Mark Rylance

“And I’m starting with a film I’ve seen called Hidden Fortress by Kurosawa, because I’m about to direct my first film. Yeah, believe it or not. And I keep thinking of the opening shot of this, and I want to really look at his framing of things.”

“Ikiru. Perhaps my favorite film. It just reminds me of something essential about life. What goodness is. And it has a very, very bold narrative structure of jumping forward at one moment and completely changing the way that the story is being told. Plus, just one of the great, great performances by an actor. Shimura in this is… just superlative.”

“Oh, Miracle in Milan. This is a wonderful film by De Sica. So inventive and beautiful. Yeah, I might slip that one in.”

“The Tree of Wooden Clogs. Yeah, I watched this on Holiday with my wife. What an immersive film. One of these films, you really wonder how did he make it that you feel completely inside that… those families working for a landowner? I’m not surprised Mike Leigh does the introduction here. It has that kind of veritas to it, doesn’t it?”

“High Sierra. I remember Steven Spielberg referring to this film and asking me to study a particular laugh that one of the characters does. It’s a moment… He wanted me to copy that laugh.”

“Oh, Dodes’ka-den is a wonderful film. I mean, I just think, if you love film, you should see everything that Kurosawa’s done. His first color film. I might take that.”

“But I see my friend… Robert Mitchum. A Peter Yates film. I’d forgotten that. The Friends of Eddie Coyle. He’s just one of my favorite actors. Why? He’s just… His effort is so minimal. His effort is so minimal, he doesn’t seem to really care about it. I believe he did care enormously about it, but, you know, it’s very attractive when someone doesn’t care. There’s space for you. It draws you in. But he’s so still and his voice is remarkably beautiful.”

“Woman in the Dunes. Woman in the Dunes. I saw that as a teenager. Oh, what an amazing film. I must see that again. What an incredible love story.”

“What’s After Life? I feel like I’ve seen that. Oh, that sounds a good one to see, even if I have seen it before. 1998.”

“This Small Axe. This is an extraordinary piece of work by Steve McQueen. I moved to London from Milwaukee, Wisconsin in the late ’70s, and he really brought back what London was like in the ’80s. Down in Brixton.”