Shirley Manson picks her favourite films of all time
Scottish musician Shirley Manson, best known for fronting the alternative rock band Garbage, is known for her bold stage presence and unique singing voice.
After performing with the band Goodbye Mr. Mackenzie on keys and backing vocal duties, Manson was signed as a solo artist under the name Angelfish. Though the project was short-lived, the music video for her single ‘Suffocate Me’ was seen by Steven Marker, who thought that Manson would be the perfect fit for his band, Garbage.
The band released their debut self-titled album in 1995, and its success led Echo and the Bunnymen to recruit Manson to sing on their seventh album, Evergreen. Manson’s fame grew as the band were asked to sing the theme song for the Bond film The World is Not Enough, and she also began to model for the likes of Calvin Klein.
Since their self-titled debut, Garbage have released six more studio albums, alongside multiple compilations and a remix album. Inspired by a wide range of influences, from The Velvet Underground to Cocteau Twins to The Pretenders, Garbage have been heralded for their unique sound that combines grunge with industrial rock, punk, trip-hop, shoegaze and pop.
In an early interview with the band, Marker stated that the band’s intention was to “take pop music and make it as horrible sounding as we can,” he said. Drummer Butch Vig has also claimed that he “grew up listening to everything from pop radio and opera to country music and polka, so I really thought that Garbage would be an interesting and eclectic thing to do.”
Manson has stated her major influences as Siouxsie Sioux, Patti Smith, Debbie Harry, David Bowie and Toyah Wilcox. However, Manson isn’t just a massive music fan, she also loves cinema, and it has helped shape her own creative vision.
In an interview with The Guardian, Manson revealed her favourite films as Michel Gondry’s sci-fi romance Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Park Chan-wook’s brutal thriller Oldboy, and Wong Kar-wai’s melancholic exploration of romance and loneliness, In the Mood for Love.
Whilst she picked these as her favourite films, she chose Paul Thomas Anderson, the filmmaker behind the likes of Phantom Thread, There Will Be Blood and Boogie Nights, as her favourite director.
Shirley Manson favourite films:
- Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind – (Michel Gondry, 2004)
- Oldboy – (Park Chan-wook, 2003)
- In the Mood for Love – (Wong Kar-wai, 2000)
Manson also revealed her least favourite film as the James Cameron blockbuster Titanic, claiming that it is “only film I’ve ever walked out of […] I fucking hated it.”
She also recalls being traumatised by Bambi at a young age, saying: “I was so involved in animals from a young age and was also insanely affected by Bambi – I sobbed like a baby and was quite traumatised by that. It was my first brush with the death of a mother figure and if you have a great mum, which I did, that’s utterly terrifying.”
