Their favourite movies

There's so much to like about it. Really brilliant script. I think it's an amazingly directed movie. It's the real trick of that movie, to come out feeling that you're Irish and hate the English, especially when you're English, which I am. [laughs] It is one of the most exquisite performances of all time. I saw it when I was a student of acting, and there was lots of people to admire; there was Robert De Niro, and there was Al Pacino, and here was an English person, making such a complete and visceral transformation in character that you just went, "Oh my God, we're allowed to do that sort of thing, too?" That felt really empowering.

Brief Encounter, I think, is just an exquisite movie. I think I see it at least once a year. It's a Noel Coward and David Lean movie, and it's so ahead of its time in so many ways. Visually, it's ahead of its time. Oh my God, it's like a piece of music. That sequence of lines in it, when they're out in the countryside, and he says, "Are you cold, darling?" And she says, "No, not really." He says, "Are you happy?" And she says, "No, not really." It's f---ing heartbreaking. I mean, it pulls every string; it's beautiful. And it's also a movie that's... the first movie I can think of -- maybe I'm wrong -- where a woman has an affair and is the hero of the piece, and isn't vilified by the piece. The husband is not evil; you know, the husband is kind of wonderful , and at the end he says, "You've been so very far away, and I'm glad you've come home," and all of that. It's just beautiful..

Raging Bull. I defy anybody to point out one thing that's wrong with it. It's just perfect. There's nothing in that movie that could be cut out that would make it better. It just feels so lean and perfect. Every moment doesn't lose sight of what it's about, you know? Every shot is animal. It's amazing. Although I think it's really hard to do jealousy, because jealousy's a bit like seasickness in that it's awful if it's happening to you but f---ing funny to watch. You know, somebody puking off the side of a boat or somebody being jealous, you look like such a moron, but if it's happening to you, and you're jealous, it's f---ing appalling. Somehow, in that movie, what it pulls off is, it's never funny. It's just f---ing awful, he's just an animal, and it's the threat of violence the whole time. It's amazing and beautiful.

Prick up Your Ears, Gary Oldman. Great movie. That is another extraordinary performance that feels so total and complete, you know?

I love that movie. Again, what's wrong with that movie? Not a f---ing lot, right? Really lean piece of socialist storytelling that's just gorgeous.?

Close Encounters of the Third Kind is my favourite film of all time. That will always be number one. I can watch it today and it's like a time machine; it completely takes me back to the way I felt when I first watched it as a kid. For me it never dates, it never ages, and it's just perfect.

I've also got on there Dead Man's Shoes, the Shane Meadows/Paddy Considine classic. I think Paddy Considine is the finest actor and I loved working with him on Hot Fuzz and stuff. I think I'd like to be as good an actor as Paddy Considine one day, when I grow up. [laughs] He is amazing.

Bottle Rocket: I love Wes Anderson and that's one of my favourites. I mean, it's my favourite today with this interview. I love his staging of detail and specificity, you know; I think if the devil is in the details, Wes Anderson just nails it.

Raiders of the Lost Ark, again, very similar to me with Close Encounters. If I'm sick, or I've had a wisdom tooth out or I'm lying in bed in the afternoon and not very well, I will often put Raiders of the Lost Ark on. Again, it's like a timeless gem for me and it just never gets tired. When my son becomes old enough to watch films I am gonna show him Raiders.

How old is that?

Well, like, three. [laughs].

Finally, just for today, I am gonna say The Shining. Just a great film. It's a great horror film and it's incredibly creepy; fantastic performances and just that sense of threat that is prevalent throughout the whole movie. I just love it.

My number one favorite film was the first film I ever saw -- I was six-years-old before I ever went to the movies -- and that film is the original King Kong. It's still, I think, the best King Kong.

Then, my next favorite film is Gary Cooper's High Noon. Here we're talking about the one man against many, having to stand alone. And what sticks with me about that movie is that the woman that he loved, who was completely anti-violence, stood up with him, ultimately; and at the end, when all the townspeople had run away, he took that badge off and threw it in the dirt.

I think one of the best movies ever made was Baz Luhrmann's Moulin Rouge! It was just an extraordinarily well done film. Editing, directing, costuming -- just everything about it was perfect.

Clint Eastwood's The Outlaw Josey Wales -- one of my favorite, favorite films. I don't know what it is about The Outlaw Josey Wales that sticks... Oh, I do know what it is: it's the relationship with Chief Dan George. The narration, as it were, of Chief Dan George in that movie, you know. He's so dry, and it's humorous, but true. [As Josey Wales/Lone Watie] "You're not supposed to be able to sneak up on an Indian... But white men have been sneaking up on us for years now." [laughs] He's just great.

What's my fifth favorite movie? Now there have been quite a number of them. See now I'm sort of in no-man's land, because I'm thinking Bonnie and Clyde, I'm thinking Chinatown... I'm just wandering around now. [laughs] One of my favorite books was Black Beauty; I read it when I was eight-years-old, and I'm trying to find if there was a movie, like that, that sticks with me. Oh, I know! Moby Dick. Yes. Now that was filmmaking. John Huston. Call me... Ishmael. I read the book, and there are very few books that I have read and seen the movie and liked the movie. Gregory Peck was in two of 'em: Moby Dick and To Kill a Mockingbird. Gregory Peck was one of my favorite actors. Gregory Peck and Gary Cooper and Humphrey Bogart, those guys.