Hugo Weaving

"Closely Watched Trains, one of my all-time favorite films, by Jiri Menzel. Funny, wry, beautiful, entertaining; and subversive, in its own quirky way. A beautiful film."

"For instance, A Tree of Wooden Clogs, which would have to be one of my favorite films. A year in the life of a peasant commune in Italy — again, it’s poor souls living through a year, so you’re getting a sense of seasons and hardship and community, and a simple, very basic deprived existence. I think that’s a masterpiece, that film."

"A film like If….. Lindsay Anderson’s If…., which I think is a work of genius."

"My five favorite films would change from, you know, day to day, but if you want five of my favorite films, one would have to be The Rules of the Game, by Renoir. A fabulous upstairs-downstairs look at French society in a very particular period. It’s both unbelievably sad and tragic, and moving and funny. And a delightfully humanist film. In fact, a lot of my favorite films are like that."

"And Barry Lyndon. Anything by Kubrick. [Pauses] 2001… no… Barry Lyndon, yeah. If we’re talking about Australian films, probably something like Ten Canoes. That’s probably my favorite Australian film ever made, actually. I think it’s a great, great film. I’ve probably listed more than five. And then there’s 8 ½… I could go on forever. There are some great films coming to mind, like The Return, the Russian film. [Laughs] I’ll stop."