Molly Ringwald reveals a selection of her favourite movies: “It just evokes a feeling”
It’s one of the oldest sayings in the book that one should never be judged by its cover, but that doesn’t mean an entire generation who grew up on the movies of Molly Ringwald would expect her to be a devoted cinephile with an in-depth knowledge of the classics.
That’s not intended to disparage the star in any way, shape, or form, but when so many audiences were inspired by and indebted to the films that turned her into a superstar, it wasn’t exactly readily apparent that she was a keen student of the medium who’d eventually up sticks and move to France to further her career in one of the most creatively fertile environments for filmmaking.
Her collaborations with John Hughes on Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, and Pretty in Pink turned her into a household name and an era-defining screen presence, and while her career has never reached those same heights again in terms of visibility, fame, and recognition, she’s been working solidly since the late 1970s without ever slowing down.
When unleashed in the Criterion vault and given free rein to choose whatever features she wanted from the vast collection on offer, though, Ringwald offered an insight into her well-rounded cinematic education. Kicking things off with Elia Kazan’s classic A Face in the Crowd, she suggests “this would make a really incredible remake, except for the fact we’re living it,” with the story of a national TV star endorsing a presidential candidate for personal gain as topical now as it’s arguably ever been.
Jacques Rivette’s dreamlike drama Céline and Julie Go Boating wins points for being about “two women who are friendly with each other,” something Ringwald finds refreshing when there are “so many movies where there’s friction between the women.” It’s one she likes to revisit “when I need a little boost,” with the modernised fable well-established as one of the French cinema’s all time greats.
Technically bending the rules to include four films as one, Éric Rohmer’s series of seasonal romantic dramedies exists as Ringwald’s definition of “comfort viewing”. She appreciates the simplicity of the Tales of the Four Seasons quartet, describing the filmmaker as “one of the most bookish” around, with the absence of any overt stylistic tendencies sacrificing aesthetic, but for her as a viewer, “it just evokes a feeling.”
By her own admission, Ringwald’s pleas to work with Bruno Dumont have continued to fall on deaf ears, but she nonetheless regards La Vie de Jésus as one of her personal favourites, with the use of non-professional actors aiding the authenticity of the street-level drama that plunges a group of troubled youngsters into an ever-escalating series of events.
No cinephile can list their top picks without Federico Fellini making an appearance, and in addition to Nights of Cabiria being singled out, Ringwald revealed that she met him when he dropped by the set of her very first film. Not only that, but 1982’s modern-day adaptation of William Shakespeare’s The Tempest starred John Cassavetes in the lead role, another of her favourite filmmakers.
In a poignant moment, she settled on Cassavetes’ final feature, Love Streams, but made a point of noting how almost every single one of his movies are “pretty much about love, how people love, why they love,” with her connection to the filmmaker pointing her in the direction of his cinematic swansong.
Molly Ringwald’s favourite movies:
- A Face in the Crowd (Elia Kazan, 1957)
- Tales of the Four Seasons (Éric Rohmer, 1990-1998)
- Céline and Julie Go Boating (Jacques Rivette, 1974)
- La Vie de Jésus (Bruno Dumont, 1997)
- Nights of Cabiria (Federico Fellini, 1957)
- Love Streams (John Cassavetes, 1984)
