Jonathan Glazer’s favourite sci-fi movies: “Something remains unfathomable or inscrutable”
It would be beneficial for cinema if Jonathan Glazer became even the slightest bit more prolific, even if it’s clear from his filmography that quality has been a more than acceptable substitute for quantity.
He was already an elite-level talent in the world of music videos and ads before taking the feature-length plunge, but his debut was an impeccable way of introducing himself as a movie director. One of the best British films of the 21st century, Glazer wasted no time in announcing himself with the stunning Sexy Beast.
While he’s only made a further three films since 2000 to complement his acclaimed opening salvo, they’ve all been worth the wait. It was four years before the psychological drama Birth, another nine until Under the Skin, and then another nine again until The Zone of Interest, but good things tend to come to those who show patience.
Glazer’s most recent work won Academy Awards for ‘Best International Feature’ and ‘Best Sound’ securing a further three nominations for ‘Best Picture’, ‘Best Director’, and ‘Best Adapted Screenplay’. The World War II drama was a million miles away from his previous movie, obviously, which saw him running wild with Scarlett Johansson in Scotland to craft a guerrilla-style phantasmagorical sci-fi horror.
It’s an unusual collection of words to describe any film, but Under the Skin was an intentionally difficult thing to quantify. Even though his leading lady is quite literally playing an otherworldly character, Glazer wouldn’t call it a sci-fi flick. However, he does have certain titles in the genre he holds dear, which influenced him in their own way.
“The other day I was thinking that we’ve made a romantic tragedy, as you’re trying to lock it into a genre,” he mused to Roger Ebert. “But the science fiction that I’ve loved has been the science fiction that somehow remains inscrutable. Solaris I am thinking of, 2001: A Space Odyssey of course. Something remains unfathomable or inscrutable about the ideas. Not inscrutable, but just philosophical.”
Andrei Tarkovsky and Stanley Kubrick’s masterpieces focus not on extra-terrestrials and little green men but on the human condition. It’s viewed through the lens of sci-fi, but those respective titans of celluloid place greater focus on the internal and existential, even if it helps they’re both beautiful to look at.
As a self-professed fan of David Bowie, Glazer was always going to be drawn to The Man Who Fell to Earth, but his memory was in need of a jogging. “I need to watch that film again, because it’s come up,” he admitted of hearing Under the Skin comparisons. “People have mentioned it, I don’t know.”
Glazer’s contributions to sci-fi are entirely his own, but with its reliance on mesmerising imagery and sheer artistic ambition, Under the Skin shares more than a few DNA strands with Solaris, 2001, and The Man Who Fell to Earth.
Jonathan Glazer’s favourite science fiction movies:
- Solaris
- 2001: A Space Odyssey
- The Man Who Fell To Earth
