By Kristy Puchko | Film | April 22, 2020 |
By Kristy Puchko | Film | April 22, 2020 |
Academy Award-winning filmmaker Guillermo del Toro knows you’re craving great cinema to get you through all this (gestures wildly to everything). So, he’s called on the help of his colleagues for some suggestions on what to watch by asking what they’re watching and how they’re coping in isolation.
1/2 TOMORROW (Monday 20th) at 12 noon EST, I will start a thread with a few filmmaker friends about what they are doing, reading, listening to or watching during these times- Anyone interested, join us for a while. Only rule: keep talking about our films to a minimum.
— Guillermo del Toro (@RealGDT) April 19, 2020
The Shape of Water director gave some insight into his own life.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
It's been an odd exercise: helping friends on the outside or strategizing to assist others while being indoors is in and of itself a strange moment. An important moment.
— Guillermo del Toro (@RealGDT) April 20, 2020
Stories We Tell helmer Sarah Polley focused on music.
I am listening to SO MUCH RAFFI because the two-year old demands it. Also Goldberg Variations played by Glenn Gould when I get my way, which is not often. Also my eight-year old is discovering the Rolling Stones so there’s a lot of that around too.
— @realSarahPolley (@realsarahpolley) April 20, 2020
Tigers Are Not Afraid’s Issa López joined in, singing the praise of some things new and old.
Watched Fosse Verdon on TV (really surprised me. I'm not one for biopics, but this is good) and it took me down a rabbit hole of rewatches and discoveries: Fosse's Cabaret, & Sweet Charity… then the original it's based on: Nights of Cabiria, which is taking me down Fellini St:
— Issa López (@IssitaLopez) April 20, 2020
Ari Aster (Hereditary, Midsommar) was strangely on brand, picking a story of a deeply dysfunctional family and offering personal insight into how love stories can sting.
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
Ant-Man’s Peyton Reed is reading.
It has plenty of great anecdotes about the making of his films but it’s his musings on life, relationships and trees(!) that make it so rich. pic.twitter.com/jerDTaBuxl
— Peyton Reed (@MrPeytonReed) April 20, 2020
A Wrinkle In Time’s Ava DuVernay shared range and the reasoning behind picking two very different films.
100% Ava!!
— Guillermo del Toro (@RealGDT) April 20, 2020
Allow me to explain!
— Ava DuVernay (@ava) April 20, 2020
And “Notting Hill.” I mean, need I say more? Caught it last night on insomnia-time cable. Delicious. “I just a girl, asking a boy…” Horse + Hound Magazine. His odd, great group of friends. Her smile where you can see every tooth. Bill Withers montage in the middle. I mean… pic.twitter.com/nrN18GbUKs
— Ava DuVernay (@ava) April 20, 2020
Darren Aronofsky (Black Swan, Mother!) has been mixing it up with some diverse classics, which got DuVernay amped.
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
I caught a bit of “Amelie” last night on insomnia cable! I had forgotten the color palette. I only had remembered her face and the way it made me feel. But it’s drenched in gold and felt yummy to watch for a bit. How’d you feel watching? pic.twitter.com/HRNoKaywfl
— Ava DuVernay (@ava) April 20, 2020
James Mangold (Logan, Ford v Ferrari) is working from home, in research mode. Perhaps for that Untitled Indiana Jones Project he’s rumored to be circling?
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
Finally, Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead, Baby Driver) offered a wide array of titles, because when inside may as well DIY a mind-melting movie marathon.
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
Here’s a full stack of the recently watched physical media at least. There’s more including streaming. pic.twitter.com/K2XM04Nfxr
— edgarwright (@edgarwright) April 20, 2020
Did we miss your favorite director’s response? Share it in comments. And tell us what you’re watching!