Thursday, July 22, 2010

Tim Burton's 5 Favorite Films


RottenTomatoes asked Tim Burton what five of his favorite films are. Here was his answer:



Dracula A.D. 1972 (1972)

"It was a great year for films. [laughs] Seeing that movie is one of the reasons I wanted to move to London, because it's quite swinging -- it's like this weird mixture of a Hammer horror film and swinging London. There's a scene where they cut from, I don't know, 1569 or whatever, and it cuts to rock music and a jet airplane, so there's a weird juxtaposition of things. I've gotten to know Christopher Lee over the years and I know that he would not say that this was one of his favorite films. I think it was Hammer on the decline and they thought, 'Hey, let's get hip,' which was a mistake. But I enjoy mistakes sometimes."



The Wicker Man (1974)

"It's like a weird musical. That is actually one of Christopher's favorite movies that he did, unlike the last one. It was not a very successful movie when it came out but it's really quite a hypnotic and amazing film I think. It's like a weird dream. Some of these films I can't kind of watch over, because they play in your mind like a dream. It reminds me of growing up in Burbank. Things are quite normal on the surface but underneath they're not quite what they seem. I found this film to be such a strange mixture; the elements are very odd."




The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (1973)

"Ray Harryhausen is another inspiration to me. He did it all himself, too, you know, in the days when it was difficult to do that. In his characters -- even the things that had no character -- you could feel an artist at work there. You could feel his hand in it, and that's rare, in any kind of film. His acting was better than the acting of the humans. It really tapped in to what I like about movies, I mean, the fantasy but also that handmade element, when you can see the movement of the characters -- it's like Frankenstein or Pinocchio, taking an inanimate object and having it come to life. That's why I still like to do stop-motion projects."



War of the Gargantuas (1970)

"One of my favorites. It's my two-year-old daughter's favorite movie. She's the green gargantua and my other son is the brown one, and she loves being the bad green gargantua. She's obsessed with it, as I was. I grew up watching Japanese science fiction movies and I particularly, unlike most hard core film people, like dubbed movies -- there's something about that language and the translation that somehow fits into the movie; it's like a weird poetry. There's a beauty to these films, the Japanese character designs -- there's a human kind of quality to these things, which I love. Monsters were always the most soulful characters. I don't know if it's because the actors were so bad, but the monsters were always the emotional focal point."



The Omega Man (1971)

"Seeing Charlton Heston reciting lines from Woodstock and wearing jumpsuits that look like he's out of Gilligan's Island -- there are lots of good things. The thing I liked about this is that the vampire characters were played by real people. They had a really cool look to them -- black robes, dark glasses. Not Charlton Heston with his shirt off. [laughs] I was kind of obsessed by him, because he's like the greatest bad actor of all time. Between this and Planet of the Apes and Soylent Green and The Ten Commandments -- I know that was a religious film but I always thought it was like the first zombie movie. He starts out like this real person and by the end he's like this weird zombie."

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh dear, I must admit I know none of these films ... yet. Will try and watch them all if I can get hold of the dvds ... I know the remake of Wicker Man and I found it quite disturbing ... Well ... I promise to Master Tim I will do my homeworks now!!! Michaela from Germany (and thanks for the autograph btw, it was all so rushed in London in Feb.(AiW-Premiere), I couldn't even thank you!! So if you happen to read this - I do now!!!)

Rajko Burchardt said...
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Fuzzy Duck said...

^Actually, he is a fan of Fellini. He mentions admiring his unique style in "Burton on Burton" several times, and in some of his DVD commentaries, most notably "Pee-wee's Big Adventure."

deadhearts666 said...

That's a neat little info there. I also like watching classic films whether they are bad or not. I've always loved the Frankenstein movies. Especally The Curse of Frankenstein...now because I love Christopher Lee. (Which they are coming out with two new ones that I can't wait to see.) My mom is actually still terrified of the Children of the Corn movies. lmao. They arn't even scary.

Rajko Burchardt said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Fuzzy Duck said...

I think he's being pretty honest listing these as a few of his favorites. Maybe not his absolute top 5, but the ones that came to mind at the moment. They probably sincerely strike a chord with him, as do some Fellini films. Like you said, there's a good amount of Fellini inspiration in "Big Fish," as well as "Pee-wee's Big Adventure" and "Ed Wood."

Alex Graham said...

In a few of his most recent interviews he's also mentioned how he loves the feel of Mario Bava's films. I've only seen Baron Blood, which I actually was disappointed in because it wasn't any where near as blood thirsty or creepy as the cover promised haha.

And I haven't seen any of these films either, but hope to eventually along with the many other thousands of classics (cult or otherwise).