Tilda Swinton’s Favorite Movies: 10 Films the Actress Wants You to See
One thing most cinephiles can agree on is that Tilda Swinton is a mystifying gift to the film industry. In addition to delivering consistently excellent performances in almost every movie and cast she joins, the Oscar-winning actress has long been a champion of the sort of unique films that without her involvement might otherwise never get made.
From her repeat collaborations with auteurs like Wes Anderson and Bong Joon-ho to her risky roles in experimental projects like “The Souvenir” series, Swinton is an extremely familiar face for fans of arthouse cinema. She won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Tony Gilroy’s “Michael Clayton”: a crowd-pleasing George Clooney legal thriller from 2007. And yes, she scared the hell out of millennials as the White Witch in Disney’s “The Chronicles of Narnia.” Hell, she’s in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
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But it’s Swinton’s stranger performances for which she’s known best. The actress has appeared in both bizarre and grounded worlds; some oddly sad and delightful (see “The Grand Budapest Hotel” and “Okja”), others bone-chilling and terrifying (see Luca Guadagnino’s “Suspiria” and Lynne Ramsay’s “We Need to Talk About Kevin.”) It’s hardly surprising that Swinton appears to enjoy consuming movies as much as she likes making them, and even less shocking to find she’s drawn to works as influential as her own.
The “Snowpiercer” actress has always been a vocal advocate for the movies she loves, regularly singling out Old Hollywood classics and beloved foreign films from around the world as some of her favorites. She often uses Sight & Sound as platform to share her tastes, as she contributes to the once-a-decade Best Films of All Time polls and shares additional picks in other features for the magazine.
Her picks are often undisputed classics, so you could get a great foundational film education just by watching the movies she recommends. Keep reading for a list of Tilda Swinton’s favorite movies, according to the 2022 Sight & Sound poll. Her selections include the works of filmmakers such as Alfred Hithcock, Ernst Lubitsch, Nicolas Roeg, Roberto Rossellini, Chantal Akerman, and more.
With editorial contribution by Alison Foreman.
[Editor’s note: This article was first published in March 2023 with the results of Swinton’s 2022 Sight & Sound Poll. It will be updated over time.]
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