Credit: Nicolas Genin

Nicolas Cage names his four favourite movies of all time

Wed 22 November 2023 14:45, UK

Academy Award winner Nicolas Cage is one of the defining actors of his generation, making his screen debut in Amy Heckerling’s 1982 comedy Fast Times at Ridgemont High. After this minor role, Cage secured a leading part in Valley Girl, giving his first taste of critical praise.

The rest of the 1980s saw Cage work with his uncle, Francis Ford Coppola, in Rumble Fish, The Cotton Club, and Peggy Sue Got Married. By the decade’s end, Cage had risen to acclaim with roles in Moonstruck alongside Cher and the Coen brothers’ Raising Arizona.

Since then, Cage has starred in a mixture of blockbuster movies, critical successes and commercial flops, earning an Oscar for Leaving Las Vegas in 1995. With credits such as Wild At Heart, Con Air, Face/Off, Adaptation, Pig, and The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, Cage has proved his versatility with a diverse range of credits.

The actor’s love of cinema dates back to his early childhood, when Cage was exposed to movies that instilled him with a deep love for the medium. In an interview with Letterboxd, Cage revealed these formative cinematic experiences, which led him on a path towards a career in the arts.

Cage’s first favourite movie is Federico Fellini’s Juliet of the Spirits, released in 1965, which won the Golden Globe Award for ‘Best Foreign Language Film’. According to Cage, “Fellini is at his best when he’s just uber Fellini, and that’s Fellini at the top Fellini”.

Cage stated that he first watched the film when he was five and was “gobsmacked by the colour”. Despite being a child, Cage recalls being “mostly taken by Giulietta Masina’s performance. I felt so bad for her. It was really a study in dignity, her character.” The actor also praised Fellini’s movie for its originality, calling it a “work of art”.

The 400 Blows, the debut feature by François Truffaut, is also an important movie to Cage, explaining that he saw it at “a very impressionable age, and I’ll never get the image of him on the beach at the end out of my head”.

He added that he would “laugh with [main character Antoine Doinel], and I was very upset for him. So that had a big impact on me.”

Elsewhere, Cage cites 2001: A Space Odyssey, Stanley Kubrick’s seminal sci-fi masterpiece, as another favourite. After seeing it in a drive-in theatre when he was four, Cage was transfixed by the potential of film, calling it “cinematic poetry”.

Finally, Cage discussed his love for what he believes to be “the greatest movie ever made” – Citizen Kane. Directed by Orson Welles, Cage first saw the film when he was five, adding: “I don’t know how [Welles] did it at 24 years old. It does not age. It’s as exciting as it ever was. The performances are mind-blowing.”

Discover Cage’s favourite movies below.