Kasi Lemmons Loves 'Harold and Maude,' 'Tango'
Director Kasi Lemmons' directing debut was Eve's Bayou (1997). Her latest film is Talk to Me, starring Don Cheadle as a radio DJ.
Director Kasi Lemmons' directing debut was Eve's Bayou (1997). Her latest film is Talk to Me, starring Don Cheadle as a radio DJ.
36 Quai des Orfevres
Harold and Maude
Daughters of the Dust
More DVD Picks
Asked to name her favorite movies to watch, Talk to Me director Kasi Lemmons offers a variety of genres in three personal categories. They range from a French crime thriller to an odd American love story, with a musical biopic thrown in for good measure.
Her first category of favorites includes only one movie.
Just Plain Cool
36 Quai des Orfevres (2004): It's the title of the film and the French equivalent of Scotland Yard. The director himself spent 12 years as a French cop. Lemmons calls the movie stunning, masculine and dark.
DVDs I Can Watch Over and Over
Harold and Maude (1971): "That's maybe my favorite," Lemmons tells Steve Inskeep. "[It's] just the perfect kind of tone, a very delicate balance. It's a love story between a very kind of suicidal young rich boy, about 16, and an 80-year-old woman.
"I saw it as a kid and, I don't know, for some reason, it just tickled my perverse funny bone," Lemmons says. "I really related to it. And the music is wonderful. It's Cat Stevens' fabulous, fabulous soundtrack. I was very moved by this character that Bud Cort plays, this young man who's always trying to get his mother's attention by staging suicides. ... I thought it was kind of great teen angst. I felt for him."
All That Jazz (1979): "A wonderful movie that is semi-autobiographical about Bob Fosse [with the late Roy Scheider in the lead role] and his journey through choreography and wrestling with his own demons and his health scare. It's a musical and it has a wonderful kinkiness."
Last Tango in Paris (1972): "It's the music and the mood and Paris, and certain scenes that are incredibly vivid and wonderful for me. Like Marlon Brando talking to his dead wife."
Also:
The Godfather I & II (1972, 1974)
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)
The Shining (1980)
Underappreciated DVDs
Sugar Cane Alley (1983): Euzhan Palcy's film, which takes place in Martinique, tells a story from a little boy's point of view. "It's a wonderful, wonderful film."
Daughters of the Dust (1991): Lemmons says she was greatly influenced by this film. "It was like somebody that was speaking my language. It's a very evocative film that unfolds kind of slowly and is very mythical, and that's something that I really relate to."
Also:
Rabbit Proof Fence (2002)
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