when you think of the greatest actors of modern cinema, but the esteemed star has long impressed in the industry. Collaborating with such filmmakers as the Coen brothers, Guillermo del Toro, Robert Redford, Spike Lee and Martin Scorsese, Turturro has been a Hollywood mainstay since the dawn of the 1980s.
Whilst he’s known for his impressive performances on the silver screen, Turturro has received much praise on the small screen, too, receiving three Emmy nominations for his acting over the years. His work alongside Adam Scott, Christopher Walken and Patricia Arquette on Severance might be his most recent contribution to TV, but back in 2004, he won a Primetime Emmy for his guest performance on the comedy series Monk.
In conversation with Rotten Tomatoes, John Turturro had the opportunity to reveal his five favourite movies, giving some insight into what the actors like behind the scenes.
His first pick is Michael Curtiz’s Hollywood classic Casablanca, the winner of three Academy Awards, including ‘Best Picture’ and ‘Best Director’, in 1942. “I would definitely have to put Casablanca on there because I think it’s such a great, entertaining film,” the actor stated: “It’s so witty and funny and it influenced so many people, including Woody Allen… I remember watching it when I was a kid and thinking like, ‘Wow, this is just perfect,’ so I would put that in there”.
Next on his list is the iconic Francis Ford Coppola gangster flick The Godfather, a film cited by many as being the greatest movie of all time. “Definitely, I would say The Godfather is one of my favourite films. It’s beautifully written and beautifully shot and performed,” the actor said of the film that stars Al Pacino and Marlon Brando, “It has a lot of fantastic actors in the film and in the script. It’s one of those films that works on many levels, and I think that the movies that stay with you, [they] work on many levels”.
A lover of foreign cinema, Turturro’s third pick is Jean Renoir’s war drama La Grande Illusion, a French film that tells the story of two French soldiers who are captured who are imprisoned in a German P.O.W. camp during WWI. “I think is a perfect film,” the actor states, adding: I’m a huge Jean Renoir fan, and I’m a huge Kurosawa fan too, and those guys made movies that — that’s as good as it gets. Jean Renoir’s films have such a tremendous intelligence and humanity, and there’s all this great depth and there’s this great joie de vivre — there’s this great joy in the film”.
His fourth choice in another classic of world cinema, opting for the 1957 Federico Fellini movie Nights of Cabiria. Starring the likes of Giulietta Masina, Franca Marzi and Amedeo Nazzari, Turturro states of the film: “It’s a movie about a woman who’s a prostitute, but it’s a fantastic movie with Giulietta Masina and I think it won, like, Best Foreign Film or something in 1957. It’s a film I look at again and again. I’m a big Fellini fan”.
John Turturro’s favourite movies:
- Casablanca (Michael Curtiz, 1942)
- The Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola, 1972)
- La Grande Illusion (Grand Illusion) (Jean Renoir, 1937)
- Le Notti di Cabiria (Nights of Cabiria) (Federico Fellini, 1957)
- On the Waterfront (Elia Kazan, 1954)
The final movie on Turturro’s list of favourites is his second Marlon Brando film of the collection, opting for Elia Kazan’s On the Waterfront. “I remember I broke my leg when I was in eighth grade and I actually taped it on my audio cassette. I taped the entire movie, so I know a lot of the movie by heart,” the actor recalled, adding: “So, these are movies that just have had big influences on you at different times of your life”.
