For Empire's Ultimate Movie Playlist issue – on sale now, and available to order online here – we asked Hollywood to recommend must-see films in a series of expertly-curated lists, full of firm favourites and forgotten classics. Here, actor Antonia Campbell-Hughes chooses her top 10 films that make you believe in magic.
Read all of the Ultimate Movie Playlist selections in the September 2020 issue – on sale now.
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I think we have those rare moments of magic that are experienced far more frequently in childhood. As a child, I wrote and made things... and then continued on to make films – in order to facilitate the creation of these moments of magic. Fleeting fragments of time when your heart skips, or you gasp in spite of yourself, when a tsunami of emotion erupts unexpectedly, making you cry at an act of kindness, perhaps. I adore the execution of concept within cinema – so for me to experience these moments, is even more rare. And makes me truly believe in the whispers of magic that hibernate and reveal.
Watership Down, Martin Rosen
I find it’s hard to form an intellectual or empathetic connect with drawings / animation. Watership Down is a unique multimedia experience that synchronises music, poetry, concept, nature – and overall kindness and loyalty. Friendship and connection. No film stretches my heart muscle more.
Girlhood, Céline Sciamma
The group scenes specifically. Beautiful, vital young girls being observed by camera, allowing the actresses to be their most extraordinary selves in their own environment. Dancing together, stunning physicality and confidence. You feel your toes and fingers twitching to dance in the bedroom with them. It truly makes you sparkle for magical memories of teenage summers.
Wendy And Lucy, Kelly Reichardt
The simplicity of a bond with an animal. It makes you realise that we can find the richest moments in life from very little. To be complete as a human being – in what is considered social aloneness.
Another Earth, Mike Cahill
Grief and renewal. The magic of vulnerability and complete human nakedness. I have always been drawn to very tangible science fiction. Within the realms of possibility. This closeness to ground on which we stand, makes us feel part of a vast universe.
Wir Kinder Vom Bahnhof Zoo, Uli Edel
I first saw this film while living as a child in Germany – I think it might have been on television late at night. The film appeared timeless – ‘70s Berlin, but also a dystopian magical alien universe of punk anarchy, wild and dangerous, with the innocence of the very young. It depicts fragility with such abandon. And for me, as a child viewer, it showed bold truth and proximity of danger.
The Martian, Ridley Scott
One of the few films I actually watched in the lockdown period. I have been writing a sci-fi series, and had been watching only films from 1980 or earlier. But I’m such a Ridley Scott fan, so I thought I should give this a go. Surprisingly, I wept. And then laughed hysterically at my own weeping. I was kneeling on a sofa at the energy exerted at the hysterical laughing / sobbing outpouring.
White Material, Claire Denis
Fight to the end, for what we believe in. Men of great mettle. In this case, women. Fighting for what is right. For land and justice. For the love and passion of the land on which they reside. Diversity, united by land they are anchored to. Complete absence of self. Courage. This makes me have faith in mankind.
La Passion De Jeanne D’Arc, Carl Theodor Dreyer
It needs no explanation. The extent of her truth makes you almost feel you MUST look away. To witness that degree of human bareness. One of the greatest moments of magical mastery.
The Legend of Kaspar Hauser, Davide Manuli
This mad little Italian film was sent to me by an Italian director I worked with, Francesco Cinquemani, some years ago. I became obsessed with watching it over and over. The imagery, the characters, the music from Vitalic. Again, the escapism, not identifying with any place or time. Vincent Gallo in his most unique self, and the theatre actress / artist Silvia Calderoni. This film is sheer joy and euphoria. The mad cousin of Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Fata Morgana, Werner Herzog
To my eye, this was the most meditative, transporting vista of dreamspace magic. The ultimate science fiction universe of possibility. A camera set up in the Sahara desert, capturing mirages. The exploration of grounding on Earth’s terrain, to harness alien moments in nature or animal, through lenses. This is magic.
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Also inside the Ultimate Movie Preview issue: Action aficionados Edgar Wright and Gareth Evans on their favourite Jackie Chan flicks, horror hitmaker Mike Flanagan on the spookiest haunted house films, the legendary Sandy Powell on her favourite screen costumes, Richard Kelly’s personal pick of the most mind-bending movies, the Duffer Brothers on the films that changed their lives, Paul Feig and Henry Golding’s greatest Brit-flicks, Delroy Lindo on the movies that moved him, Joe Dante and John Landis on the greatest (and hairiest) werewolf horrors, Nicole Holofcener on the films that always make her cry, Christopher McQuarrie’s pick of the heist genre, Drew Pearce on musicians in movies, Corin Hardy’s pick of crime thrillers, Jack Reynor’s lockdown watch-list, Noel Clarke on the international films that inspired him, and much, much more.
Find the issue on shelves now, or order a copy online with free UK postage here.