Mads Mikkelsen names his five favourite movies of all time
Thanks to their brooding aurora and bold screen presence, Scandinavian actors are thriving in modern cinema, with the likes of Alexander Skarsgård, Peter Stormare and Noomi Rapace each providing extraordinary performances on the big and small screen. Yet, few can compare to the success of the Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen, an awards favourite, who, back in 2012, earned the prize for ‘Best Actor’ at the Cannes Film Festival.
Making his feature film debut back in 1996 with the Danish filmmaker Nicolas Winding Refn, who would later take to Hollywood with the crime drama Pusher, Mikkelsen would go on to work closely with the director on a further sequel that would considerably help to elevate his profile. Shortly after his appearance in Pusher II in 2004, Mikkelsen would earn an iconic role as the James Bond villain Le Chiffre in 2006’s Casino Royale.
Ever since, Mikkelsen has become a key name in contemporary cinema, making the Hannibal TV series gloriously re-watchable while finding time to feature in the iconic Star Wars franchise. Understandably, Mikkelsen has, therefore, built quite a legion of loyal fans, with the actor giving them a glimpse into his personality when he revealed his five favourite movies in an interview with A. Frame.
“Apocalypse Now had a big, big impact on me,” he says of his first choice, Francis Ford Coppola’s seminal take on the Vietnam War. “I think it’s out of this world,” he adds, “As a film, I love everything about it — obviously, Coppola’s direction, but also the way that the film took off and he couldn’t control it. It probably ended up being very different from what he intended, but the performances in it, the cinematography, and the locations are all perfect”.
Clearly a lover of war movies, Mikkelsen’s next pick goes to Elem Klimov’s Russian WWII drama Come and See, which has received considerable modern adoration decades after its initial release in 1985. Telling the story of a young boy who joins the Soviet resistance movement after finding an old rifle, Mikkelsen says of the brutal film: “It’s an absolute masterpiece, and it’s something that not a lot of people have seen. It’s very hard to watch, and it’s not aiming to be”.
Next on his list is a collection of short films that are largely ignored in the popular world of cinema, Krzysztof Kieślowski’s Dekalog. “It’s technically 10 films,” the actor admits regarding the decuple movies each based on one of the ten commandments, “I watched the Dekalog in drama school, and I was blown away. The films are so brilliantly made, and they’re so surprising. There are maybe 50 actors in it that I’d never seen before, and they are all out of this world, and I’ve never seen any of those actors again”.
Providing a brief slice of respite from his otherwise narratively dense or thematically dark choices, Mikkelsen’s fourth choice is the celebrated musical Singin’ in the Rain. Though Mikkelsen’s demeanour doesn’t lend itself to the musical genre, he is adoring of Gene Kelly’s movie, expressing: “It’s so charming. Everybody in it is so charming, and the film is so good. The way they sing and dance is astonishing, and eventually, you find out that Gene Kelly was a perfectionist”.
The final film to grace his list is one that often crops up on collections of actors’ favourite movies, with Mikkelsen opting for Martin Scorsese’s 1976 Palme d’Or winner Taxi Driver, starring Robert De Niro. “It completely changed my perspective on filmmaking,” the actor admitted before explaining the primary lesson he learned while watching the film: “Ever since I saw Taxi Driver, I’ve always tried to create that kind of dilemma in the characters I play. I never play them completely good or completely bad. You have to realize that there’s a human being in there, always”.
Mads Mikkelsen’s favourite movies:
- Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola, 1979)
- Come and See (Elem Klimov, 1985)
- Dekalog (Krzysztof Kieślowski, 1989)
- Singin’ in the Rain (Gene Kelly, Stanley Donen, 1952)
- Taxi Driver (Martin Scorsese, 1976)
