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Here's A List Of The Films Christopher Nolan Thinks You Should See

Here's A List Of The Films Christopher Nolan Thinks You Should See

The 'Dark Knight' director shares his influences and inspiration

Tom Wood

Tom Wood

Hollywood film director Christopher Nolan has offered up his list of 30 movies that he thinks that everyone should watch at some point in their lives.

When someone like Christopher Nolan tells you something about the movies, you should probably listen, too.

Surprisingly, there's no mention for Muppet Treasure Island, but nobody's perfect.

Nolan has directed 12 films across the course of his stellar career, including The Dark Knight, Dunkirk and Interstellar. It's fair to say he has done his research when it comes to this subject.

Christopher Nolan.
PA

Anyway, he picked a pretty varied and broad selection of films that he thinks are fantastic and claims inspired and informed his own work. See what you make of these.

Let's start with Stanley Kubrick's classic 2001: A Space Odyssey. It's a fairly obvious pick, but still undoubtedly a classic. Of that film, Nolan told Entertainment Weekly: "I just felt this extraordinary experience of being taken to another world.

"You didn't doubt this world for an instant. It had a larger than life quality."

2001: A Space Odyssey.
MGM

Sure does, Chris.

Other notable sci-fi classics on the list are things like Alien and Blade Runner, both helmed by director Ridley Scott, as well as Close Encounters of the Third Kind and - of course - Star Wars.

It's not all about sci-fi though. There are a lot of space films on the list that aren't necessarily the stuff of the distant future, but definitely could have been a help when making films like Interstellar.

Moon landing documentary For All Mankind made the cut, as did 2018's Neil Armstrong biopic First Man, starring Ryan Gosling. Oh, and the less well known The Right Stuff, from 1983, rounds out the space selection.

One thing that you will notice is that there are a lot of war movies on the list, too.

War movies play a big part in Nolan's recommendations.
Warner Bros.

Saving Private Ryan, The Thin Red Line, All Quiet on the Western Front, and The Battle of Algiers all feature. That might give you some insight into where the inspiration behind his directorial decisions for Dunkirk came from.

Scattered in amongst his choices are some stone cold classics such as 12 Angry Men, Lawrence of Arabia, The Spy Who Loved Me, and Superman - The Movie. There is also some strong representation for seminal directors like Orson Welles and Fritz Lang, too.

He also lists some pretty out-there experimental cinema such as 1927's Metropolis - trust us, it's weird - and the left-field documentary Koyaanisqatsi.

The poster for Metropolis.
Parufamet

All in all, it's a pretty interesting list and offers a good insight into a film director with one of the stronger bodies of work in recent times.

Here's the list in full:

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
12 Angry Men (1957)
Alien (1979)
All Quiet On The Western Front (1930)
Bad Timing (1980)
The Battle Of Algiers (1965)
Blade Runner (1982)
Close Encounters Of The Third Kind (1977)
First Man (2018)
For All Mankind (1989)
Foreign Correspondent (1940)
Greed (1924)
The Hit (1984)
Koyaanisqatsi (1983)
Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence (1983)
Metropolis (1927)
Mr. Arkadin (1955)
The Right Stuff (1983)
Saving Private Ryan (1998)
The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)
Ryan's Daughter (1970)
Star Wars (1977)
Street of Crocodiles (1986)
Sunrise (1927)
Superman - The Movie (1978)
The Testament of Dr. Mabuse (1933)
The Thin Red Line (1998)
Topkapi (1964)
The Tree Of Life (2011)

Featured Image Credit: PA

Topics: TV and Film, UK Entertainment, US Entertainment