Peter Strickland’s 10 favourite films of all time
Having developed a reputation for being one of the most strikingly original filmmakers working today, British director Peter Strickland‘s works always manage to stand out. Attracting the attention of cinephiles all over the world through films such as Berberian Sound Studio and The Duke of Burgundy, Strickland’s has had a definitive impact on the landscape of modern British cinema and brought something completely different to the table.
Last year, Strickland made a totally unique horror comedy titled Flux Gourmet, which revolves around experimental artists who try to create unsettling experiences by extracting sound effects from food. In addition to the latest addition to his filmography, the director also participated in the highly-anticipated BFI Sight and Sound poll, where he submitted a list of the ten cinematic masterpieces that inspired him to become a filmmaker.
While talking about Chantal Akerman’s Jeanne Dielman, Strickland said: “A surprisingly musical film given the absence of a soundtrack. Its ever-insistent and accumulative rhythms, motifs and patterns amount to a quiet, domestic catharsis despite the fact that Delphine Seyrig didn’t know how to make a coffee until the shoot. If Michael Snow donned an apron, you might get something close to Akerman’s utterly singular and bloody-minded ode or indictment to the seeming invisibility of domestic drudgery.”
The director also cited Béla Tarr’s 1994 magnum opus Sátántangó, often referred to as the pinnacle of slow cinema. He noted: “A wretched, ethanol-sodden, social blackhole of a world in which almost all the characters are only concerned with their own personal gain. For all the magisterial structure and atmosphere, there might have been a prophetic forewarning of the caustic magnetism of Machiavellian leaders. Too late now.”
Strickland also included Paul Morrissey’s 1970 work Trash: “This is a very personal one for me, as Holly Woodlawn acted in my first narrative short film in 1995. She and the film were incredibly exotic for a middle-class teenager in suburban Reading, but beyond the ‘underground’ appeal of the sleaze and rudimentary sound, Morrissey graced the film with enough affection and romance to make me think of him as a back-alley Douglas Sirk.”
Check out the full list below.
Peter Strickland’s favourite films:
- Allures (Jordan Belson, 1961)
- The Cremator (Juraj Herz, 1969)
- Jeanne Dielman 23, Quai du Commerce 1080 Bruxelles (Chantal Akerman, 1975)
- Sátántangó (Béla Tarr, 1994)
- Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors (Sergei Paradjanov, 1965)
- Street of Crocodiles (Brothers Quay, 1986)
- Raging Bull (Martin Scorsese, 1980)
- Trash (Paul Morrissey, 1970)
- Viridiana (Luis Buñuel, 1961)
- Windfall in Athens (Michael Cacoyannis, 1954)
Strickland’s selection is particularly interesting because it includes classics as well as more obscure picks from world cinema that aren’t necessarily present on the majority of lists that were handed to BFI. Alongside cult works like Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors and Windfall in Athens, the director also named a Martin Scorsese gem.
Even though Strickland claimed that he doesn’t have a specific favourite Scorsese movie, he went with Raging Bull for the list. “My favourite Scorsese films often change, but Raging Bull plunges me into the ring to face all the demons that plague the culture of machismo, along with all the emotional impotence that corrupts such a psyche,” he explained.
