Robert Englund names his five favourite movies of all time
The 1980s were rife with horror villains, with filmmakers such as Sam Raimi, Wes Craven and John Carpenter creating such nauseating beings as Michael Myers, Jason Voorhees and Freddy Krueger. Of the iconic slasher trio, Krueger, with his bladed fingers, curious jumper choice and fetching fedora, might be the best of the lot, with the actor behind the beast, Robert Englund, having enjoyed a successful career thanks to the villain.
Appearing as Krueger in eight Nightmare on Elm Street movies, Englund has become one of the most celebrated and decorated horror actors of the genre, gaining a large number of fans in the process. Back in 2015, the actor gave fans some insight into his life behind the Krueger mask in an interview with Rotten Tomatoes, where he discussed his five favourite movies of all time.
Englund’s first pick is the 1976 Bernardo Bertolucci masterpiece 1900, which told the story of class struggle in 20th-century Italy from two different perspectives. “It’s epic — when I saw it at a film festival, they literally had an intermission where they served pasta and red wine. It was wonderful,” the actor said of the film, “It’s a thin, handsome Gérard Depardieu in the prime of his youth, and Robert De Niro doing a great ageing character”.
Elsewhere, Englund moves onto another classic of 20th-century cinema, Otto Preminger’s 1959 movie Anatomy of a Murder. Speaking about the crime flick that follows a barrister defending a seemingly guilty man, the actor states: “The Jimmy Stewart character tinkles on the ivories and he plays a little bit of jazz sometimes as a kind of hobby, so that justifies the score. But that’s a great film — black and white, beautifully shot, underrated. Almost a perfect film”.
His most mainstream pick goes to the Steven Spielberg sci-fi Close Encounters of the Third Kind. “I love Close Encounters –– it’s magical,” he starts, praising the director’s alien epic, “Spielberg does have that dark side, but he doesn’t always show it. Anyway, I love Close Encounters, and I can see it again and again. There’s just magical, magical stuff in it”.
The 1955 Elia Kazan movie East of Eden, starring the great James Dean, is Englund’s fourth pick. Shooting Dean to international stardom, East of Eden remains his most memorable role to this very day, as well as one of the finest Hollywood flicks of all time. “It was the power of a true movie star,” Englund said of Dean, “It was the first American teenager, James Dean, on the screen. And it didn’t matter that it was a predominantly… junior high school to high school kids — they got it. They got his angst, they got his beauty, they got his rebellion”.
Lastly, Englund tops his list off with the 1957 Stanley Donen movie Funny Face, notably leaving no room at all for any horror films. Starring Audrey Hepburn, Englund spent most of his time talking about the potency of the Hollywood icon, “Probably the greatest face of the 20th century, if not Sophia Loren and perhaps Monroe. Maybe Ingrid Bergman. But certainly she changed everything for the waif look, and the modern woman, and the non-buxom bosomy girl; and also always played smart”.
Robert Englund’s favourite movies:
- 1900 (Bernardo Bertolucci, 1976)
- Anatomy Of A Murder (Otto Preminger, 1959)
- Close Encounters Of The Third Kind (Steven Spielberg, 1977)
- East Of Eden (Elia Kazan, 1955)
- Funny Face (Stanley Donen, 1957)
