Hans Zimmer has long been in a running battle with John Williams for the title of ‘world’s greatest film composer’. The man doesn’t just score movies, he reshapes them. With just a few notes, he can turn a ticking watch into a panic attack, or a rising string into a spiritual awakening. His music doesn’t sit behind the action; it charges right through it.
But Zimmer isn’t just a masterful composer with an ear for the epic; he’s also a genuine movie lover. He’s championed a range of films over the years, from quiet indies to thunderous spectacles. “That’s what movies are supposed to do to you,” Zimmer said during his trip to the Criterion Closet. “You’re supposed to get excited about life.” Here are some of his most intriguing recommendations.
10
‘Chariots of Fire’ (1981)
Directed by Hugh Hudson
“I believe God made me for a purpose. But he also made me fast. And when I run, I feel His pleasure.” Chariots of Fire could have easily been a standard sports biopic, but instead it becomes something lyrical and almost mythic. It tells the story of two British runners at the 1924 Olympics — one a devout Christian (Ian Charleson), the other a Jewish outsider (Ben Cross) fighting for recognition. Through them, the movie makes a statement on discipline, belief, identity, and sacrifice, about what it means to run with conviction.
The performances are understated and sincere. Cross and Charleson ably capture the quiet dignity and inner fire of their characters. Hugh Hudson‘s direction is restrained, letting their emotions simmer just below the surface. And then there’s that score. Vangelis‘ synth-heavy theme shouldn’t work, but it does—triumphantly so. It gives the film a pulse, a timelessness. Everyone knows the iconic slow-mo scene set to operatic music.
9
‘Night and Fog’ (1956)
Directed by Alain Resnais
“Even a peaceful landscape… even a meadow in harvest, with crows circling overhead… can lead to a concentration camp.” There are films that depict atrocity, and there are films that remember it. In this cinematic memorial, Alain Resnais interweaves present-day footage of empty concentration camps with archival images of the horrors committed there, and the result is unrelenting. He doesn’t dramatize the Holocaust but instead meditates on its lingering shadows.
In just over 30 minutes, Night and Fog creates an emotional impact greater than many films ten times its length. Yet the most haunting parts are the ones that feel mundane: the overgrown train tracks, the rusting wire. Narrated with weary resolve, the film doesn’t offer closure or catharsis. It merely asks us to look. “The film, to me, in its own unflinching way, describes the Third Reich and the Holocaust and the concentration camps. So you have to have strong nerves to go and watch this one,” Zimmer said.
Night and Fog
- Release Date
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April 29, 1956
- Runtime
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32 Minutes
- Director
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Alain Resnais
- Writers
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Jean Cayrol
8
‘Andrei Rublev’ (1966)
Directed by Andrei Tarkovsky
“They’ll think I don’t exist. But I exist.” Tarkovsky‘s Andrei Rublev isn’t a biography so much as a cinematic icon. The film follows the life of the legendary Russian icon painter (Anatoly Solonitsyn), but it defies traditional narrative. It drifts, pauses, contemplates. It captures Rublev not in moments of fame, but in spiritual trial: witnessing a man tortured by his gift, paralyzed by doubt in a world collapsing around him. The visuals are fittingly stark and elemental, composed of fire, rain, blood, and silence.
Not for nothing, it’s widely considered a masterpiece of Soviet and world cinema. “My favorite film my whole life long,” Zimmer said of it. “It’s inexplicably beautiful. It’s inexplicably profound. You have to be patient with it. I mean, look, how many films do you know where your protagonist takes a vow of silence for a whole act? It’s such an incredibly well-crafted and well-thought-out film which deals with everything that life is about.”
Andrei Rublev
- Release Date
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December 16, 1966
- Runtime
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183 minutes
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Anatoliy Solonitsyn
Andrei Rublev
-
-
Nikolay Grinko
Daniil Chornyy
-
Nikolai Sergeyev
Feofan Grek
7
‘Sid & Nancy’ (1986)
Directed by Alex Cox
“We fuckin’ died for you, Sid! Love kills!” Ever since Romeo and Juliet, the best love stories have tended to be tragic, and Sid & Nancy dives headfirst into that downward spiral. Chronicling the self-destructive romance between Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious (Gary Oldman) and his American girlfriend Nancy Spungen (Chloe Webb), Alex Cox‘s film isn’t interested in glamorizing punk. It shows the rot behind the rage.
“(It’s) the history of that time and I was very much part of that time and I loved that time,” Zimmer said. “And, it’s of course the great Gary Oldman.” Indeed, Oldman gives a performance so raw it’s unnerving, playing Sid as a lost boy disguised as a rock star. Webb’s Nancy is equally harrowing: obnoxious, vulnerable, and desperately in love. The film filters them both through a haze of heroin and nihilism, but occasionally lets something softer break through. Though a flop on release, Sid & Nancy has since become a cult film.
6
‘Brief Encounter’ (1945)
Directed by David Lean
“This can’t last. This misery can’t last. I must remember that and try to live by it.” Where Sid & Nancy is loud and shocking, Brief Encounter is quiet and contemplative. It’s about a woman (Cecilia Johnson) and a man (Trevor Howard) who meet by chance and almost fall in love. Almost. They’re both married. They have responsibilities. So instead of romance, they share a few hours each week, lingering over tea and train schedules. The restraint is what makes it devastating.
This movie fits an impressive amount of feeling into 87 minutes. On the acting side, Johnson is magnificent, her quiet anguish contained behind every clipped line and modest smile. David Lean, usually a master of epics, instead gets intimate and small-scale. He directs with an eye for shadows and silences, using a train station as a site of both possibility and farewell, and underscoring the emotion with swelling Rachmaninoff pieces. “A true treasure,” Zimmer said simply.
Brief Encounter
- Release Date
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August 24, 1946
- Runtime
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86 Minutes
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Celia Johnson
Laura Jesson
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Trevor Howard
Dr. Alec Harvey
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Stanley Holloway
Albert Godby
-
5
‘His Girl Friday’ (1940)
Directed by Howard Hawks
“I wonder if Bruce can stand having you around for life. Well, he can stand having you around for breakfast, maybe lunch, but not for life!” You can measure the pace of His Girl Friday in laughs per second. Howard Hawks‘ screwball masterpiece is rapid-fire cinema, a newsprint tornado of wit and flirtation. Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell spar with verbal jabs so fast you miss jokes while laughing at the last one. But what elevates the film beyond its comic genius is the chemistry.
Grant is on peak, charming form, and Russell’s Hildy isn’t just a romantic foil; she’s a force of nature. Smart, driven, and always one step ahead, she steals every scene. “I always wonder what the best script written is, the best comedy,” Zimmer said. “And if it’s not Lubitsch with Ninotchka, I go to His Girl Friday. Do you want to have a good time? His Girl Friday will show you a good time like you’ve never had before.”
His Girl Friday
- Release Date
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January 18, 1940
- Runtime
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92 minutes
-
-
Rosalind Russell
Hildy Johnson
4
‘Les Blank: Always for Pleasure’ (1978)
Directed by Les Blank
“Life without music would be a mistake. Life without spice would be unforgivable.” More vibe than narrative, Always for Pleasure is documentary filmmaker Les Blank‘s love letter to New Orleans. It has no plot, no protagonist, and barely any voiceover. Instead, it drifts through parades, kitchens, dance floors, and second-line processions, capturing a culture where life and music are inseparable. You don’t just watch it. You marinate in it. Blank’s camera lingers on people enjoying themselves—laughing, cooking, swaying to a brass band.
Always a Pleasure is a film about joy as resistance, celebration as continuity. “This is a journey through different lives, which I love because we get so isolated these days, especially because we’re sitting behind our little phones and our iPads and our televisions, etc,” Zimmer said. “But sometimes there’s something you can put on that just rips right through the screen and takes you outside and takes you to the world.”
3
‘Performance’ (1970)
Directed by Donald Cammell & Nicolas Roeg
“The only performance that makes it, that really makes it, that makes it all the way, is the one that achieves madness.” Performance is less a story than a hallucination. Part gangster film, part psychedelic breakdown, it starts conventionally enough: a London enforcer (James Fox) goes into hiding after a hit goes wrong. But once he steps into the mansion of a reclusive rock star (played with slithering charisma by Mick Jagger), reality starts to blur. Identity collapses. Gender and power swirl together. The editing fractures space and time.
The film becomes a mirror maze, and you’re never quite sure who is becoming who. “(It’s) a movie about the London East End but it’s really about the ’60s,” Zimmer said. “Mick Jagger and James Fox (and) a very big Moog synthesizer and lots of orgies. I think people didn’t know quite what to make of it, in the best possible way.”
Performance
- Release Date
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September 4, 1970
- Runtime
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105 Minutes
2
‘House’ (1977)
Directed by Nobuhiko Obayashi
“If your head comes off, you’ll never be able to wear hats again!” What happens when a haunted house movie is remade by a 12-year-old on a sugar high? You’d get something like House, a film so gleefully unhinged it makes Evil Dead look like Rebecca. Seven schoolgirls visit an old mansion where everything is cursed. The piano eats people, the paintings bleed, the cat glows, and gravity is optional.
But it’s not just absurdist horror. Beneath the silliness, there’s a melancholy about loss, memory, and the legacy of war. House is a film about ghosts, but not just the supernatural kind. Director Nobuhiko Obayashi, working with his daughter to develop the story, infuses everything with childlike logic: dreams are real, and emotion manifests as physical chaos. This is a very unique take on fantasy horror. House is a nightmare, a comedy, a cartoon, and a tragedy. It doesn’t follow rules. It swallows them whole.
House
- Release Date
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July 30, 1977
- Runtime
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88 Minutes
1
‘The Battle of Algiers’ (1966)
Directed by Gillo Pontecorvo
“It’s hard to start a revolution. Even harder to continue it. And hardest of all to win it.” By design, The Battle of Algiers feels like a documentary. Director Gillo Pontecorvo uses handheld cameras, non-professional actors, and real locations to recreate the Algerian struggle against French colonial rule with unnerving immediacy. It shows both the tactics of the FLN and the brutal response of the French military in excruciating detail.
But the realism isn’t just aesthetic. It’s moral. The line between freedom fighter and terrorist blurs. And that’s the point. The film refuses easy answers and reminds us that battles, even those for just causes, are rarely clear-cut. Its admirers include Stanley Kubrick, who said it “fascinated and fooled” him. “Hugely influential film. Ennio Morricone‘s first score. But that’s so besides the point because the film is so incredibly good. The true freedom fighters are actually playing their parts in it,” Zimmer said.