Sophy Romvari

“So I’m going to start with just one of the greatest films ever made, A Woman Under the Influence. It doesn’t need to be sold to anybody, but it was definitely… not only this film, but all of Cassavetes’s films in general were a helpful point of reference in making my first feature, just in terms of the ethos of filmmaking and independent filmmaking and the way he prioritizes performance over technical precision. I think especially when you’re working with children, it’s really helpful to not think so much about how the actors can be blocked, but how you can block the camera to the actors, so, that was a huge point of reference for us and for every other filmmaker on the planet.”

“Watermelon Woman. It’s one of those films that you watch and you see, “Oh, wow, everyone has been copying this film. Everyone is inspired by this film.” Because it really does use the hybrid form in such an inventive way, in such a seamless way, in the way that… the way that she self-inserts, as a director, but as a performer, and brings documentary elements in without it bringing attention to itself. It’s just brilliant, and it really should be one of those films that every filmmaker has to watch at some point.”

“Not a Pretty Picture by Martha Coolidge. Made fifty years ago, another film that is extremely, I think, integral to the form of hybrid filmmaking and to personal filmmaking, but is an extremely formally intelligent film, the way that it marries documentary and fiction, and it’s incredible that a film like this exists. So I’m going to take that one as well.”

“So I did promise my dad that I would get him a film. My dad and my mom are both very cinephilic people. They watch a movie almost every night. They’ve had a big impact on the way that I watch movies and see the world. From the four movies that my dad sent me, I’m going to take Jules and Jim, because I had an interesting moment when I was making my short film Still Processing. My dad sent me all the home-video footage that he’d taken, or he sent me a selection of the home-video footage he had taken of me and my brothers growing up, and there’s a video of me as a two- or three-year-old, and he’s whistling a tune and I’m dancing to the tune, and it sounded familiar to me so I asked my dad, “What is this tune that you’re whistling?” And it’s the song that they sing in Jules and Jim. She sings and he plays the guitar. So it’s a special film.”

“I’m going to take Girlfriends as well. There are few films that show the complexity of friendships between women in a way that I think this film really, really nails, and this point in life where friendships can diverge because of different paths in life, and she does it in such a subtle but also very humanist kind of way where neither character is villainized, but is also quite flawed in their own ways, and it’s rare in, I think, its representation of women and the particularity of friendship between women.”