Since getting to hang out with Elmo wasn’t enough, “We Live in Time” star Andrew Garfield took a few minutes out of his busy schedule to relax in the Criterion Closet. In his video, which you can watch below, he explained how he initially felt threatened by the idea of coming to such a magical place, but that actually being there was a different experience entirely.
“Every time I watch these videos, I’m quite intimidated and I’m like, ‘God, if I ever do that, I’m probably going to be so overwhelmed.’ But it’s like being in one of those sensory deprivation pods where you’re only surrounded by the most incredible cinema ever made,” said Garfield. “And I feel very genuinely humbled to have been invited here.”
Diving right in, Garfield honored Terry Gilliam, who he worked with on “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus,” by picking up his 1985 sci-fi comedy “Brazil.” In describing it, Garfield said, “I adore it, it’s…so inventive. It’s ‘1984’-esque. It’s dystopian, it’s anti-capitalist, it’s anti-commercialism. It is…a masterpiece of rebellion and of insanity. And Jonathan Pryce has never been so incredible and Terry has never been so…let off the leash.”
In discussing the Maysles’ revolutionary direct cinema piece “Salesman,” Garfield also brought up Mike Nichols, who he worked with on a 2012 Broadway production of Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman” and who recommended the documentary to him during rehearsals.
“This was one of the things that Mike said that we must watch just to…develop our souls as well as prepare us to make that play,” said Garfield of the Maysles’ “Salesman.” “You know, again, the kind of, the failure of capitalism that we’re currently living at the end of, hopefully.”
Another documentary Garfield put the spotlight on was Steve James’ epic basketball documentary, “Hoop Dreams,” which follows two African-American teenagers as they’re brought up to be professional athletes and hopefully lift their families out of poverty.
“Basketball is more important to me than…most things in my life,” Garfield said. “And…I think what this film does so purely is that it gets in touch with our collective human longing to make something meaningful out of this life. It’s a film about the essential…our essential needs as human beings to be a part of something bigger than ourselves, to try to follow the image of a dream. And it just so happens to be set in the world of the most beautiful, balletic, soulful sport.”
After giving praise to British filmmakers Mike Leigh and Ken Loach, highlighting their films “Naked” and “Kes,” respectively, as well as “The Social Network” director David Fincher for his 1997 thriller “The Game,” Garfield tapped into his love for musicals and performance to select D.A. Pannebaker’s failed pilot turned cult classic documentary, “Company: Original Cast Album.”
“One of the great films about the creative process, the agony and the ecstasy,” Garfield said of the film. “It’s so wild, the access that you have. You feel like you’re there. And it’s all suggestive. There’s no real narrative. You’re just kind of with these artists, these, like… thoroughbred artists who are struggling to capture Sondheim’s impossibly incredible music. D.A. Pennebaker, who’s operating the camera, is right in the souls of these people. It’s one of my favorite films of all time.”
Watch Garfield’s full Criterion Closet visit below.
