Sean Baker’s Top10

My favorite Cassavetes film, Husbands, is not in this set . . . but nonetheless, his films mean everything to me. And I find his way of making films just as fascinating and inspirational as the films themselves. So that is why I adore A Constant Forge. Out of all the films in this collection, Charles Kiselyak’s documentary is the film I revisit the most.

Although Mike Leigh’s family dramas, such as High Hopes and Secrets & Lies, have had a more apparent influence on my work, Naked is my favorite film of Leigh’s. It’s in my top ten favorite films ever made. It’s an exhausting odyssey that never gets the characters (or the viewer) home again. “Tell me, love, are you aware of the effect you have on the average mammalian, Mancunian, XY-ly chromosome, slavering, lusty male member of the species?” Now, that’s dialogue!

For some reason, Maurice Pialat doesn’t get the same attention here in the States as his contemporary Cassavetes. But I feel he deserves just as much. Without this film, we wouldn’t have Sandrine Bonnaire, and the complexity of the family dynamic is like nothing I’ve ever seen before on film. I’m proud to be neighbors with Tom Stevens, the actor who played the young American tourist. We were speaking in our New York City apartment building stairwell, and Tom told me that he had been in “a little film that you probably never heard of called À nos amours”—I nearly fell down the stairs. The extras are fantastic on the release, including an interview with Catherine Breillat.

It’s really about Claire’s Knee for me. Not only do I consider it the best of this series . . . but it was my introduction to La Nouvelle Vague while in my teens.

Lee Chang-dong is a living master. (I hope that Criterion puts out Oasis eventually—nudge, nudge.) Jeon Do-yeon delivers such a powerful performance. I wish I knew Korean, because I’m sure I would appreciate the film even more . . . which seems almost impossible because I adore it so.

Not going out on a limb with this one. A perfect film, and one that has obviously been a major influence (Starlet). My friend and producing partner Darren Dean gave me this Blu-ray as a Christmas gift two years ago.

Simply one of the best films ever made. An art-house film disguised as a Hollywood blockbuster. Although Criterion’s version isn’t a Blu-ray, the extras on this DVD are unparalleled.

One of the first Criterion discs I purchased . . . back when it was laserdisc. I much prefer Bergman’s original five-hour, six-part television version to the U.S. cut . . . both of which are in this DVD set. When people tell me I should get married, I ask, “Have you seen Scenes from a Marriage?”

This was almost a coin toss. I could just have easily chosen La promesse. Both films are perfection. But it’s the final scene in Rosetta that made me choose this film, the relentless muffler noise of that moped that had me begging for relief and yet wanting more.

So I was in a crowded New York City cinema in 1997 watching Breaking the Waves in absolute awe as my girlfriend talked through the entire film, joked with her friends, and continually jumped up and down for cigarette breaks. I realized at that moment that I was dumping her. Thank you, Lars, for helping me see the light.