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My Favourite Movies | Ben Wheatley: ‘James Bond, Assault on Precinct 13 and Morricone’

Hot Corn’s column in which musicians, actors, artists, directors tell us about their favourite movies

Ben Wheatley, photo by Kerry Brown

When it comes to eclectic, interesting filmmakers like Ben Wheatley, it’s always fascinating to hear what shaped their tastes, and in turn, their craft. Naturally this made the British filmmaker the perfect fit for our ‘My Favourite Movies’ feature (here you can find the other guests) to speak about the films he holds dearest to his heart.

What’s the first film you ever fell in love with? 

The Spy Who Loved Me with Roger Moore. Because it was the first James Bond film I ever saw in the cinema, in 1977.

When your dad tries to make you behave for the camera during a family picture on holiday

What’s the one film you never get tired of watching?

Blade Runner. Because of the way it has been made, it has the texture, the image is so deep that you see new things in it every time you watch it.

Has there been a cooler cat in cinema than this guy?

Your favourite ever soundtrack? 

The Thing. The Ennio Morricone score.

(Listen to it here. It’s absolutely brilliant.)

Your guilty pleasure?

I dunno, I don’t prescribe to the idea of good/bad films, do you know what I mean? I don’t believe in that. I don’t have something I am guilty of watching, I watch all sorts of stuff. So that’s a difficult one to answer.

Wheatley on set with Armie Hammer

What’s the one scene that always makes you cry? 

Erm… I dunno. I don’t have one that always makes me cry. I mean I cry at anything, I’m not trying to hide from that, you know, I’ve cried at the adverts before the film has started. 

 

What’s your favourite ever film set across one day or night?

Oooh I dunno. Probably Assault on Precinct 13. I just love the stripped down feel of it, the music and that it was a very 70s film and yet it was a film built on top of Hollywood history, on top of Howard Hawkes and even though there’s Dark Stars before it, it’s the beginning of the template of what would make a brilliant John Carpenter film, and the run of movies that came after it were just incredible.

A difficult to scene to watch, no less because he hadn’t washed his hands in a week

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