Gregg Araki

“I am going to start with this classic, Bringing Up Baby by Howard Hawks. One of my all-time favorite movies. I used to write papers on this movie a lot when I was in film school. And, for people who've seen my films, particularly The Living End, Doom Generation. The Living End is actually called "An Irresponsible Movie by Gregg Araki" because of this movie. There was some Robin Wood essay called "The Lure of Irresponsibility" that I read when I was in film school that, dubs The Living End "An Irresponsible Movie."”

“Something Wild by Jonathan Demme. I'm actually screening this movie today at—tomorrow at IFC Center. I picked it as an oldie, but a classic. The reason I picked it is Jonathan Demme, he was sort of making, you know, hitting his stride right as I was in film school, and a big inspiration to me. And he was very much, influenced by New Wave music the way I was, and also very much like a film school kind of director. Like, Something Wild is, like The Living End and Doom Generation, very much related to Bringing Up Baby, the movie I just picked.”

“David Lynch, Fire Walk with Me, I think is his masterpiece. I know it was critically attacked when it came out, and my story about it is we actually got the Showcase Theater on La Brea in Los Angeles for The Living End because Fire Walk with Me was such a commercial disaster. It opened and closed in L. A. Like in like a day or two, a week or whatever. So we got a better theater in L. A. Because of the flop of Fire Walk with Me. But to me, just that amazing, perfect movie. I love it so much, and it has recently been critically resurrected, so thank God for that.”

“Of course I'm gonna pick this, Masculin, féminin by Godard. I mean, Godard is a huge, huge idol of mine, and I took a Godard class in my senior year as an undergraduate, and it was life-changing for me. And it's such a profound influence on my, like, voice as a filmmaker and what I wanted to do, when I started making my own movies.”

“Pink Flamingos by John Waters. John Waters is the original godfather of everything to me. I just want to really pay tribute to him, and this movie, I remember just being blown away by, how intensely punk it was and how outrageous and shocking it was by '90s standards. And, this is for John. I mean, I just, you know, he is a national treasure and thank God for John Waters.”

“I just have to pay homage to this. Stranger Than Paradise by Jim Jarmusch, 1984. I was in film school, like at the peak of "Who am I? What am I gonna do? I'm just this weird, arty, artsy Godard punk kid, this queer punk kid, like where's my place in, you know, the filmmaking world?" And this movie came out, and I just remember seeing it and being so stunned by it and so inspired. And it's like thinking that—if I remember, this played in like a, you know, one of the little art houses in West L. A. And I was like, "It's so cool that this movie is in theaters in America and people are paying attention." It wasn't that, you know, it wasn't a huge blockbuster, but the idea that there was this indie cinema that could exist was, for me as a young filmmaker, life-changing.”