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1-39 of 39
- Always fascinated by performance, Ethan was ensorcelled by Marcel Carné's 1945 theatrical spectacle. "CHILDREN OF PARADISE is a big-budget movie that is made for adults," he says. "I just wish we got to see more of that."
- For Ethan, all the pieces come together perfectly in Wim Wenders's PARIS, TEXAS: "I dare anybody to make something better than that strip club scene."
- "If you're an actor, your dream is to intersect with the great filmmaker and the opportunity to give a great performance," says Ethan. Terrence Malick's poetic crime noir, starring Sissy Spacek and Martin Sheen, hits the bullseye.
- REDS, is a masterpiece that Ethan doesn't want people to forget. The acting, photography, music and writing-"it's like each appendage is doing its job to the point where you can't tell where one begins and one ends," he says.
- While acknowledging that the younger generation can find black-and-white movies to be a slog, Ethan believes that THE LAST PICTURE SHOW-"so poetic, so funny, so unpretentious"-is an excellent starting point.
- The indelible one-liners (which he committed to memory) of Alex Cox's REPO MAN taught a young Ethan that this film didn't play by the usual rules: "There aren't many punk rock movies, and that is a punk rock movie."
- "I was madly in love for the first time in my life when I saw that movie," recalls Ethan of Jane Campion's AN ANGEL AT MY TABLE. With its revelatory female gaze, the film sent him and his beloved hightailing to find Janet Frame's poetry.
- 2024TV Episode"One of my friends said that a really great film starts as the end credits roll, because it rings a bell and it vibrates with you, and then it begins as you walk away from it." For Ethan, Milos Forman's classic continues to reverberate.
- Ethan's love of music began at a very young age, when his piano-playing father introduced him to the basics of melody and chord progression. "Music is instantaneous. Music breaks down so many of society's walls, and it's just so powerful."
- "I think I've somehow internalized Bob Fosse in some strange way," says Ethan, describing how the director's obsession with performance informed his own filmmaking.
- The first movie Ethan ever saw was Bob Rafelson's 1970 drama FIVE EASY PIECES, and its complex, emotionally honest characterizations have stuck with him ever since.
- 2024TV EpisodeEthan admires the deference to mysticism and respect for the natural order in Peter Weir's films, calling Linda Hunt's turn as Tommy Kwan "one of the all-time great performances." The actor studied this film before working with Weir.
- "One of the best pieces of 20th-century art by far" is the praise Mike heaps on Fellini's 8½, which he feels introduced a new sophistication and self-reflection to filmmaking.
- Obsessed with the topic of memory in his own films, Mike is captivated by the unplanned documentary interviews that director Kore-eda incorporated into the narrative of AFTER LIFE.
- During a period of existential restlessness, Mike found solace in the micro-world of Alice in the Cities, citing it as a key influence on his own film C'MON C'MON.
- Mike loves when a film eschews conflict and transformation for less conventional paths-as in Agnès Varda's short, which blurs the lines between narrative and documentary, focusing instead on ambience and the people living on her street.
- 20237mTV EpisodeMike first stumbled on the Eastern European New Wave while trying to impress a girl. The relationship ran its course, but the films have stayed with him ever since.
- 20237mTV EpisodeThe punk spirit of feminist Czech New Wave filmmaker Vera Chytilová, whose films were banned in the 1960s, is like a cook who uses opposing flavors to create something transformative.
- 20236mTV EpisodeMike credits silent filmmakers Keaton and Chaplin with the birth of the American film language and a legacy of brilliant physicality.