Paul Giamatti is up for the Best Actor Oscar this week and for good reason. He turned in one of the year's funniest and most poignant performances in Alexander Payne's The Holdovers as the zany, grouchy teacher Paul Hunham. It's just the latest in a string of wonderful performances from the actor, from Sideways and Cinderella Man to John Adams and Private Life. He has a likable everyman appeal and an impressive range that spans comedy and the bleakest drama.
Like most great actors, Giamatti is an avid cinephile with a wealth of film knowledge. In interviews and during his recent trip to the Criterion Closet, he has spoken at length about the movies that inspired and influenced him. He has fantastic and eclectic taste, so odds are, fans of his movies will enjoy his recommendations. Here are some of his most intriguing favorites.
10 'Blue Velvet' (1986)
Director: David Lynch
Blue Velvet is David Lynch's offbeat neo-noir about a young man named Jeffrey Beaumont (Kyle MacLachlan) who discovers a severed human ear and finds himself entangled in a vast conspiracy. He's joined by Isabella Rossellini as lounge singer Dorothy Vallens and Laura Dern as Sandy Williams, the daughter of a local detective. Their stories intertwine in a surreal odyssey through the criminal underworld. All the while, they are stalked by the vicious killer Frank Booth (Dennis Hopper), who is as disturbed as he is sadistic. The film polarized audiences on release but has since been recognized as one of Lynch's best projects.
"This is the movie that I think, for better or worse, really pushed me over the edge and made me go ‘I wanna be an actor’" Giamatti said. "If you held a gun to my head and said ‘What’s your favorite performance in any movie?’ I would say Dennis Hopper as Frank Booth in this movie. He achieves something just off the charts amazing."
Blue Velvet
RCrimeDramaMysteryThrillerThe discovery of a severed human ear found in a field leads a young man on an investigation related to a beautiful, mysterious nightclub singer and a group of psychopathic criminals who have kidnapped her child.
Cast Isabella Rossellini , Kyle MacLachlan , Dennis Hopper , Laura Dern , Hope Lange , dean stockwell Runtime 120 minutes9 'The Third Man' (1949)
Director: Carol Reed
Holly Martins (Joseph Cotten) is a down-on-his-luck American writer who arrives in postwar Vienna to visit his old friend Harry Lime (Orson Welles), only to discover that Lime has been killed in a mysterious accident. As Martins delves deeper into the circumstances surrounding Lime's death, he becomes embroiled in a web of betrayal and deceit. Navigating the city's shadowy streets and encountering suspicious characters, Martins soon learns that his friend Harry Lime was not the man he thought he was.
With the help of Lime's former lover, Anna (Alida Valli), Martins uncovers a scheme involving black market racketeering and the illicit trade of penicillin. As the plot thickens, Martins is torn between loyalty to his friend and his sense of justice. "It's kind of a perfect movie," Giamatti said. "It exceeds the hype. Everything about it — the performances, music, cinematography — delights me. The end of the film, too, is so unspeakably great. It never fails."
The Third Man
ApprovedNoirMysteryThrillerPulp novelist Holly Martins travels to shadowy, postwar Vienna, only to find himself investigating the mysterious death of an old friend, Harry Lime.
Cast Orson Welles , Joseph Cotten , Alida Valli , Trevor Howard , Paul Hörbiger Runtime 93 Minutes8 'Local Hero' (1983)
Director: Bill Forsyth
CloseThis comedy centers on Mac (Peter Riegert), an ambitious young oil executive who arrives in the fictional Scottish village of Ferness to negotiate the purchase of land for an oil project. As he engages with the oddball locals, like marine biologist Marina (Jenny Seagrove) and enigmatic beachcomber Gordon Urquhart (Denis Lawson), he starts to rethink his values. This risks bringing him into conflict with his boss Felix Happer (Burt Lancaster), a quirky oilman with a love for astronomy.
Local Hero is a charming and warmhearted movie, with a slightly aimless plot but enough fascinating characters to more than compensate. "It's not sentimental, but it's whimsical and it achieves both those things without ever overstepping a line and becoming too much of one thing. It walks this perfect line, and it's such a sweet movie and such a heartbreaking movie," Giamatti said. "It also features my favorite Burt Lancaster performance."
7 'Rashomon' (1950)
Director: Akira Kurosawa
Rashomon is Akira Kurosawa's masterful statement on truth and perception. Set in feudal Japan, the film unfolds through a series of conflicting narratives, each recounting the events surrounding the murder of a samurai and the assault of his wife in the forest. As the story is told from the perspectives of a woodcutter (Takashi Shimura), a bandit (Toshiro Mifune), the samurai's wife (Machiko Kyō), and even the spirit of the deceased samurai (Masayuki Mori) himself, the movie confronts the subjectivity of memory. This structure, termed the Rashomon effect, would go on to be emulated by countless movies and shows.
"It’s the only movie that makes me cry," Giamatti said. "One of my favorite shots in any movie is the shot when Toshirô Mifune is on the ground, and he's supposed to be this big tough bandit, but he's terrified and scrambling away, and the camera is moving with him. It's just amazing. It's camera and actor and everything working together so beautifully," he explains.
Rashomon
NRThe rape of a bride and the murder of her samurai husband are recalled from the perspectives of a bandit, the bride, the samurai's ghost and a woodcutter.
Cast Toshiro Mifune , Takashi Shimura Runtime 88 Main Genre Drama6 'Carnival of Souls' (1962)
Director: Herk Harvey
Carnival of Souls is an atmospheric cult horror focusing on Mary Henry (Candace Hilligoss), a young woman who miraculously survives a car accident but becomes haunted by disturbing visions. After the accident, Mary moves to a new town to start a job as a church organist, but she becomes increasingly drawn to an abandoned carnival pavilion on the outskirts of town.
As Mary's encounters with the mysterious pavilion become more frequent, and as a pale man relentlessly stalks her, she begins to question her sanity and her very existence. "It’s the first movie I ever remember seeing when I was 4 years old," Giamatti said. "I was with a babysitter who thought it was a good idea for us to watch this [...] It scared the crap out of me and I think I didn’t sleep for maybe a year [and] my parents never hired that babysitter again. But it was an amazing experience, and it’s an amazing movie."
Carnival of Souls
HorrorMysteryA woman begins experiencing unsettling phenomena following a near-fatal car accident. As her visions intensify, she is inexplicably drawn to an eerie, abandoned amusement park, where the boundary between the real and the surreal begins to blur.
Cast Candace Hilligoss , Frances Feist , Sidney Berger , Art Ellison , Stan Levitt , Tom McGinnis Runtime 84 minutes5 'The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp' (1943)
Director: Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger
CloseThis expansive war film follows the journey of Clive Candy (Roger Livesey), a British officer whose experiences in conflicts from the Boer War to World War II shape his life. In particular, the story revolves around Candy's evolving relationships with German soldier Theo Kretschmar-Schuldorff (Anton Walbrook), once his enemy but later a friend, and Barbara Wynne (Deborah Kerr), a nurse. Through Candy's experiences, the movie explores themes of warfare, friendship, and societal changes in Britain during the first half of the 20th century.
The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp is held in high esteem due to its stunning Technicolor cinematography, powerful acting, and profound themes. Moreover, it strikes a balance between fondness and satire, offering a critique of British society, especially the military, without descending into harshness. "There’s this great sequence that builds up to this wonderful duel," Giamatti said. "It’s a very funny movie. It’s a very moving movie. It’s a big, expansive, epic movie, a sort of British history. And I love that dueling."
4 'Solaris' (1972)
Director: Andrei Tarkovsky
"Don't turn a scientific problem into a common love story." Solaris is a philosophical sci-fi epic by preeminent Russian filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky. It follows psychologist Kris Kelvin (Donatas Banionis) who is sent to a space station orbiting the mysterious planet Solaris. Upon his arrival, Kelvin discovers that the crew members have been experiencing hallucinations of their deepest fears and desires, which are somehow generated by the sentient ocean covering Solaris's surface.
As Kelvin learns more, he becomes haunted by visions of his deceased wife, Hari (Natalya Bondarchuk), whose appearance on the station is both a source of comfort and torment. The movie was highly influential, lending ideas to everything from Event Horizon to Inception. "Over the years, though, I revisited [Solaris] and came to love it very much," Giamatti said. "I love all of [Tarkovsky's] movies but I like this one in particular and [its] fantastic production design of kind of crappy spaceship that they all live on."
Solaris
PG-13DramaDocumentaryMysteryRomance Sci-Fi Cast George Clooney , Natascha McElhone , Viola Davis , Jeremy Davies , Ulrich Tukur , John Cho Runtime 993 'Cat People' (1942)
Director: Jacques Tourneur
CloseIrena Dubrovna (Simone Simon) is a Serbian immigrant living in New York who believes herself to be descended from a race of people who transform into panthers when aroused. After marrying the charming Oliver Reed (Kent Smith), Irena begins to fear that her dark heritage may be true, especially when her jealousy is ignited by Oliver's coworker, Alice Moore (Jane Randolph). Irena begins stalking the woman, and corpses start piling up. Cat People is a classic of 1940s horror. Although it received lukewarm reviews on release, it inspired subsequent directors and served as the basis for Paul Schrader's 1982 remake.
"I’m a big fan of these Val Lewton horror movies," Giamatti said of it. "I love these movies because they’re very low budget, and they’re this amazing example of doing all this extraordinary stuff with absolutely nothing [...] They all have these gripping, great, almost kind of iconic moments [...] It all feels very unreal and dreamlike."
2 'Seconds' (1966)
Director: John Frankenheimer
CloseJohn Randolph stars in this psychological horror as Arthur Hamilton, a middle-aged banker who feels trapped in his mundane existence and longs for a second chance at life. Upon receiving a mysterious offer from a shadowy organization known as "The Company," Hamilton undergoes a radical transformation, faking his own death and assuming a new identity as Tony Wilson, played by Rock Hudson. But as Tony navigates his new life, complete with a youthful appearance and luxurious lifestyle, he discovers that The Company's promise of a fresh start comes at a price.
"[Seconds] made the hugest impression on me. But one of the things I really love about this movie is its one of the most terrific examples of what an actor can do in a small, tiny supporting part," Giamatti said. "There’s an actor named Murray Hamilton [who] appears at the end of this movie for two minutes, maybe, not even, and he barely speaks, and it’s one of my favorite performances in any movie."
1 'Wings' (1966)
Director: Larisa Shepitko
CloseThis Soviet film is a character study of Nadezhda Petrukhina (Maya Bulgakova), a former Soviet World War II fighter pilot who struggles to find her place in post-war society. She is revered as a hero by her peers but struggles to connect with the younger generation. Wings follows Nadezhda as she attempts to reconcile the trauma of her wartime experiences with the challenges of civilian life. Haunted by memories of combat and the loss of her comrades, Nadezhda grapples with feelings of isolation, finding solace only in the skies where she once soared with freedom and purpose.
It makes for a remarkable debut by filmmaker Larisa Shepitko, whose career was cut tragically short by a car accident. "I don’t even understand how Shepitko got this made in the Soviet Union because it seems sort of critical in some ways," Giamatti said. "But there’s this incredible poetry, the great way she uses the flying in it and stuff to talk about this woman’s interior life, and it’s really a beautiful movie."
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