The films Cillian Murphy called masterpieces: “That movie just hasn’t aged”
The slow but steady rise of Cillian Murphy as one of this generation’s greats has been a joy to watch. To be clear, he’s always been great. From his breakthrough role in 28 Days Later to more challenging offerings like Breakfast on Pluto and The Wind That Shakes the Barley to his world-conquering turn as the pioneer of the atomic bomb in Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, the Irishman always puts in a good shift. He is now firmly embedded amongst the elite, where he belongs.
The Peaky Blinders star seems to be incredibly adept at picking projects. He rarely turns up in a stinker. Well, with the exception of Transcendence, in which he plays a supporting role. That counts for about three bad movies for the price of one. Murphy clearly has a strong appreciation for good cinema, as demonstrated by the movies he highlights as his favourites.
In an interview with Letterboxd, he gave his customary ‘Four Favourites’. He took a different tact than usual, instead highlighting the movies he had recently enjoyed showing to his children. Talented, handsome, and a family man. Is there anything he can’t do? Anyway, alongside Apocalypse Now, Midnight Cowboy, and The Big Lebowski – fingers crossed his kids weren’t toddlers when he showed them those – he also gave a big shoutout to Mathieu Kassovitz’s La Haine.
“It hasn’t aged,” he fawned. “It still speaks to what’s happening in France today.” Separately, he would describe the movie as “a masterpiece” and assured the interviewer that his kids “loved it”. They weren’t present during the chat, so we’ll have to take his word for it.
La Haine, which translated as ‘Hatred’ in English, is widely regarded as one of the greatest French films ever made. It follows three young men who get caught up in a night of rioting in a Paris suburb. As they await news on the health of one of their friends, who they believe was the victim of racially aggravated police brutality, they roam the streets in a fit of rage, looking for revenge.
The story was inspired by a similar, real-life incident in which a young African man was shot at point-blank range while in police custody. It was heralded by critics all over the world for capturing the powderkeg environment of the French capital at the time, as well as its various technical achievements. As Murphy so eloquently put it, France still has myriad issues with racism and integrating immigrants into its culture. Kassovitz’s work is still terrifyingly relevant.
Along with these four varied picks, Murphy has also expressed an appreciation for Charles Haughton’s The Night of the Hunter. He also described the Robert Mitchum thriller as ‘a masterpiece’, which seems to be his preferred term of endearment. Given that his picks up to this point include a Coppola epic, a Coen brothers comedy, a French drama, and an acclaimed 1950s paragon, it’s clear that Murphy is a big cinephile.
A healthy appreciation for a deep selection of movies is obviously a contributing factor to Murphy’s diverse career. He rarely stays in the same genre from project to project, no doubt influenced by his own wide-ranging taste. Given that he’s not even 50 years old at the time of writing, there’s still plenty of time for him to add more variety to his CV.
