Ethel Cain

“I guess we can probably start with my favorite film of all time, which is Thelma & Louise. I remember watching this for the first time when I was in the middle of finishing my first record, and it became such a North Star in terms of just that kind of epic, tragic American road trip. The soundtrack is incredible. Ridley Scott’s an amazing director. Definitely number one forever.”

“David Cronenberg’s Crash. This film is incredible. James Spader, Holly Hunter. So good, so weird and perverted. I really love to just put this one on a weird rainy night and, you know, drink a glass of whiskey and really get into it. And I’ll have his others: Videodrome, everything. He’s so weird.”

“Next is Eraserhead, which I love. I love Eraserhead, it’s my favorite Lynch. It was actually the only Lynch I’d ever seen for a very long time. So inspiring to me to this day, was super inspiring for the last album that I put out. It left such a mark on me. And yeah, I don’t know. I love, love, love, love Eraserhead. And hopefully someday I can… I aspire to create something even as half as good as Eraserhead. Love you Eraserhead baby.”

“Picnic at Hanging Rock. Also, I have this on so many formats: VHS, DVD, Blu-ray, all of it. The scene, obviously, where the girls go up and get lost and their classmate is screaming and running down the rock, and the music, it’s so… And the colors in this film are just so rich. I’ve never seen a movie quite like this. It is a masterpiece. It is one of a kind. You know, 1970s does Edwardian is always kind of one of The Most Beautiful things I’ve ever seen.”

“Days of Heaven, Terrence Malick. Incredible. I mean, any film buff that you talk to is going to tell you to watch this movie. It’s perfect. I mean, even the cover – this and The Reflecting Skin were a huge inspiration for the last song on my last record, just those fields of wheat, the “Amber Waves.” It’s a masterclass in cinematography. It really is just… Every time I sit and put it on, it’s one of those films that can’t help but drag you in and make you live in it for a moment.”

“Grey Gardens. The atmosphere of this film, of just the skulking around this decrepit ruin of a once beautiful home, kind of forgotten by time, forgotten by peers, forgotten by family and love and the world, and still holding on to this shred of glamor and class when everything else around you has kind of left. And the story of Little Edie. It’s kooky and it’s peculiar, but it is also so heartbreaking, and it’s just such a… such a tale unlike any other.”