Alec Baldwin will sound familiar to many because of his hilarious impersonations of Donald Trump on Saturday Night Life , which have caused more than one angry tweet to which the President of the United States has accustomed us.
But the truth is that it is undoubtedly one of the luxury secondary roles in North American cinema: And then she arrived, The cooler, Elisabethtown, It’s not so easy… A filmography where comedies abound and that he has always combined with his work on television, where his role as Jack Donaghy in 30 rock .He rose to the top, winning several Golden Globes and Emmys. The next? He has just finished shooting a biopic about Lamborghini with Antonio Banderas in which he plays Enzo Ferrari. While we wait for its release, we take a look at his 5 favorite Criterion movies.
Z , by Costa Gavras (1969)
It is one of the most important political thrillers in the history of cinema. This story about the assassination of an opposition congressman in a corrupt democracy captivated Baldwin from a very young age. “I went to see it when I was only 11 years old when it was released. (I know: it’s weird.) The cinematography by Raul Cotard, the Oscar-winning editing by Françoise Bonnot, the music by Mikis Theodorakis and the performances by Yves Montand, Irene Papas and Jean-Luis Trintignant created an overall sensation so intense that it overwhelmed me”.
Blackmail in Broadway , by Alexander Mackendrick (1957)
One of the capital films of black cinema that many overlook. A unique film that portrays the Manhattan night through a relentless journalist who pulls the strings of power for him and that has two great performers as the headliner: Burt Lancaster and Tony Curtis. “Burt Lancaster made a lot of wonderful movies, but in this one he sometimes seems to be biting the camera with his sinewy strength, leans into his patented intensity and gives us an extraordinary performance: this is perhaps his best role. 50’s noir style at its best.”
Sid and Nancy by Alex Cox (1986)
“Any film that helped launch Gary Oldman to fame is an important film, as I believe Oldman is the greatest actor of his generation.” Baldwin’s devotion to Oldman is well known, but this biopic about the tragic relationship between Nancy Spungeon and Sid Vicious, leader of the Sex Pistols, as he himself admits, is much more than that: “You have to add Alex Cox to his pinnacle moment as a director, the cinematography of the great Roger Deakins and the wonderfully disturbing eccentricity of Chloe Webb.”
The Tenenbaums. A Family of Geniuses , by Wes Anderson (2001)
It is curious that he includes a film in which he participated in his list, if only to give voice to the story. He himself admitted that when he received the script for what he had to read, he could not understand what The Tenenbaums was about. A family of geniuses. But the result did not disappoint: “At the time of its release, it was arguably one of the most original films in tone and style since Robert Altman’s M*A*S*H .”
Paths of Glory, by Stanley Kubrick (1957)
Classic among the classics. The quintessential anti-war film could not be missing from Baldwin’s list. As the actor points out, the film is pure cinema “at all levels: acting, directing, script and technique.” But Baldwin highlights, how could it be otherwise, the acting ensemble: “a penetrating Kirk Douglas shows that unmistakable mix between machismo and guilt. Veterans Adolphe Menjou and George Macready are terrific. But it is Wayne Morris, Timothy Carey and Joseph Turkel who bring the courage and suffering necessary to offset the impeccable looks of the debauched French commanders.”
