Under the Skin's Jonathan Glazer on the Movies He Loves

Whenever critics see a movie that can't be defined by genre, they tend to compare it to other films that can't be defined by genre. Jonathan Glazer's alien-abduction-thriller-cum-existentialist-experimental-movie Under the Skin has been compared to a century's worth of other films. Some people are saying it's as psychedelic as 2001. Others are comparing its elliptical editing rhythms to the work of Nicolas Roeg. If you're looking for visual precedents and influences, Under the Skin is going to reflect back whatever it is that you want to see in it. So we decided to ask Glazer (also director of Sexy Beast and Birth) himself about the movies he loves and that influence his work. It took some respectful prodding ("The last person you want to see after watching this movie is me," he noted moments after we sat down), but we eventually got him to open up. He spoke about his tastes, which veer from Apatow-produced comedies to mid-century European art films, why he doesn't consider himself a filmmaker, why he'll never make another movie like Under the Skin, and what he really wants out of the movies.

I love Pasolini. Fassbinder I love. People who are just on their tip, you know?

ESQ: Growing up, as a student, working in music videos, what were you watching when you said, "Oh, there's a form here. This isn't just storytelling"?

JG: Well, let me think. My memory isn't going to be that trustworthy. It wasn't like "I saw Star Wars when I was 11 and this is what happened to me." In fact I did see Star Wars when I was 11, and I didn't enjoy it. Some of the films I saw, I felt like they were films I shouldn't have seen. Like I shouldn't be allowed to watch it.

ESQ: I'll push you — like what?

JG: Because you're pushing me. There are 100 others that are as relevant, but I'll use this because it's a good example: a film called O Lucky Man!, a trippy film. For instance, there's an image in that where the character played by Malcolm McDowell, he goes into a church, and it's the Harvest Festival. He's eating all the food, because he hasn't eaten for days. And this woman comes along who works in the church. She goes, "My son, you mustn't, you shouldn't take the food from God, you really mustn't." She then says: "Here." And she pulls her breast out of her jumper! And he suckles on her breast. And this is a fully grown man, and a fully grown woman. It was the strangest thing I think I had probably ever seen at that point. There's another scene where there's a man's head, you saw him under a sheet. And the whole sheet is vibrating. Like a man with a fever. And Malcolm McDowell pulls the sheet off to see the rest of the body and it's like a pig with a man's head, because they're doing some weird experiments in this laboratory. Just the shock of things like that. Just the absolute head-fuck, you know?

Jonathan Glazer's influences: O Lucky Man! (1973) and Au Hasard Balthazar (1966).

ESQ: You've said that this film is about the form itself, the alien form. Have you had experiences like watching Under the Skin while watching movies?

JG: Yeah, not totally.

ESQ: Like when?

JG: I'm really bad at giving lists. I'm not resisting to be belligerent or anything, but I find it really hard to give an example, and to commit to that example by giving it. Because I know if you ask me the question tomorrow, I'll give you a different example. There's no one thing I saw where I said, "Oh I want to do that, that's what I want to do." It's not like that.

ESQ: So there's no moment where you watch Performance, and say, "I'm going to be a filmmaker"? That doesn't happen to you?

JG: I'm still not sure, to be honest with you, whether I am a filmmaker. I think I want to be a filmmaker. I don't know that I am a filmmaker.

ESQ: Why not?

JG: I don't think I approach it like that. I'm not even sure, to be honest with you. Maybe it's the title of it. "This is a new film from director Jonathan Glazer." That's a thing... I don't know.

ESQ: Why is that?

JG: Because it's a definition.

ESQ: So do you like other movies? Is it just yours, Will Ferrell, and Seventh Seal?

JG: Of course, I love movies. And I don't like my own movies at all. I don't include mine in that list.

ESQ: So are you saying you appraise them badly, or just that you don't like looking back at them?

JG: I think it's good to keep looking forward. I don't think you get anything from looking back at what you made. You're then cautious, going forward. Things become echoes of what you've done. I don't want to do that.

ESQ: So we're not going to see another movie like Under the Skin from you?

JG: No. I hope not. But, you know, um... [Glazer seems to recall the topic at hand, now that we're almost out of time.] Bresson.

ESQ: What was the first Bresson film you saw?

JG: Balthazar.

ESQ: A movie that spare — your movie is almost maximalist, in a lot of senses. I'm curious about the connection there.

JG: It's his commitment as an artist, it's his insight, his wisdom. Incredible filmmaker. People who made films like that made films against all the odds. He wasn't "Robert Bresson, revered filmmaker," when he was making these films. When he was making these films, he was just a man struggling with his own artistic journey. Truffaut I like. I like all those French filmmakers. Jean Vigo is probably my favorite of all. I love Pasolini. Fassbinder I love. People who are just on their tip, you know? People who are doing their thing. That's good enough.

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