Willem Dafoe’s Closet Picks

The acclaimed actor shares his deep connection to ONIBABA, praises Isabelle Huppert and her performance in THE PIANO TEACHER, recalls GATE OF FLESH’s influence on the Wooster Group, and selects a few of his collaborations with Wes Anderson and Martin Scorsese.

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good all right uh this is a lot um my eye goes to one of my favorite films right away and I’ll take it um Oni Baba a very very special film um in fact I wanted to remake it but I and I even got the wrs for a while but I couldn’t find a way to do it because it’s so specific to its time and uh I I felt like anytime I tried to put a spin on it I ruined uh the source material so I couldn’t do that uh leopard fantastic when I think I’m um not right for a role because I’m not enough like the character uh I always think of uh Bert Lancaster and the leopard I mean this Hollywood guy you know that I’m thinking from the swimmer and from movies you know Indian wrestling you like it like that kind of thing uh he’s going to be an elegant Sicilian gentleman I don’t think so but you know what it worked fantastically so when you don’t think you’re right for something you actually may be very right for it or you may be able to find a way to get there which is cool ashes and diamonds I I remember seeing that as a kid and I thought o cool black and white love the hair dudes love the glasses but didn’t quite get it I should probably look at that again because I saw it when I was too young uh pickpocket of course bran uh you know Sher has always got this on on his mind uh and I guess I do too gate of Flesh um this I watched exhaustively because we used it for material uh when I worked with a theater company called the woster group and this was uh an inspiration and very important for one of our theater pieces so G of Flesh I’ll steal that rosellini Bergman fantastic strongly I know journey to Italy I know I don’t know Europe 51 what is Europe 51 well I’m going to find out Devil’s Back pump o it may be one of his best movies Gore deloro expertly combines Gothic Ghost Story murder mystery and historical melodrama and a stylish milange couldn’t have said it better myself you know I’m surprised I know a lot more of these movies than I thought I thought I was have much film culture the mirror uh LS rtier asked me to look at this before we did Antichrist surprise surprise piano teacher we love Isabelle we love her so much she’s such a good actress and she always is surprising us and she’s she’s a peach 8 and a half you can’t kick about 8 oh ladies and gentlemen you know this man he’s he’s a little bit more than a man or is he Life Aquatic oh I think I have a copy but I love this movie it’s the first time I worked with Wes Anderson I like Life Aquatic because it floats uh for a long time and there’s lots going on where you think what the hell but at the end it lands emotionally in a way that is incredible um this movie should be seen more some of those shots are you very beautiful keep up the good work Criterion