Robert Eggers names his favourite Disney movie of all time
Since the release of his debut feature film The Witch in 2015, Robert Eggers has found a place firmly in the heart of a new movement of horror. Boosting his devoted audience through collaborations with cult actors Robert Pattinson and Anya Taylor-Joy as well as a working relationship with beloved indie film company A24, Eggers has become an essential part of the cult cinematic canon.
The director is primarily known for his absurd, historical horrors. In 2019, he followed his debut with The Lighthouse, starring Robert Pattinson and Willem Dafoe as lighthouse keepers on a remote island, slowly descending into insanity. With an unusual aspect ratio and black-and-white cinematography, the film became a favourite amongst cinephiles for its strange look, screenplay, and themes.
Eggers delivered his most ambitious project yet with The Northman in 2022, which featured a star-studded cast including Alexander Skarsgārd, Nicole Kidman, Ethan Hawke, and Björk. His upcoming fourth feature sees the director venturing into remake territory, taking on F. W. Murnau’s 1922 silent film Nosferatu with Bill Skarsgård and Lily-Rose Depp reported to star.
In an interview with Rotten Tomatoes, Eggers named Nosferatu as one of his top five favourite films, dubbing Murnau his favourite director, “neck to neck with Bergman”. The list also reveals Eggers’ favourite Disney movie of all time – the 1964 musical fantasy Mary Poppins.
Eggers shares the importance of the film to him as a child, before stating: “It continued to be something that I revisited again because it’s just good. Good storytelling, quite beautiful. You’ve got to love the matte paintings of the London rooftops. You’ve got to love a movie where a witch is your nanny.” Eggers adds that, “It’s a movie where kids have power. They understand some things that their Edwardian dad doesn’t.”
The director takes a crack at Dick Van Dyke’s “Australian Cockney accent” but admits that he thinks Van Dyke’s performance as Bert is “incredible”. He explains: “He is such a good physical comedian and when they’re in the chalk painting – which is also just lovely, the live action mix and the animation – he often has the same dance choreography as Julie Andrews. And he interprets it incredibly differently. It’s not that he can’t do them, it’s that he’s interpreting them in a different way, for humour, with his body type and so cleverly.”
Eggers also revealed the influence of the classic Disney film on his own filmography, noting: “We use a Mary Poppins-esque weathervane shot in The Lighthouse.” The director praises the film’s narrative, suggesting it toes the line between creepy and sweet: “As much as it is a very, very satisfying narrative, the movie’s not without mystery. What is Mary Poppins’ backstory? What is her relationship with Bert?”
He continues: “She creeps me out. Like when her reflection in the mirror keeps singing after her. The way she’s a little bit austere with the children and then the next minute she’s super cuddle, it is a little creepy.”
Aside from taking inspiration from the weathervane shot, many of Eggers’ films conjure up the same unsettling feeling he describes in Mary Poppins. Perhaps it was the simultaneous love and terror Eggers felt for Mary Poppins as a child that led him to make films with the same effect.
