Jennifer Kent

“Okay, have you seen this crazy film? This was actually Häxan: Witchcraft Through the Ages, a huge inspiration for Babadook. It's about the devil and about witchcraft. It's also about women going nuts. Fantastic, so I'm going to have to take that with me.”

“Okay, love this one, Australian from Peter Weir, it's The Last Wave. I didn't see it for a long time because I'm embarrassed to say I thought it was a film about surfing. It's not a film about surfing, it's a film about the end of the world perhaps, and, it's one of his most sort of mystical and spiritual films. An amazing performance by David Gulpilil. Love it.”

“Okay, this is an amazing film, Kuroneko. Actually, I saw somewhere here Kaneto Shindo's other film, Onibaba. It's very well known, but Kuroneko is maybe lesser known, and it's the most haunting, sort of spine-chilling ghost story. I really can't explain it, but I think if you haven't seen it, you need to go and watch that. So I'll take both those.”

“Actually, I saw somewhere here Kaneto Shindo's other film, Onibaba. It's very well known, but Kuroneko is maybe lesser known, and it's the most haunting, sort of spine-chilling ghost story. I really can't explain it, but I think if you haven't seen it, you need to go and watch that. So I'll take both those.”

“Oh, Mulholland Drive. I mean, David Lynch is really up there with one of my absolute favorites. I've seen this film about, I don't know, 10 times. The first time I saw it, I was, I didn't really understand it. It made me really angry, and I thought I've wasted my time watching this stupid film about nothing, which is embarrassing to say. But as I, the second time I watched it, I sort of fell asleep midway through and woke up, and then I started to understand it. The third time I watched it, I really felt a sense of what it was about. And then the fourth time I saw it while I was in L. A. And I thought, this is a documentary on L. A.”

“I only discovered Robert Bresson recently. This is A Man Escaped. What a genius. I mean, he really invented a new form of cinema. One interesting thing about this is, all that I learned on Criterion, is that all of the sound was post-synched, everything: sound effects, dialogue. And I didn't even realize, but what it gives you is this kind of incredibly real, but also slightly surreal world. Just a stunningly beautiful and tense film.”

“Tokyo Story, absolutely beautiful, Ozu. I watched this sort of around the time my mom passed away, and it's a really affecting and subtle and sad film about not appreciating your parents. I, I can't recommend that enough.”