Nicolas Cage names his four favourite films: “I like movies that tear my heart out”
In 2022, Nicolas Cage did the most Nicolas Cage thing ever. He starred in a film called The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, in which he played a fictional version of himself, tormented by visions of his younger self, also played by him. The movie was incredibly silly and slightly big-headed, but it was extremely fun. Cage formed a great on-screen partnership with Pedro Pascal, leading to that meme where they’re in a car and he looks terrified in slow motion while the driving Pedro has a massive grin on his face. You know the one.
One of the most memorable scenes in the film is when Nick (that’s how his character spells his name) and Javi (Pascal) are talking about their favourite movies. Cage reveals that some of his top picks are The Cabinet of Dr Caligari and, after a little bit of persuasion, Paddington 2. But are either of these on the real ‘Nic Cage’s’ Mount Rushmore?
Letterboxd decided to find this out for themselves. They asked the master of ‘Nouveau Shamanic’ their pre-requisite ‘Four Favourites’ questions while interviewing him ahead of the release of his latest film, The Surfer. “I like movies that tear my heart out. I like movies that make me feel something,” he responded, in typical Cage-ian fashion. “I became an actor because of, as you know, James Dean in East of Eden”. Bold of him to assume that the interviewer would have known this, but he hasn’t exactly been shy about revealing his origin story.
There’s a movie by a Japanese filmmaker, [Hirokazu] Kore-eda,” he continued. “He did a movie called Like Father, Like Son. It tore my heart out. I get goosebumps thinking about it.” Released in 2013, the film follows businessman Ryota Nonomiya (Masaharu Fukuyama) after he discovers that his biological son was switched at birth with another. The ‘son’ he has been raising for years was actually conceived by somebody else. “It’s why I make movies,” Cage asserted, “It’s the kind of movie I aspire to make, and I love that movie.”
Staying with the Japanese theme, Cage named Kenji Mizoguchi’s Ugetsu as his next choice. With a title meaning “Rain-moon tales”, the film is set during the 16th century and depicts two peasants, Genjūrō (Masayuki Mori) and Tōbei (Eitarō Ozawa), who seek to better themselves through dangerous methods. “It’s a love story, but it’s also a ghost story,” described Cage, “It’s very emotional.”
To round out his picks, the Ghost Rider star went with two movies produced outside of Asia. “I think I’m going to go Lars von Trier’s Breaking the Waves,” he said for his third choice. “Emily Watson’s performance in that is, again, a heartbreaker, really rips your heart out.” Finally, he put forward Michael Mann’s Thief, a heist movie starring James Caan as a safecracker (a skill Caan actually learned for the film) trying to move his life away from the criminal underworld. According to Cage, the film works because of “the power of the lead performance and because of the power of the score and how well it supports the visual image.”
There you have it, four films that are as eclectic and varied as the man who appreciates them. They may not contain German expressionism or marmalade-munching bears, but they’re still some very interesting selections.
