Robert Eggers

“Color of Pomegranates, by Parajanov. Parajanov is a really fascinating filmmaker who is really into recreating folk culture with a lot of detail. And he, you know, does these beautiful tableaus that are interpretations of the art from... From the world that he’s trying to articulate and bring us into. And it’s really spectacular.”

“Death in Venice, also costume designed by Piero Tosi. I don’t know, maybe my favorite Visconti movie? You know, obviously, like, Visconti and his collaborators’ attention to detail in creating the period world is something that I, shockingly, really love. You know, in The Leopard, when they open up the closet, at a ball, and it’s filled with, like, hundreds and hundreds of chamber pots, I’m like, “This is gold.” And, you know, anyway, I love Dirk Bogarde. His performance is incredible. It was also so brilliant to, you know, to make the lead character a composer instead of a writer. It just makes it much more cinematic. And a funny story that, like, Warner Brothers, when they saw the director’s cut, they were perplexed and also disappointed. But then one of the studio executives said, “The composer is amazing.” “I love this guy.” And Visconti said, “Well, it’s Gustav Mahler.” And the studio executive said, “Let’s sign him!” So that’s funny.”

“This is An Actor’s Revenge by Ichikawa, which I’ve only seen once. Kazuo Hasegawa was, like, a really illustrious kabuki actor, and he plays male and female roles, is, like, really powerful and really cool. And just the gender dynamics? Fascinating, you know, and... Anyway, I’ve only seen it once. I’m really looking forward to checking this out, and...”

“Related-ish is Demon Pond, which I actually have never seen, but I have seen clips of this, like, crazy parade of creatures. I just have to see this movie. I’m, like, desperate to see what’s going on here.”

“The Innocents is by Jack Clayton. This is one of my favorite films. I watch it, like, twice a year, probably. I love Freddie Francis, the cinematographer, like in, you know, his work with David Lynch, particularly The Elephant Man. But his work with Jack Clayton is, I think, his best work. I feel like they really pushed each other to have the most sophisticated and elegant staging that doesn’t draw attention to itself, but, like, just pulls you into the story. The studio wanted them to shoot it in Scope, they wanted to shoot it, like, in 1:33 or 1:37, and you know what? It ended up being one of the best-looking movies in Scope ever. And then they made a little vignette to do these sort of nighttime, hallway, horror-movie-set-piece scenes in a way that felt more like an Academy ratio. So, awesome movie if you haven’t seen it, like... Well, I mean, the screenplay, you just... Your imagination is on fire with, like, the disturbing shit that you don’t see. It’s awesome.”

“This is a heavy Pasolini box set, which is very exciting. I wanted to talk about Medea, but also happy to talk about Oedipus too. The worlds that Pasolini creates with Piero Tosi, the costume designer, and Dante Ferretti, the production designer, who, you know, was... Piero Tosi was older, Dante Ferretti was younger, and Dante Ferretti’s had this, like, insane career. But it’s amazing to see what Dante Ferretti does when, like, he doesn’t have any money and he’s just got to, like, go to a market and, like, grab some rugs and grab some baskets and still, like, create this incredible world. But one of the things about Medea is the music. Like, Pasolini is taking music from all over the place, you know, Bulgarian female choir singing, that has kind of been, like, a more popular thing since the ’80s, but he was putting it in films very early and lots of Middle Eastern music, and it’s really evocative to see what he does with it. So, look forward to exploring it more deeply.”

“So this Tod Browning box set... This is just a recommendation. I own it. It’s awesome. Freaks is obviously, like, a major classic that a lot of people know. But The Mystic and The Unknown are movies that people know a lot less. I actually saw The Unknown, like, on TV when I was a teenager. And it’s this, like, amazing, transformative performance by Lon Chaney. Of course, it’s transformative, it’s Lon Chaney. Anyway, this is... And it’s, like, the special features are also, like, insane, so... Definitely, definitely check this out if you’re a Tod Browning fan, if you’re a Universal horror fan, if you’re a silent movie horror fan. It’s fucking cool.”