François Girard

“Rashomon, Kurosawa. One of our favorite Kurosawa. Kurosawa, I’ve seen everything. I love everything he’s done. Big influence on me. Ran might be my favorite film of all times. And I’ve also worked with his daughter. She designed the costumes of Silk.”

“Short Cuts. A great film, but also a great memory because I saw it at the Venice Festival outside, in an outside screening, on a 70mm projection, and it was memorable for many different reasons.”

“I got two down here. One is The Thin Red Line. Thin Red Line is, like… Well, first of all, I’m a big Terrence Malick fan. And this is one of the best Malick, I think.”

“Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence. Ryuichi Sakamoto, who I worked with, just died. This music is probably the most memorable music he left in the world. But he left so much. And I keep listening to Ryuichi’s music. And I’m picking it up out of love for Ryuichi.”

“Here we go… The Killing. Like, okay. Kubrick. You know, who doesn’t love Kubrick, admire Kubrick? It’s not a matter of love, it’s a matter of admiration. And this is probably the only one I haven’t seen. So I should see it.”

“Polanski’s Macbeth. I think so many filmmakers tried to adapt Shakespeare on screen and it doesn’t always work really well. And Polanski did it. Because he’s one of the greatest.”

“Othello, a film by Orson Welles. Othello has a particular place in my memory because I admire the film so much and the stories of the making of Othello is, like, beyond, like… Speak of determination and, like, will, force… a force of nature. This is where… It actually broke Orson Welles, this film. And I bored most of my friends telling all the stories of the making of Othello, until I discovered that Suzanne Cloutier, who plays Desdemona, is a Quebecer. Was a Quebecer. And I called her and offered to shoot interviews with her. So I made a movie, documentary film, that is the interviews of Suzanne Cloutier telling about the making of Othello. I shot that in Essaouira in Morocco and in Venice.”

“L’argent by Bresson. L’argent by Bresson, like, whenever I’m trying to make the demonstration that all filmmakers are musicians and that all films are music, even if there’s no music in the film, L’argent is my best example.”

“Exotica for two good reasons. Three. Like, first, it’s a great film. Second, it’s made by my dear, dear friend Atom Egoyan. And third, I was on the jury that gave it the Best Canadian Film at the Toronto Festival when it was released. And he won, yeah. So.”

“Louis Malle, a box set of Louis Malle. Hey, like… Vive Le Tour, Phantom India, Calcutta, God’s Country, …And the Pursuit of Happiness. I think this is very promising. I’m a big fan of Louis Malle.”