“What a thrill to be here in the Criterion … cupboard,” mentioned Jude Law as he cheekily hinted at his British sensibilities inside what is definitely — fairly famously — identified as the Criterion Closet. Although America has many faults, this isn’t one among them and we’ll forgive Law this grievous correction.
Taking a cease in the closet amidst selling his interval cop thriller “The Order” and the upcoming Disney+ sequence “Star Wars: Skeleton Crew,” Law took house six movies that replicate his broad appreciation for cinema and all it might provide. After pulling off Andrei Tarkovsky’s “Stalker” and discussing its “stillness” alongside one other one among the filmmaker’s epic works, “Andrei Rubelev,” the actor chosen a traditional French movie with connections to one among his earliest roles.
“So this holds a very special place in my heart. ‘Purple Noon’ or ‘Plein Soleil,’ which was the first realization of ‘The Talented Mr. Ripley’ or Patricia Highsmith’s ‘Talented Mr. Ripley.’ And, of course, I was recommended this by Anthony Minghella,” mentioned Law. “A little like the series that’s on at the moment, ‘Ripley,’ it demonstrates how this incredible character from this book can be interpreted in so many different ways because it’s very different to ‘The Talented Mr. Ripley’ that I made with Minghella. If anything to choose Delon to play Ripley himself. And they don’t change it from the book that he’s a painter. In the film I did, we made him a musician. It’s got lots of twists and turns. The same color, blue, in the sea as our one. And not quite as dark as the ‘Ripley’ on TV at the moment.”
Grabbing one other French movie, Law selected Henri-Georges Clouzot’s extremely influential “The Wages of Fear” subsequent. He mentioned of it, “This film is about men in desperate, desperate, situations who will do anything for money, anything to survive. And they go on the darkest, most dangerous journey. And it’s — it’s just brilliant. It’s moving and incredibly shot.”
After extolling the qualities of Stephen Frears’ London-set “My Beautiful Laundrette” and the Invoice Forsyth Scottish dramedy “Local Hero,” Law selected yet one more British export, the neo-noir crime movie “Mona Lisa.”
“This was a film that introduced me to Bob Hoskins, who I luckily got to work with,” Law mentioned. “Neil Jordan’s ‘Mona Lisa,’ which, again, at a very formative time in my life showed a side of London that I sort of saw and felt around me, but hadn’t necessarily seen on film. And Bob Hoskins demonstrating his brilliant ability to be incredibly tough, plausibly real, of-the-street, and yet with this incredible heart of gold, which was kind of Bob himself. And Cathy Tyson gives a great performance in that. And there’s a great supporting role by Michael Caine who, no surprise, steals every scene he’s in. But it’s Bob’s film.”
Watch Law’s full Criterion Closet video under.
