Christopher Nolan Visits Criterion Closet, Names the Films That Shaped Him, Including ‘Malcolm X,’ ‘Lost Highway,’ and ‘The Player’

Here’s Christopher Nolan visiting the Criterion Closet. The video is less than five minutes long, but somehow he manages to walk away with 16 titles that have shaped his artistic sensibilities — starting with Don Siegel’s “The Killers” and the massive John Cassavetes box set, which he praises for its “incredible work.”

Nolan gets into the technical brilliance of Orson Welles, calling “Mr. Arkadin” a “very very peculiar piece of work” that shows Welles’ genius despite being made in the “scrappiest, most sort of homemade” way possible. He also talks about Fritz Lang’s “The Testament of Dr. Mabuse,” revealing that he and his brother studied the film’s criminal mastermind while developing the Joker for “The Dark Knight.”

The man is obviously a film history obsessive, and his love for Satyajit Ray’s is clear. After being “blown away” by “Pather Panchali,” Nolan picks up the Apu trilogy set so he can finally experience the remaining two films.

He also revisits some personal favorites, including Spike Lee’s “Malcolm X,” which he originally saw in 70mm during its theatrical release. Nolan says he’s excited to return to the epic, which he hasn’t watched since then, and points out a small cameo from a young John David Washington.

One of the more interesting picks is David Lynch’s “Lost Highway.” Nolan admits he initially found it “quite laborious to sit through,” but says the film lingered with him for weeks. Eventually, he realized Lynch had created a “cinematic proxy” for the experience of dreaming, praising his ability to bring “dream logic” to the screen.

Other Nolan selections include “The Qatsi Trilogy,” with “Koyaanisqatsi” being his personal favorite. He calls it “pure cinema” and praises Philip Glass’s “extraordinary music.”

I’m glad Nolan is a fan of Robert Altman’s incredible “The Player,” which he calls the legendary filmmaker’s best film — an “incredible thriller” and an “absolutely incisive satire of Hollywood” that has only grown more influential over time. He also highlights Richard Linklater’s “Boyhood” for its “incredible concept” and the “moving way” Linklater pulled off such an ambitious long-term production.

Nolan finishes out his Criterion haul with Carl Franklin’s underrated neo-noir “One False Move,” praising the performances of Bill Paxton and Billy Bob Thornton, and Carroll Ballard’s “The Black Stallion,” which he describes as a beautiful childhood favorite featuring “incredible photography” by Caleb Deschanel.

And, fittingly, he closes things out with the film that forever changed cinema: Orson Welles’s “Citizen Kane.”