With Elliot Tuttle’s Blue Film now available on Letterboxd Video Store’s New Releases shelf, the filmmaker shares the films that influenced his provocative debut feature. Read more to see his accompany notes for each pick. In a Glass Cage Ground-breaking in its onscreen depiction of taboo — one film completely sustained by evil-made-human and just a few characters. It’s brash and completely disregards socially-acceptable storytelling in pursuit of a greater truth. And that very specific icy blue cast by DP Jaume Peracaula in its final moments will forever be an aesthetic reference for me. Sweet Movie Impossible to shake — one of the few films I regard highly and have only seen once — perfect example of a film one could never make now. Its ethos, which guides us through unseen depravity with such an unblinking eye, gave me courage when thinking about Blue Film. My Own Private Idaho It has to be one of the quintessential Gay films, all the more interesting because I don’t know if I could describe River Phoenix or Keanu Reeves’ characters as gay. But I do think Phoenix in this film is one of the greatest performances of all time, and his sensitivity (which transcends any identity) was hugely informative for the character of Aaron. 36 Fillette I’ve mentioned Breillat many times through the press cycle of Blue Film but this stands out to me as both her best work and the most influential to mine. Her portrait(s) of adolescent sexuality move me very deeply in that they’re made with such care and reckless abandon. Her films exist so far outside of any social precedent, but she makes them with such honesty. It’s a radical feat, and she does it every time she makes a film. A true visionary. Ken Park Sex onscreen is often relegated to the conceptual, but films like Ken Park make it feel rife with danger and potential, as an experience that moves us through our lives. It’s a nauseating film insofar as we see ourselves in its depravity. Pervert Park Very informative to me as a piece of journalism on sex offenders, however anecdotal and personal. It became clear to me very quickly that I could not make characters that were representative of all gay guys and sex workers, or convicted sex offenders. But this film offered a lot of valuable, and carefully documented, insight on the inner lives of pedophiles and sexual criminals. Father and Son The film has this hallucinatory quality unlike anything I’ve ever seen; it’s not ‘visual poetry,’ ‘surrealist,’ or any of our usual descriptors. It’s so ambitious, visually, and then completely compelling in a similarly somatic, emotional, insular story of only two characters (a younger and older man). Ariel Enormous visual reference that I shared with my DP Ryan Jackson-Healy, as well as Kaurismaki’s Le Havre. I don’t think Kaurismaki gets enough credit for how expressively he uses color — he deserves to be talked about alongside Almodóvar. It was very important to me and Ryan not to be afraid of color, or attempting a visual world. I didn’t want to fall into the classic debut feature pitfall of mistaking framing for cinematography. I was very grateful to Ryan for guiding the process and being such a wonderful collaborator. Nymphomaniac As blunt and honest about sex as any film I could imagine. One of his major works (alongside The House That Jack Built in my opinion). Should be spoken about all the time. Hard Candy A very intelligently-written chamber piece that threads this perfect line between human drama, dark comedy, and perverse sex thriller. It’s difficult to find a tonal misstep in what is really an audacious film, especially for that time in the American scene with two major stars who had a lot to risk by making it. ...plus 3 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.
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