Luca Guadagnino’s 10 Favorite Films

Now in limited release is one of the summer’s must-see films, Luca Guadagnino‘s I Am Love follow-up A Bigger Splash, which we called “a sweaty, kinetic, dangerously unpredictable ride of a film” back at Venice last year. To celebrate its arrival, today we’re highlighting the Italian director’s 10 favorite films, which he submitted for the last Sight & Sound poll.

An eclectic batch of titles from all over the world, they include an underrated Brian De Palma thriller, Nagisa Oshima‘s controversial erotic drama, an 8-part project from Jean-Luc Godard, an Italian staple from Roberto Rossellini, and more. Expanding upon one of his picks, he told The Guardian, “I am a Hitchcockian – I still believe that Psycho sets the standard for mother/ son relations.”

Speaking about another one of his choices, Fanny and Alexander, he recently discussed the behind-the-scenes documentary available on Criterion’s excellent box set. “You see the master at work. You see this gigantic filmmaker — almost at the end of his career, someone who has investigated the human condition through so many masterpieces — lost. He’s lost. You see how he needs to add the little part to the next little part to try to find the wholeness to it,” he tells AOL Build.

He continues, “That was a great moment for me because I said, ‘Okay, Ingmar Bergman seems to look for things instead of pretending to have the answers. He’s not shy. He’s not embarrassed in the intimacy of the movie set to share his fragility with movie collaborators.’ So if he was like that, I felt like I could be like that. That led me to the freedom of investigating what is the point of view for every specific movie in total freedom and absolute discipline with my collaborators which are the performers, DP, and everybody else.”

Check out his ten favorites below.

Blue Gardenia (Fritz Lang)