This Photographer Asked People About Their Favorite Movies And Uncovered Many Hidden Film Gems (24 New Pics)

“I’m a pharmacist, and when I’m at work, I feel a lot like 'Patch Adams': I use his same spirit and good humor, and I can see that people smile and feel happier. They come to the pharmacy because they’re not feeling well, so I try to make them feel better. When I saw this film, I really related to it: I’m professional, but also very playful!"

“The protagonist of 'The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou,' like me, has a great fear: the fear of not being remembered. Not so much out of egocentrism, but for a practical reason: the only thing we can leave behind, the only thing that can last forever, is our memory, and that worries me. This film spoke directly to me”

“'The Blues Brothers' is the film I’ve watched more times than any other. When I was a kid, we had a VHS at home, and I practically wore it out. I know it by heart. It’s brilliant, even today. I’ve also shown it to my daughter. I’m introducing her to the blues, and when she sees a nun on the street, she tells me there’s a penguin, which makes me very proud! It’s a film that has accompanied both my political education, after all, we all hate Illinois Nazis, and my musical one too, with artists like Aretha Franklin, John Lee Hooker, and many others.”

“'Some Like It Hot' is the first film that came to my mind; it brings me back to my childhood. In England, it was often on TV, and my sister and I used to recite the dialogues and sing the songs. It was a film that was ahead of its time. Today, we talk about gay rights and gender issues, but this film is from 1959, and you see Jack Lemmon dressed as a woman, even getting engaged to a man! It’s a film that has stayed with me my whole life, and growing up as a member of the LGBTQ+ community, you realize how open it is to so many interpretations. It’s the kind of film you could feel was yours in different ways.”

“'Touki Bouki' was the first Senegalese film I had ever seen, a reality I didn’t know. The way it was shot, the characters, the social reality it depicts, the soundtrack, the sense of longing to escape: all these elements work together perfectly. The most important lesson is to keep hope even in the most desperate moments, always looking for a way out. I loved it”

"I consider 'Forrest Gump' my comfort movie; I never get tired of it. I saw it when I was little and found it funny, then as I grew up, I understood it more and appreciated it more and more. Forrest does good without even realizing it: I’m a nurse, and I like to think that, in my own small way, I’ve comforted and helped someone, maybe without even knowing it. I love the moment when Forrest helps Lieutenant Dan rediscover his will to live; it’s unexpected, and it’s a form of empathy that, in some way, is also part of my job. We need more Forrests in life, because beyond being a technically perfect film, it carries a positive message about life: ‘You make your own destiny, you have to do your best with what God gave you.’ It’s one of the film’s lines that I’ve come to love more and more over time.”

“'Big Fish' was the film that changed the direction of my life. After seeing it, I realized I wanted to dedicate myself to cinema, and I became a film journalist. I love Tim Burton and I love this film because I see a lot of myself in the main character.”

“The first time I heard about 'Lost in Translation' was during a farewell at an airport, where we could barely understand each other’s language. When I finally watched it, everything made sense. The music, the cinematography, and everything that is left unsaid carried me through different moments of my life. Through this film, I allow myself to contemplate suspended emotions, like Charlotte looking out of the window, or emotions that can create catharsis, like the karaoke scene with Bob, while routine, represented by faxes and indifference, keeps going on. Later, I discovered that the film partly reflected the farewell of the director, Sofia Coppola, and her feelings about her marriage. For me, on the contrary, this will always be a film about new beginnings. I always find myself wondering what is whispered in her ear in that powerful scene. That’s exactly how I felt in that airport, and fortunately, it wasn’t the last time.”

“Maybe 'Mamma Mia!' is not my absolute favorite film, but it’s definitely my comfort film. I first saw it when I was 17, with my school friends, at a time in life when it felt like everything could be solved with an ABBA song, when you could be lighthearted, without complications. In my bubble, sadness didn’t exist. Every now and then, I escape back into that bubble, because time passes and bad things happen. But whenever I feel like returning to that state of mind, I watch this film, and it feels like I’m 17 again.”

“'My Imaginary Country' ('Mi Pais Imaginario') is a documentary about the social uprising that took place in Santiago in 2019, experienced and documented by Patricio Guzmán. I feel particularly close to this story because the uprising happened right near my home, at Plaza Italia. I didn’t join in at first because the clashes with the police scared me, but later I went out to the streets too. The Constitution in Chile remained the one from Pinochet’s era, limiting major legal changes and fueling widespread discontent, as the documentary shows.”

“When I was a kid, I wanted to become a paleontologist, so I waited a long time for 'Jurassic Park.' Beyond the story, which is wonderful, seeing what was achieved visually is incredible; it made me want to work with graphics and computers, which is what I do today. I even mentioned this film in my final high school exam essay, talking about the ethics of science, especially the line by Malcolm: Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should.”

“'Apocalypse Now' is a film surrounded by an incredible mythology when it comes to its production. It’s full of ideas, an absolute masterpiece. There’s an atmosphere in it that I can’t find in any other film. I remember once, when I was a teenager, it was on TV and even though we had guests in the living room, I watched the whole thing. Despite all the distractions, I just couldn’t pull myself away from it.”

“When I was a child, my father sat me down in front of the TV and said, ‘Now I’m going to show you a beautiful film.’ From that moment on, I became obsessed with musicals. I always say that my life is a musical because I’m constantly singing and dancing. 'Grease' has stayed in my heart because it introduced me to this wonderful world.”

“'Melancholia' really made me feel the protagonist’s depression. It allowed me to live inside her emotions, and I loved how Lars von Trier overturns the situation: starting from something as tragic as the threat of the end of the world, the woman manages to reconnect with herself, to become, in a way, the heroine, and finally find a sense of peace that perhaps she had never found in her entire life.”

“I like 'Her' for the way it conveys loneliness and the distance in human relationships. The first time I saw it, I was at home with my brother, and we were both very surprised by the story.”

“I’ve been playing Persian and Armenian music for a long time, and The Color of Pomegranates, through its exploration of the iconography of this itinerant 14th-century poet, actually tells us an entire culture. The color of the pomegranate symbolizes blood, his ethnicity, and all the work he undertakes in his bardic career, which belongs to him deeply. Lately, I’ve realized that the stillness of a certain musical and miniature style suits me extremely well; the frontal presentation of the characters isn’t a limitation, they have their own rhythm, something codified by rules of great elegance and beauty. The film shows us what lies behind this very refined choice.”

“I love musicals, Emma Stone, and this beautiful film, 'La La Land,' which moves and enchants me. It depicts the long and hard journey from aspiring actor to professional actor, full of work, passion, study, dreams, ambition, determination, auditions, disappointments, surprises, sacrifices, opportunities, hopes, joys, all the way to the happy ending. I identify with Mia, the film’s protagonist, dreaming and pursuing with passion and determination the same artistic goal of becoming an actress. I especially adore the two scenes at the beginning and end of the film, set in the same bar, which symbolize the change in Mia’s destiny: in the first she is a waitress aspiring to be an actress, and in the second, she returns to the same bar as a successful actress”

“I was intrigued and encouraged by my mother to watch Legends of the Fall, at a time in my life that would later turn out to run parallel to Tristan’s, a bit turbulent, full of stubbornness, ambitions, and a search for something deeper. In my memories and in that inner intensity, I probably lived that same life, that same character, and maybe that inner voice still awakens even now. I’ve always felt it very clearly, it shows itself in instinctive gestures, in the ancestral love, sweetly reckless and protective, that I have for my family. It’s a constant search for redemption that I found in the magic of a film, in a character who, like me, like anyone, falls while crashing against his own wind of passion, only to rise again”

“'Kill Bill Vol. 1' has always given me positive energy, even if what’s on screen might not seem that way. I love the film’s colors, whenever I have the chance to watch it, they help me disconnect from everyday life and fully immerse myself in it, and for me it’s always a liberating experience, it makes me feel full, happy. The Bride, behind the mask, is a character wrapped in a kind of melancholy that I relate to. She leaves her previous life behind to become something else, it reminds me a bit of when I left Sicily at eighteen, it wasn’t easy, and I feel that same melancholy whenever I go back and then leave again. There’s always a connection to what you leave behind”

“'Arrival' teaches the importance of language. Two different societies, coming from different dimensions of the universe, try to communicate, showing how important it is to understand the other in order to solve problems and socio-political dynamics. It also shows how language itself creates pathways in our brains that change the way we see the world. Using one word instead of another can completely change the way we conceive a certain idea, and from this point of view the film is devastating. With words, you can be effectively cruel, but you can also be very polite in a very cruel way.”