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faroutmagazine.co.uk]
MUSIC
Keith Richards once picked his favourite directors
Jordan Potter
WED 4TH JAN 2023 16.00 GMT
Long before the years of Studio 54 and MTV, the glamorous worlds of film and music were already intertwined. Through the rise of Hollywood, stars like Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley illustrated the merge of these two art forms as both actors and singers, and over the decades since, the intrinsic bond has become ever stronger. For Keith Richards, acting has never been an attractive side career, but that doesn’t detract from his penchant for classic cinema.
In 2004, Richards was asked by a fan on his website what his favourite movies were, to which he quipped, “I’m blind”. After a brief chuckle, The Rolling Stones guitarist revealed his love for film as he pointed out one of the issues of being on the road with the band. When you’re “in New Guinea”, he offered as an example, it’s pretty difficult to keep up with Hollywood.
Richards went on to describe his love of classics played an important part in his downtime and explained how they cause him to have late nights. He revealed, “Two nights ago, I really pissed off my old lady because I stayed up all night watching Sherlock Holmes movies that were on a roll.” His love for the oldies doesn’t stop there. “Silent movies I love,” Richards said, adding, “I write music to them.”
This is not the only time he has made his love for the classics clear. While promoting the Martin Scorsese-directed Rolling Stones concert film, Shine a Light, he ran off a list of his favourite directors to Entertainment Weekly: “I love film. D.W. Griffith. Hitchcock. William Wellman. I mean, should I go on? I know my movies.”
The Rolling Stones were never far from the big screen, whether it was Mick Jagger’s performance in 1970’s Donald Cammell-directed classic, Performance, or their 1968 short film, Sympathy for the Devil. The latter was made in partnership with eminent French director Jean-Luc Godard.
“Godard…I really liked his dark, French-gangster movies,” Richards added in his conversation with Entertainment Weekly. “I think the guy went mad. He’s a Frenchman. We can’t help them.”
Additionally, Richards is ostensibly proud to have worked alongside Scorsese for The Rolling Stones’ 2008 tour documentary, Shine a Light. “I was always very aware of his films from Mean Streets on,” Richards said of the Taxi Driver filmmaker. “I think he’s one of the best moviemakers.”
Keith Richards’ favourite directors:
D.W. Griffith
Alfred Hitchcock
William Wellman
Jean-Luc Godard
Martin Scorsese