June Squibb

“I’m going to start off with my very favorite, Seven Samurai. Kurosawa is… Oh, I love his work. Everything.”

“One of my favorites was Simone Signoret, and this is Diabolique, one of her famous films. The way she looked, for one thing, my God, she always looked absolutely gorgeous. And in some of her early films, she had her hair up and it was just great. She was a fine actress, too. She, Jean Gabin, Yves Montand, I loved all of them. I saw all their films.”

“And Children of Paradise is one of the first films I ever saw in an art-House in Chicago in the late ’40s, I think it was, and I loved it. I just thought this was just the most marvelous film in the world. And it’s still showing places, so that’s great. It’s still alive.”

“Now, I chose Shaft because a film… the film I did just before this last film I’m doing now, Richard Roundtree was my co-worker on the thing, on Thelma, and I rode around on a scooter with him behind me and I kept thinking, “Oh my God, that’s Shaft behind me.” So I wanted the memento for him, really.”

“And Buena Vista Social Club and Paris is Burning. Both of them are like lives and cultures that I knew nothing about, and I was absolutely fascinated by both of them. And this, the music is wonderful. They’ve just made a Broadway show of it, in fact.”

“And Paris is Burning. Both of them are like lives and cultures that I knew nothing about, and I was absolutely fascinated by both of them. And this, I was just… I mean, my mouth was open the whole time, I think, and it was so great just to learn about these cultures that were alive and kicking and that I knew nothing about.”

“The Age of Innocence is a film I did. It was the third feature film I did when I started film work. I started in my sixties doing film. And Martin Scorsese was wonderful. Martin Scorsese was there and directed me, and it was just me in this little role and everything, and I was so impressed with that, that he took the time and it was so important to him to be there. And so thank you, Martin Scorsese. And this is a beautiful film, and it was great shooting it.”

“I’ve got another one here, Yojimbo and Sanjuro, and everything that he’s ever made, though. And the man who became my second husband said to me, “You’ve never seen a Kurosawa film?” And proceeded to take me to a retrospective at the Fifth Avenue Cinema, which was near my apartment, and I saw every Kurosawa film that I think he’s ever made. And then my son became a Kurosawa fan, so he got a wooden samurai sword.”

“Godzilla! Now, this is in honor of my son who became a great monster-film person. And we saw every monster film there ever was, either on TV or in the theaters. And so I saw all of these with him. This is my last one. Yeah.”