Léa Seydoux names her five favourite movies of all time
After establishing herself in the cinema of her native France with the likes of Girlfriends, The Last Mistress and The Beautiful Person, Léa Seydoux set out for Hollywood, beginning with minor roles in the films of Quentin Tarantino, Ridley Scott and Woody Allen.
But it was her performance in Adbedllatif Kechiche’s 2013 romantic drama Blue Is the Warmest Colour, also starring Adele Exarchopoulos, that served as Seydoux’s breakthrough effort and from there, she has never looked back with further appearances in a number of Wes Anderson films and a Bond girl feature.
Seydoux has provided so many cinema fans’ favourite moments of the last decade, but how about the actors’ own personal top choice from the rich history of cinema? Thankfully, we can get closer to Seydoux’s most beloved movies per a feature with Le Cinema Club, in which she named her top five choices.
The first is On Dangerous Ground, the 1951 film noir directed by Nicholas Ray and starring Robert Ryan and Ida Lupino, based on Gerald Butler’s 1945 novel Mad with Much Heart. “It’s my favourite film by Ray for its moral view,” Seydoux said of the movie, “How to do things following your heart.”
Seydoux called her next choice “intimidating” – Eric Rohmer’s 1972 romantic comedy-drama Love in the Afternoon, which sees an affluent Parisian man feel the need to pursue other women despite being happily married to his wife. The film stars Zouzou and Bernard Varley, and Seydoux believes it captures what “mad love” is.
Romance certainly looks to be Seydoux’s favourite film genre as she follows up with 1951’s A Place in the Sun, George Steven’s drama based on Theodore Dreiser’s 1925 novel An American Tragedy. It tells of a young man who’s wrapped up romantically with two very different kinds of women. “With Stevens, it’s always an adventure!” Seydoux noted. “You have the impression that the film was shot very quickly as the passions in the film are so electric and dazzling.”
Seydoux moves east for her next choice, which is Yasujiro Ozu’s 1959 film Good Morning, loosely based on his 1932 silent film I Was Born, But…. It tells of two young boys who pressure their parents to buy them a television set but face their reluctance. Seydoux called Ozu a “great, radical stylist. He paints his characters as if they’re in a Japanese print. And with an incredible tenderness.”
The list is rounded off by Charlie Chaplin’s The Kid, the 1921 silent comedy-drama starring Chaplin as Jackie Coogan, the film legend’s first full-length movie as a director. “The Kid is the vision of a child,” Seydoux noted, “the vision of the true filmmaker: simple, crude, sharp and tender.”
Léa Seydoux’s five favourite movies:
- On Dangerous Ground (Nicholas Ray, 1951)
- Love in the Afternoon (Eric Rohmer, 1972)
- A Place in the Sun (George Stevens, 1951)
- Good Morning (Yasujiro Ozu, 1959)
- The Kid (Charlie Chaplin, 1921)
