What almost as incredible as watching anEdgar Wrightmovie? Reading Wright talk about movies he loves. That’s exactly what the writer and director behind such gems as the Cornetto trilogy,Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, and the upcoming horror thrillerLast Night in Sohois doing to mark the release of “Empire’s Greatest Cinema Moments Ever,” a special edition of Empire magazine which he specially curated.
In one exciting feature, Wright opens up toEmpiremagazine about the moviegoing experiences that have stuck with him to this day. Wright pulls out a handful of movies from the ol' memory bank and revisits each one of them in detail, explaining what made seeing that particular movie such a memorable experience. The movies he taps for recognition are includeGravity,Fatal Attraction,Mad Max: Fury Road,Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,The Silence of the Lambs, andSe7en. WhereSe7enis concerned, Wright tells Empire he remembers how the biggest jump scares in Fincher’s 1995 noir thriller have never left him.
“‘Seven’ is an interesting one, because when you watch that with a crowd and people don’t know where it’s going, you may feel people getting what’s going to happen at different times – it’s catching in the audience. People are starting to realise, it’s dawning on them with horror, ‘What’s happening? What’s going to happen?’ That’s an exciting thing, the penny dropping for some of the audience about the contexts of a box before everybody gets it.”
And while the memories ofSe7enhave stuck with Wright, the person he took on a date to see the Fincher flick did not. He shared, “I maybe unwisely went on a first date to seeSe7en– a first and last date.Se7enis maybe not a great idea for a date movie.”
And speaking ofFury Road, Wright revealed to Empire that he saw theGeorge Millerepic four times in five days. After seeing the movie at a private screening held by Warner Bros., Wright was compelled to go to a theater ASAP to enjoy the thrill of it with others having identified the movie needed to be seen in all its breathtaking glory on the big screen.
“There’s lots of amazing moments in ‘Fury Road,’ just, gasps from the audience. At the end of the sandstorm sequence, when that amazing set piece finally ends and you see the little fuse of the dynamite going down, and then it wipes out and goes to black, everybody breathes out, and then everybody claps. It’s such an amazing feeling. I can enjoy that film at home, but whenever I do I’ll think about what that sound was like when I saw it – that gasp of astonishment, and then the applause.”
Oh, and there is a surprising trio of comedies that Wright pegged as some of his favorite moviegoing experiences that might surprise you:There’s Something About Mary,South Park: Bigger, Longer, & Uncut, andTeam America. Where the latter two movies are concerned, Wright revealed why they have stuck with him to this day: “The opening of ‘South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut’ at the cinema was just a riot. And so was ‘Team America’ in a different way, just so outrageous, so designed to shock and appal. It’s an amazing thing to be witnessing that with other people.”
For more, check out our recently updated2021 movie release calendarand see thenewest image from Edgar Wright’sLast Night in Soho.
