A selection of Céline Sciamma’s favourite movies
French filmmaker Céline Sciamma has been one of cinema’s most prominent voices since the mid-2000s, using her work to explore themes of sexuality and gender, particularly femininity.
In an industry dominated by male directors, Sciamma provides a refreshing perspective on issues that are rarely afforded significant and adequate exploration, such as lesbianism and gender fluidity. With her first film, Water Lillies, released in 2007, Sciamma won the ‘Louis Delluc Prize’ at the Cannes Film Festival. However, she almost stuck exclusively to screenwriting, citing the androcentrism of the industry as an initial deterrent from directing.
Sciamma possesses an incredible talent for screenwriting and directing, treating her characters with great sensitivity – delving into complex topics with nuance. In 2011, she released Tomboy, which explored a young child’s gender identity journey, and in 2014, she shared Girlhood, which is about working-class black teenage girls living in Parisian banlieues. Yet, her best-known movie is Portrait of a Lady on Fire, which won two prestigious awards at Cannes.
Sciamma cites a mixture of Hollywood classics and foreign arthouse gems as some of her favourite movies, shaping her love of the medium. One of the director’s favourite movies is 2001: A Space Odyssey, Stanley Kubrick’s epic sci-fi drama about the rise and fall of humankind and the dangers of technology.
She also cites some other sci-fi classics as favourites, such as E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Blade Runner. Talking to Letterboxd, she once called E.T. the most “romantic” movie she’s ever seen, adding, “This is a great love story for me.”
Elsewhere, Sciamma has expressed her love for Jacques Demy’s The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, which made her “understand filmmaking, mise-en-scène. Definitely as a young kid — I was 12 years old — I found out that, okay, there’s somebody behind this with a vision.”
She also loves Chantal Akerman’s Jeanne Dielman, 23, Quai Du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles, explaining, “I’m trying to watch radical films that renew your faith in cinema. I mean, they’re major pieces of art, but just give this feeling that you can be radical, you can be bold, and to get this excitement about, really, the language of cinema.”
Some lesser-known picks on Sciamma’s list include Deep End by Jerzy Skolimowski, an enthralling tale of obsession set in a British public bath house. Pier Paolo Pasolini’s Theorem, released in 1968, also makes the cut, a fascinating study of divinity, with Terence Stamp playing a man whose mere presence shakes a whole family.
Discover all of Sciamma’s favourite movies below.
Céline Sciamma’s favourite movies:
- The Abyss (James Cameron, 1989)
- Heavenly Creatures (Peter Jackson, 1994)
- E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (Steven Spielberg, 1982)
- The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (Jacques Demy, 1964)
- Close Encounters of the Third Kind (Steven Spielberg, 1977)
- 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1968)
- Akira (Katsuhiro Otomo, 1988)
- Belle de Jour (Luis Buñuel, 1967)
- Gattaca (Andrew Niccol, 1997)
- Big (Penny Marshall, 1988)
- Blade Runner (Ridley Scott, 1982)
- Bound (the Wachowskis, 1996)
- Carrie (Brian De Palma, 1976)
- Some Like It Hot (Billy Wilder, 1959)
- Singin’ in the Rain (Stanley Donan, Gene Kelly, 1952)
- Cruising (William Friedkin, 1980)
- Crash (David Cronenberg, 1996)
- Deep End (Jerzy Skolimowski, 1970)
- Eyes Wide Shut (Stanley Kubrick, 1999)
- Gremlins (Joe Dante, 1984)
- Unbreakable (M. Night Shyamalan, 2000)
- The Empire Strikes Back (Irvin Kershner, 1980)
- La Jetée (Chris Marker, 1962)
- The Piano (Jane Campion, 1993)
- Heaven’s Gate (Michael Cimino, 1980)
- Mirror (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1975)
- Grave of the Fireflies (Isso Takahata, 1988)
- Made in Britain (Alan Clarke, 1982)
- Man on the Moon (Miloš Forman, 1999)
- My Neighbour Totoro (Hayao Miyazaki, 1988)
- Death in Venice (Luchino Visconti, 1971)
- My Own Private Idaho (Gus Van Sant, 1991)
- Opening Night (John Cassavetes, 1977)
- Phantom of the Paradise (Brian De Palma, 1974)
- Point Break (Kathryn Bigelow, 1991)
- Back to the Future (Robert Zemeckis, 1985)
- Showgirls (Paul Verhoeven, 1995)
- Soylent Green (Richard Fleischer, 1973)
- The Bridges of Madison County (Clint Eastwood, 1995)
- The Thing (John Carpenter, 1982)
- Thelma and Louise (Ridley Scott, 1991)
- Theorem (Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1968)
- Tootsie (Sydney Pollack, 1982)
- Total Recall (Paul Verhoeven, 1990)
- The Band Wagon (Vincente Minnelli, 1953)
- Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me (David Lynch, 1992)
- Groundhog Day (Harold Ramis, 1993)
- Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock, 1958)
- Victor/Victoria (Blake Edwards, 1982)
- The Deer Hunter (Michael Cimino, 1978)
- Jeanne Dielman, 23, Quai Du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (Chantal Akerman, 1975)
