Robert Eggers names his 10 favourite movies
Few contemporary filmmakers can stand up to the mastery of Robert Eggers, a cinematic innovator who has helmed some of the most celebrated films of indie cinema, thanks to his profile being elevated by A24. Rubbing shoulders with the likes of Ari Aster, Greta Gerwig and Barry Jenkins, Eggers has earned great acclaim for his work that toes the line between arthouse and commercial cinema.
After making his first appearance in the industry in 2015 with the release of the horror flick The Witch, Eggers has grown from strength to strength ever since. Collaborating with Robert Pattinson and Willem Dafoe in 2019 for The Lighthouse, Eggers continued experimenting with the cinematic form, creating a monochrome fable of terror on a remote island just off the coast of New England.
Thanks to his contributions to modern cinema, Eggers has quickly become a fan favourite, and over the years, the director has given some insight into his own favourite flicks through multiple interviews and discussions.
Collating his ten favourite movies, Eggers starts off proceedings with a number of classic foreign flicks. From Luchino Visconti’s Death in Venice to F. W. Murnau’s Faust, Eggers is a lover of all things gothic and romantic, saying of the classic latter movie in an interview with Le Cinéma Club: “Missing any moral ambiguity, but what spectacle and imagination. Ekman and Camilla Horn are truly moving”.
Naming a number of celebrated foreign filmmakers, including Ingmar Bergman and Andrei Tarkovsky, Eggers also selects Fanny and Alexander and Andrei Rublev. Heavily inspired by both filmmakers, speaking about both movies, he notes: “But the last act, or the last movement of Andrei Rublev is probably just the best thing in cinema history. That bell casting sequence is just so powerful. In some ways, it’s kind of the same thing that Fanny and Alexander does where you’re not even sure who Andrei Rublev is for quite a while the first time you watch the movie”.
In terms of American cinema, Eggers doesn’t ignore the classics either, somewhat surprisingly picking the beloved Disney flick Mary Poppins. “It’s a movie where kids have power,” the director comments, “They understand some things that their Edwardian dad doesn’t. And we use a Mary Poppins-esque weathervane shot in The Lighthouse. And then also, as much as it is a very, very satisfying narrative, the movie’s not without mystery”.
Take a look at the full list of Eggers’ favourites below.
Robert Eggers’ 10 favourite movies:
- Andrei Rublev (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1973)
- Death in Venice (Luchino Visconti, 1971)
- Fanny and Alexander (Ingmar Bergman, 1982)
- Faust (F. W. Murnau, 1926)
- King Lear (Peter Brook, 1971)
- Mary Poppins (Robert Stevenson, 1964)
- Nosferatu (F. W. Murnau, 1922)
- Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors (Sergei Parajanov, 1965)
- Sweet Sixteen (Ken Loach, 2002)
- Tombstone (George Cosmatos, 1993)
