Every Great Movie You Should Watch, According to Bill Hader
Films from Paul Thomas Anderson, Martin Scorsese, and Ridley Scott make the Emmy-winning star of Barry's list.
Bill Hader, fresh of his second Best Actor in a Comedy Emmy win for HBO's Barry, is a huge film nerd. Like, he's up there with Tarantino and Scorsese -- the latter of which made his list of essential movies all filmmakers and film fans need to see.
Hader (via Collider) joins the ranks of Spike Lee, Tarantino, and Scorsese among those filmmakers using their watchlists -- the movies that shaped theirs -- as curriculum for helping other filmmakers shape their own. For a filmmaker, there is arguably no better education that watching movies. Because filmmakers are film watchers. Learning about craft in action, watching screenplay structure unfold in real (read: movie) time, or the hard work of a DP and his crew pulling off a shot like the Cabana oner in Goodfellas, is a vital part of the process. Sure, it may seem unproductive -- sitting on your couch, watching movies. Or TV shows.
But, it's actually background processing. Your research involves studying and observing the craft of others so that you can build your own. As we watch X scene or Y sequence, we're likely watching films in the vein of our work -- hoping some sort of inspiration or clarity strikes. And as we do so, we're often constantly background processing -- turning the mind over and over on a dialogue scene you can't crack in your script, or trying to come up with a visually exciting way to shoot exposition. Film watching is an essential, must-have component of the filmmaking process. You never know when it may come in handy -- or how it might help you win your second Emmy.
Before Hader shared his list of influential films, he prefaced it with:
"These are movies that, after seeing them, inspired me to go make…something, anything! Since I don’t know how old you are, you should know there’s some titles that are incredibly adult (Clockwork Orange, Enter the Void, Chopper, Come and See, Blue Velvet come to mind) so beware. But enjoy and be open; that’s how I like to approach a movie. And turn off you phone and don’t check your email, it affects the experience."
Truer words, Stefon. Truer words... Here's Hader's list:
8 ½
Abigail’s Party
Ace in the Hole
Act of Killing
Aguirre, The Wrath of God
Airplane
Ali: Fear Eats the Soul
Credit: Fox
Alien (Scott)All About My Mother
All that Jazz
All the Presidents Men
American Friend
Amores Parros
Apocalypto
Apollo 13
Ashes and Diamonds
Asphalt Jungle
Awful Truth, The
Bad Day at Black Rock
Ball of Fire
Bad News Bears, The (Richie)
Battle of Algeirs
Being John Malkovich
Being There
Best Years of Our Lives
Bicycle Thieves
Big Clock, The
Bigger than Life
Black Cat, The (Ulmer)
Black Narcissus
Blazing Saddles
Blood Simple
Blue Velvet
Bob Le Flambeur
Boogie Nights
Bottle Rocket
Breaking Point (Curtiz)
Bringing Up Baby
Broken Lullaby
Brood, The
Brother’s Keeper
Bucket of Blood, A (Corman)
Burbs, the
Cache
Canoa: A Shameful Memory
Carrie (DePalma)
Catch-22 (Nichols)
Charley Varrick
Children of Men
Chopper
Citizen Kane (duh)
Cleo 5 to 7
Credit: WB
Clockwork Orange, AClose Encounters of the Third Kind
Closely Watched Trains
Come and See
Conformist, The
Contempt (Godard)
Cranes are Flying, The
Crime Wave (deToth)
Crimes and Misdemeanors
Crowd, The (Vidor)
Crumb
Cul-de-Sac
Cure (Kurosawa)
Dames
Dawn of the Dead (Romero)
Day of Wrath
Dazed and Confused
Dead of Night (Cavalcanti)
Death Line
Dekalog
Do the Right Thing
Don’t Look Now
Down By Law
Downhill Racer
Dr Strangelove
Duck Soup
Duel
Earrings of Madame D
Election
Elevator to the Gallows
Emperors Naked Army Marches on
Enigma of Kaspar Hauser
Enter the Void
Evil Dead 1 and 2
Executioner, The (Berlanga)
Exorcist
Exterminating Angel, The
Fabulous Baron Munchausen (Zeman)
Face in the Crowd, A
Fat City
Faust (Murnau)
Female Trouble
Fireman’s Ball, The
Fireworks (Kitano)
Force Majeure
Fort Apache
Gates of Heaven
Credit: Paramount
Godfather 1&2 (duh)Good Morning (Ozu)
Grand Illusion
Haunting, The (Wise)
Harlan County, USA
His Girl Friday
Hit, The
Hoop Dreams
Host, The (Bong)
Ikiru
In the Mood for Love
Informer, The (Ford)
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Kaufman)
It’s a Gift
Ivan’s Childhood
Jackie Brown
Jules and Jim
Kanal
Kentucky Fried Movie
Kes
Kill Baby Kill
Killer of Sheep
Kwaidan
L atalante
Last Detail
Le Boucher
Le quattro volte
Lil Quinquin
Los Olvidados
Love and Death
Loves of a Blonde
Malcolm X
Man Escaped
Matter of Life and Death
McCabe and Mrs Miller
Medium Cool
Merry Widow, The (Lubitsh)
Midnight Cowboy
Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters
Mon Oncle
Mona Lisa
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Monty Python and the Life of Brian
Mouth Agape, A
My Darling Clementine
My Friend Totoro
Naked Spur, The
Near Dark
Credit: MGM
NetworkNight and the City (Dassin)
Night of the Demon
Nights of Cabiria
No Country for Old Men
Nuts in May
Once Upon a Time in the West
One-Eyed Jacks
Only Yesterday
Pans Labyrinth
Paper Moon
Parenthood
Paris Texas
Pather Panchali
Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure
Peppermint Frappe
Pickpocket
Point Blank
Prick Up Your Ears
Radio Days
Rashomon
Credit: Orion
Robocop (1987)Rolling Thunder
Rosemary’s Baby
Ruggles of Red Gap
Rushmore
Safe
Salvatore Giuliano
Sansho the Baliff
Schizopolis
Scream of Fear
Sexy Beast
Shampoo
Shaun of the Dead
Sherlock Jr.
Short Cuts
Silence of the Lambs
Singing in the Rain
Small Change
Songs from the Second Floor
Sorcerer
Spirited Away
Sullivans Travels
Summer with Monika
Sunrise
Sunset Blvd
Credit: Columbia Pictures
Taxi DriverTenant, The
Texas Chainsaw Massacre
There Will Be Blood
Thin Blue Line
Thing, The (Carpenter)
Train, The
Third Man
To Be or Not to Be
Tokyo Story
Toy Story
Trading Places
Treasure of Sierra Madre
Trouble in Paradise
Twentieth Century
Unfaithfully Yours
Credit: WB
UnforgivenUp
Virgin Spring
Virgin Suicides
Viridiana
Wages of Fear
Where’s the Friends House?
Wind, The (Sjostrom)
Woman in the Dunes
Woman Under the Influence, A
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown
Y Tu Mama Tambien
Yi yi
Zero for Conduct
Gotta love a guy who puts RoboCop AND Y Tu Mama Tambien on the same list. How many of these films have you seen? Moreover, how many of them have helped or inspired you? Let us know below in the comments.
And please, share your list of films all filmmakers should see to help them hone their craft.