Steve McQueen names his five favourite movies of all time
Too often forgotten from the landscape of British cinema after storming the industry in the late 2000s, the director Steve McQueen, not to be confused with the action star known for leaping out of a POW camp with a motorbike, is one of contemporary cinema’s greatest talents. Winning ‘Best Picture’ at the 2014 Oscars for 12 Years a Slave, McQueen hasn’t stopped innovating and experimenting in and around the industry ever since.
A multi-talented creative and an Oscar winner, McQueen was also appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2011, an award that sounds like a mediaeval accolade for his contributions to the visual arts. Since then, he’s created four award-winning feature films, one extensive documentary about the occupation of the Netherlands in WWII, and the seminal BBC drama Small Axe, which boasted the very best modern British talent.
Growing up in late 20th-century London, McQueen was exposed to an exciting time in the world of filmmaking, where world-famous directors like Martin Scorsese, Stanley Kubrick and Steven Spielberg were continuing to excite, while British cinema was, too, getting a boost of artistic excellence. This varied growth of world cinema during McQueen’s childhood is reflected in his picks for his five favourite movies, as revealed in an interview with A-Frame.
First on McQueen’s list is the celebrated war film The Battle of Algiers by Gillo Pontecorvo, a film that tells the story of the people of Algiers’ fight for independence from the French government in the 1950s. “It was one of those movies that just touched me,” McQueen revealed, “It was a powerful picture. I loved what it was saying and how it was saying it. It’s a fantastic picture, and is actually the last film to be shown at the Lumiere Cinema in London”.
Showing his range of interests as a filmmaker and general artist, the director’s next pick is the Andy Warhol short film Couch from 1964. “Warhol did a series of short films with all these people on a couch, put them together, and called it Couch,” McQueen outlined, “It was a camera just looking at people on a couch, which was really very strong”. A multi-faceted artist just like McQueen, it’s no wonder Warhol remains such an endearing figure of inspiration in the life of the director.
From an arthouse short film to a two-time Oscar nominee, Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing is considered to be one of the most seminal movies of the 1980s. Starring Lee in the lead role, the film tells the story of a hot summer day which brings racial tensions to the boil on the streets of Brooklyn. Evidently a fan of rousing feature films, McQueen said of the movie, “Do the Right Thing was so relevant and impactful that, similar to The Battle of Algiers, it gave the audience the feeling that they could do something. It was a call to arms”.
Japanese cinema has long been considered one of the most championed industries of all of world cinema, with Yasujirō Ozu’s Tokyo Story regularly being called its crowning glory. A domestic drama, much like Ozu’s other works, Tokyo Story simply “seeps into you” as McQueen aptly puts it, “It hurts so good. It’s like the blues. It’s a beautiful film about this ageing couple who travel to Tokyo to visit their grown children, and it’s all about the undercurrent”.
The final movie on McQueen’s list is 1946’s Zéro de conduite from the great Jean Vigo. Despite being just 41 minutes long, Zéro de conduite remains one of French cinema’s greatest offerings, telling the story of four boys who rebel against a repressive boarding school. “I remember seeing it for the first time in 1992 and falling in love with it,” McQueen stated, “It struck a chord with me even though it’s only 41 minutes long. It was just extraordinary”.
Steve McQueen’s favourite movies:
- The Battle of Algiers (Gillo Pontecorvo, 1966)
- Couch (Andy Warhol, 1964)
- Do the Right Thing (Spike Lee, 1989)
- Tokyo Story (Yasujirō Ozu, 1953)
- Zéro de conduite (Jean Vigo, 1946)
