Need some recommendations? Not sure what to watch tonight? Start with these! You never know where they might lead you… With everyone around the whole world staying at home during this coronavirus pandemic lockdown / quarantine, many have been spending the time watching / reading / listening to as many movies / books / albums as they can. Guillermo del Toro went on Twitter this week to encourage his filmmaker friends to speak up and speak up about what they've been watching, and reading, and listening to – as long as they're "things we love". He ended up getting a whole bunch of fascinating and intriguing responses from filmmakers including: Darren Aronofsky, Sarah Polley, Edgar Wright, Ari Aster, Brad Bird, Ava DuVernary, and a few others. We've compiled most of the responses below to peruse and add to your queue. Have a look.
1/3 Alright- here we go- just a few ideas: I hope this can be about things we love. Not about things we hate or things we are weighed down about. We cannot answer questions out in the open but please read and respond to each other as much as possible.
— Guillermo del Toro (@RealGDT) April 20, 2020
We will be here a little bit and the first few questions are: What are you reading? What are you watching? What are you listening to? And How many days have you been indoors?
— Guillermo del Toro (@RealGDT) April 20, 2020
Responses from Guillermo del Toro:
Been rewatching Mitchell Leisen: Easy Living, Death Takes a Holiday, Midnight, Hold back the Dawn, etc etc Leisen was (in his time) relegated as being a “Stylist” and unfavorably compared to Sturges or Wilder (sometimes by Wilder himself) with whom he collaborated.
— Guillermo del Toro (@RealGDT) April 20, 2020
With the kids we have been watching SINGING IN THE RAIN, REAR WINDOW and other bulletproof stuff. Also watch a lot of CHOPPED and end up cooking!!
— Guillermo del Toro (@RealGDT) April 20, 2020
Responses from Edgar Wright:
I have been watching 2 or 3 films a day for the last month. Partly as an escape, partly as inspiration. I'd always dreamed of a strange scenario where I'd have an excuse to methodically get through a huge pile of BluRays but I swear this situation is a result of my Monkey's Paw.
— edgarwright (@edgarwright) April 20, 2020
The majority of the films are ones that I'd never seen or saw when I was very young and did not fully understand them. I have not being hiding in escapist movies so much though and found great solace in many war time & post war movies - British, Italian, German, French, Japanese.
— edgarwright (@edgarwright) April 20, 2020
Responses from Ari Aster:
I've been rewatching Sopranos season 3, which is a supreme work of art. Also been rewatching the TV version of 'Scenes from a Marriage.' It's been a comfort to watch two morbidly disenchanted people decimate each other in the comfort and privacy of THEIR homes.
— Ari Aster (@AriAster) April 20, 2020
Recently watched 'Reds' on Amazon Prime, which also has the benefit of being long and is swooningly romantic, which, as a single person, makes me want to cut off my hands and replace them with my feet (also a comfort in these trying times). Nicholson as Eugene O'Neill is a treat
— Ari Aster (@AriAster) April 20, 2020
Responses from Ava DuVernary:
I’ve done less discovery and more comfort viewing. I’m watching the stories I’ve always loved over again. Comforted by images and words I’ve embraced before. I guess I want to make sure what I’m watching embraces me back. Didn’t realize that until I just typed it.
— Ava DuVernay (@ava) April 20, 2020
My fave thing I’ve rewatched lately is BELLY. A classic in black cinema for its capture of our skin and of hip hop’s Golden Era. Malik Sayeed should’ve received acclaim for his cinematography. Stellar! Hype Williams directed. It was dismissed by critics. They missed the beauty. pic.twitter.com/IrdQjaVAZU
— Ava DuVernay (@ava) April 20, 2020
Response from Darren Aronofsky:
gdt nice to be talking. i’ve been catching up on a lot of classics. watched so far: barton fink, amelie, roshaman, total recall (original). reading: thoreau walden and pablo neruda. listening to: KMLN and schubert. been in quarantine for 40 days. https://t.co/sv2XtVsWbO
— darren aronofsky (@DarrenAronofsky) April 20, 2020
Response from Taika Waititi:
Haven't been watching much as I'm trying to catch up on writing (going super slow). Been enjoying @Hilary_Mantel's Wolf Hall & revisited @Aiannucci's Death of Stalin which I adore. Listening to a lot of Bob Marley and planning to have no plans. No idea how many days inside.
— Taika Waititi (@TaikaWaititi) April 20, 2020
Responses from James Mangold:
Hey GDT. I started replying to Darren without you! I am such a thread loser. In terms of reading, it's all been research for writing right now. Lost of sixties Folk scene books. regarding film, I was mentioning Red Desert & Ugetsu as my most recent watches…
— Mangold (@mang0ld) April 20, 2020
I've been on Criterion almost exclusively. Just watched Red Desert again. As always I'm struck by the devastatingly beautiful palatte. And Monica Vitti's performance. Appreciated the film in new ways too. There's a whole plague aspect to the narrative. Both literal & figurative.
— Mangold (@mang0ld) April 20, 2020
Response from Lexi Alexander:
The best movie I have seen lately is an old movie called Topkapi. It came out 10 years before I was born and I somehow missed it until now. I loved it. Every heist movie since then must have borrowed from it…I knew Melina Mercouri of course, amazing actress turned politician pic.twitter.com/iDybgncHcf
— Lexi Alexander (@Lexialex) April 20, 2020
Responses from Scott Derrickson:
One of the things I've been trying to think consciously about is which great movies I only watched during the VHS era -- there are hundreds. Starting to make a list of those that I want to see on Criterion, Netflix, etc…especially if I can see them with proper aspect ratio.
— N O S ⋊ Ɔ I á´š á´š ÆŽ á—¡ ⊥ ⊥ O Ɔ S (@scottderrickson) April 20, 2020
Bunuel's work is a perfect example of films I only ever saw on VHS -- and I suspect seeing properly formatted, higher resolution versions of those films would be significantly different. Now is a good time to rewatch the only-seen-on-VHS films.
— N O S ⋊ Ɔ I á´š á´š ÆŽ á—¡ ⊥ ⊥ O Ɔ S (@scottderrickson) April 20, 2020
Response from Joe Dante:
You could do worse than the Criterion Channel Columbia noir series, which includes Gilda, In a Lonely Place,The Big Heat, Drive a Crooked Road… 1/2 https://t.co/XWWFtdVmaj
— Joe Dante (@joe_dante) April 20, 2020
Response from Jorge R. Gutierrez:
I’ve been rewatching moments from films that made me fall in love with cinema. I spend 2 to 3 hours a day just reliving those emotions and remembering where I was in life when I first experienced those films. Realizing films I saw in film school really did shape me as a person.
— Jorge R. Gutierrez (@mexopolis) April 20, 2020
Responses from Sarah Polley:
I am reading Gilead by Marilynne Robinson and Things I Don’t Want To Know by Deborah Levy. I am watching Ferris Bueller’s Day Off with my kids today because I’m trying to wean them off terrible Disney Channel movies, and I am rewatching The Thin Red Line when they go to bed.
— @realSarahPolley (@realsarahpolley) April 20, 2020
I've also discovered this month that Sidney Lumet made perfect films. I don't know why I didn't notice this before. I recently watched Running on Empty for the first time, and this led me to Dog Day Afternoon and I can't believe his confidence, honestly, and rigour.
— @realSarahPolley (@realsarahpolley) April 20, 2020
Response from Scott Beck & Bryan Woods:
Indoors for over a month. We’ve been revisiting recent films from great filmmakers that struggled critically and/or commercially upon release. Chappie, Aloha, The Box, Jupiter Ascending, The Counselor, Alexander, Welcome to Marwen. So many beautiful big swings!
— Beck/Woods (@beckandwoods) April 20, 2020
Responses from Brad Bird:
I’ve been watching old films, rediscovered the pleasure of reading books; some about the making of certain films I love (“Chinatown”, “Casablanca”) others about current things (“Catch & Kill”— which I really liked), etc. Right now I’m reading “The Wright Brothers”.
— Brad Bird (@BradBirdA113) April 20, 2020
JUST saw A PLACE IN THE SUN again. Chemistry between Clift and Taylor is through the roof-!
— Brad Bird (@BradBirdA113) April 20, 2020
THE CREATIVE HABIT by Twyla Tharp is one. ART and FEAR is another — and has some wonderful insights to the mindset of anyone struggling to make art.
— Brad Bird (@BradBirdA113) April 20, 2020
You can find the original thread on Twitter here and click through all of the replies for all of the responses and recommendations and more. I'm glad Guillermo asked all these filmmakers to respond, and could get some interesting recommendations from them. It seems filmmakers are being inspired by everything around them: books and music and cooking and TV shows. And when we're all stuck at home, with nowhere to go, and nothing else to do, there is no better time than now to open that book you've been meaning to read, or listen to that album someone told you about, or watch that movie that you've been meaning to watch and never have. I've been keeping track of what I watch on my Letterboxd account, watching at least one movie per day. So - what are you recommendations? What have you been watching during this global lockdown?
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