When Collider reached out to Bill Hader to see if he’d be interested in talking about movies and how he became such a big film fan—in concert with our list of the 100 Essential Movies Every Serious Film Fan Should See—the Barry co-creator was thankfully enthusiastic to chat. So enthusiastic that he shared a list of over 200 movies that he says inspired him to make… something.
Hader is a well-known cinephile, but he didn’t grow up in the New York theater scene or in the midst of Hollywood, so during our interview he opened up about how he refined his film taste in his hometown of Tulsa, Oklahoma. He shared that one source of new movie recommendations was reading interviews with filmmakers like Akira Kurosawa and Martin Scorsese in which they themselves offered film recommendations or discussed some of their own cinematic influences. So in that spirit, hopefully Hader’s list inspires you, dear reader, to check out any number of these fine films. It’s a vast and diverse list that’s guaranteed to keep you busy and broaden your horizons as a movie fan.
You can check out the list below and our full interview here, but first a note from Bill Hader himself:
These are movies that, after seeing them, inspired me to go make…something, anything! Since I don’t know how old you are, you should know there’s some titles that are incredibly adult (Clockwork Orange, Enter the Void, Chopper, Come and See, Blue Velvet come to mind) so beware. But enjoy and be open; that’s how I like to approach a movie. And turn off you phone and don’t check your email, it affects the experience.
8 ½
Abigail’s Party
Ace in the Hole
Act of Killing
Aguirre, The Wrath of God
Airplane
Ali: Fear Eats the Soul
Alien (Scott)
All About My Mother
All that Jazz
All the Presidents Men
American Friend
Amores Parros
Apocalypto
Apollo 13
Ashes and Diamonds
Asphalt Jungle
Awful Truth, The
Bad Day at Black Rock
Ball of Fire
Bad News Bears, The (Richie)
Battle of Algeirs
Being John Malkovich
Being There
Best Years of Our Lives
Bicycle Thieves
Big Clock, The
Bigger than Life
Black Cat, The (Ulmer)
Black Narcissus
Blazing Saddles
Blood Simple
Blue Velvet
Bob Le Flambeur
Boogie Nights
Bottle Rocket
Breaking Point (Curtiz)
Bringing Up Baby
Broken Lullaby
Brood, The
Brother’s Keeper
Bucket of Blood, A (Corman)
Burbs, the
Cache
Canoa: A Shameful Memory
Carrie (DePalma)
Catch-22 (Nichols)
Charley Varrick
Children of Men
Chopper
Citizen Kane (duh)
Cleo 5 to 7
Clockwork Orange, A
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Closely Watched Trains
Come and See
Conformist, The
Contempt (Godard)
Cranes are Flying, The
Crime Wave (deToth)
Crimes and Misdemeanors
Crowd, The (Vidor)
Crumb
Cul-de-Sac
Cure (Kurosawa)
Dames
Dawn of the Dead (Romero)
Day of Wrath
Dazed and Confused
Dead of Night (Cavalcanti)
Death Line
Dekalog
Do the Right Thing
Don't Look Now
Down By Law
Downhill Racer
Dr Strangelove
Duck Soup
Duel
Earrings of Madame D
Election
Elevator to the Gallows
Emperors Naked Army Marches on
Enigma of Kaspar Hauser
Enter the Void
Evil Dead 1 and 2
Executioner, The (Berlanga)
Exorcist
Exterminating Angel, The
Fabulous Baron Munchausen (Zeman)
Face in the Crowd, A
Fat City
Faust (Murnau)
Female Trouble
Fireman's Ball, The
Fireworks (Kitano)
Force Majeure
Fort Apache
Gates of Heaven
Godfather 1&2 (duh)
Good Morning (Ozu)
Grand Illusion
Haunting, The (Wise)
Harlan County, USA
His Girl Friday
Hit, The
Hoop Dreams
Host, The (Bong)
Ikiru
In the Mood for Love
Informer, The (Ford)
Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Kaufman)
It’s a Gift
Ivan’s Childhood
Jackie Brown
Jules and Jim
Kanal
Kentucky Fried Movie
Kes
Kill Baby Kill
Killer of Sheep
Kwaidan
L atalante
Last Detail
Le Boucher
Le quattro volte
Lil Quinquin
Los Olvidados
Love and Death
Loves of a Blonde
Malcolm X
Man Escaped
Matter of Life and Death
McCabe and Mrs Miller
Medium Cool
Merry Widow, The (Lubitsh)
Midnight Cowboy
Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters
Mon Oncle
Mona Lisa
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Monty Python and the Life of Brian
Mouth Agape, A
My Darling Clementine
My Friend Totoro
Naked Spur, The
Near Dark
Network
Night and the City (Dassin)
Night of the Demon
Nights of Cabiria
No Country for Old Men
Nuts in May
Once Upon a Time in the West
One-Eyed Jacks
Only Yesterday
Pans Labyrinth
Paper Moon
Parenthood
Paris Texas
Pather Panchali
Pee Wee’s Big Adventure
Peppermint Frappe
Pickpocket
Point Blank
Prick Up Your Ears
Radio Days
Rashomon
Robocop (1987)
Rolling Thunder
Rosemary’s Baby
Ruggles of Red Gap
Rushmore
Safe
Salvatore Giuliano
Sansho the Baliff
Schizopolis
Scream of Fear
Sexy Beast
Shampoo
Shaun of the Dead
Sherlock Jr.
Short Cuts
Silence of the Lambs
Singing in the Rain
Small Change
Songs from the Second Floor
Sorcerer
Spirited Away
Sullivans Travels
Summer with Monika
Sunrise
Sunset Blvd
Taxi Driver
Tenant, The
Texas Chainsaw Massacre
There Will Be Blood
Thin Blue Line
Thing, The (Carpenter)
Train, The
Third Man
To Be or Not to Be
Tokyo Story
Toy Story
Trading Places
Treasure of Sierra Madre
Trouble in Paradise
Twentieth Century
Unfaithfully Yours
Unforgiven
Up
Virgin Spring
Virgin Suicides
Viridiana
Wages of Fear
Where’s the Friends House?
Wind, The (Sjostrom)
Woman in the Dunes
Woman Under the Influence, A
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown
Y Tu Mama Tambien
Yi yi
Zero for Conduct
For more from Hader, including why he loves Apocalypto, Ikiru, Paper Moon, and others, check out our full interview.