Robert Eggers shares five of his favourite movies
Since making his directorial debut with The Witch in 2015, American director Robert Eggers has been lauded by cinephiles worldwide. His niche, folklore-inspired features and continued collaborations with cult production and distribution company A24 introduced him to a curated group of cinema-goers, and his casting choices have also fed into his devoted cult following.
After awarding Anya Taylor-Joy her film debut in his New England-based horror, Eggers secured his place in indie cinema with The Lighthouse. Starring internet favourites Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson, the uncanny, black-and-white movie followed two lighthouse keepers through their descent into insanity. Despite its eccentricity and sparse dialogue, the film was a hit and earned a ‘Best Cinematography’ nomination at the Academy Awards.
More importantly, though, it endeared Eggers to a whole audience of cult cinema fans, ready and waiting for his next offering. In 2022, he delivered it with The Northman, which saw him reunite with Dafoe and Taylor Joy alongside a star-studded cast featuring Alexander Skarsgård, Nicole Kidman, Ethan Hawke and even Björk.
Eggers has certainly cemented a niche reputation as a director. Fittingly, his favourite movies contain many of the characteristics that have come to define his visual style. Picking out his five favourites for Le Cinéma Club, Eggers’ first choice was F.W. Murnau’s 1926 folklore-infused Faust – A German Folktale.
“Missing any moral ambiguity, but what spectacle and imagination,” he commented, “Ekman and Camilla Horn are truly moving.” It’s a fitting choice for Eggers, particularly as he looks to embark upon remaking Murnau’s earlier silent film, Nosferatu, with Bill Skarsgård and Lily-Rose Depp reported to star.
Moving away from his own mythological filmmaking, Eggers also picked out Ken Loach’s 2002 coming-of-age drama, Sweet Sixteen. The director dubs it his second favourite movie by the director, after Kes, noting, “You can’t not feel it.”
Eggers picked out two films released in 1971 – Luchino Visconti’s Death in Venice and Peter Brook’s adaptation of King Lear. On the former, he commented, “I love Dirk Bogarde. Visconti’s articulation of beauty as God makes this his masterpiece for me, and Piero Tosi is always perfect.”
Brook’s adaptation of Shakespeare’s King Lear is another fitting choice for Eggers, infusing aged literature with a more contemporary strangeness and black-and-white cinematography. “The film is sloppy, primitive and visceral,” he states, “but I think it has the best verse speaking on screen.”
Eggers’ final choice is George Cosmatos’ 1993 western, Tombstone, which he admits is a “childhood favourite and guilty pleasure.”
He adds: “Objectively, it’s unique in its portrayal of Victorian aspirationalism in the Wild West, especially in the design.”
Considering his own work, it’s an appropriately strange collection of movies, many of which have clearly influenced his own filmmaking. Check out the full list of Eggers’ favourite movies below.
Robert Eggers’ five favourite movies:
- Faust – A German Folktale (dir. F.W. Murnau, 1926)
- Death in Venice (Luchino Visconti, 1971)
- King Lear (Peter Brook, 1971)
- Tombstone (George Cosmatos, 1993)
- Sweet Sixteen (Ken Loach, 2002)
