Willem Dafoe names his three favourite movies of all time
Some people just have the right face for performing on screen. This isn’t a reference to the likes of Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie and Leonardo DiCaprio, who could romance anyone with just a cheeky wink, even though they certainly do have the face for the camera instead, it’s a nod to the likes of Steve Buscemi, Shelley Duvall and Willem Dafoe, whose faces can hide 1000 emotions.
While fans of late 20th-century cinema might champion the facial range of Duvall and Buscemi, modern audiences might praise Dafoe thanks to his expressive performances in such movies as Spider-Man, Antichrist and The Lighthouse. Entering the industry back in 1980, Dafoe has since earned four Oscar nominations for such movies as Oliver Stone’s Platoon and Sean Baker’s Florida Project.
Most recently, he’s collaborated with the Greek mastermind Yorgos Lanthimos for the release of Poor Things, where he plays a maniacal scientist obsessed with his new creation, a woman with the mind of a child. Based on the book of the same name by Scottish author Alasdair Gray, the story is a gothic comedy that looks into themes of sexuality, feminism and nihilism.
The film made his list of all-time favourite movies, though only because he was on the red carpet for the movie when he was asked for his favourites by the movie logging service Letterboxd.
Aside from his latest collaboration with Lanthimos, first on his list of favourites is the Japanese horror movie Onibaba. A classic of the genre, Onibaba, directed by Kaneto Shindô, tells the story of two women who kill samurai and sell their belongings in order to make a living until their livelihood is upended after coming face to face with a ghostly samurai warrior.
Elsewhere, Dafoe names the Stanley Kubrick classic Barry Lyndon a favourite. Often overlooked in his filmography, Barry Lyndon is a narrative and technical marvel that stars Ryan O’Neal as an Irish rogue who assumes the position of a rich aristocrat in 18th-century England. More than anything, in contemporary cinema, Barry Lyndon is praised for its revolutionary approach to lighting.
His final pick is The Magician from the iconic Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman, undoubtedly one of the director’s lesser-known works. Telling the story of a travelling magician and his assistants who are persecuted across Sweden, the film stars the likes of Max von Sydow, Ingrid Thulin and Gunnar Björnstrand, and is a cult favourite of Bergman’s filmography.
Check out the full list of Dafoe’s favourites in the list below.
Willem Dafoe’s favourite movies:
- Barry Lyndon (Stanley Kubrick, 1975)
- The Magician (Ingmar Bergman, 1958)
- Onibaba (Kaneto Shindo, 1964)
