Once a humble app feature, Letterboxd\u2019s Four Favourites has mutated into our era\u2019s cinematic confession booth. Users choose (and can endlessly reshuffle) their top four films on their profile, while clips of celebrities and civilians alike performing the same ritual play out to Letterboxd\u2019s 2.4 million Instagram followers.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s now a social-media genre of its own: the red carpet backdrop, the jaunty music, the snappy edits, the cheerful pings as posters slide into place. Each clip is a perfect little slice of fame, fandom and carefully choreographed spontaneity. And yet, beneath the surface chaos, there are rules. Unwritten (until now), but as binding as an Oscars embargo. So if you ever find yourself ambushed by the Letterboxd camera, here\u2019s how to put in a convincing performance.<\/p>\n
1. Act surprised<\/p>\n
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In the words of Miranda Priestly in The Devil Wears Prada: \u201cWhy is no one ready?\u201d <\/a>Picks performances are usually preceded by flustered professions of unpreparedness that give them an aura of authenticity (\u201cOh shit,\u201d exclaims Michelle Williams<\/a>; Jenna Ortega wails that she \u201cshould\u2019ve read the email\u201d). Writer, director and museum curator Zo\u00eb DeLeon (should you ask: Memoir of a Snail, Mulholland Drive, Am\u00e9lie, Me and You and Everyone We Know) tells me that her unrehearsed response was genuine, as she was not informed in advance before being grilled on camera. \u201cThey asked me very quickly with no time to prepare an answer,\u201d she says. And be sure to say \u201cJust four?\u201d, outraged at such a horrifying prospect. Everyone does that.<\/p>\n 2. Plug your movie. And yourself<\/p>\n This is Hollywood, after all. Or if you\u2019re a civilian picked on at a film festival, it is at the very least a bump to your Letterboxd followers. So we all need to sell ourselves a bit. Perhaps in a bid to ensure conjugal harmony, half of Monica Bellucci\u2019s all-time list were made by her then paramour Tim Burton. She then linked those choices to his latest, in which she also coincidentally featured. Meanwhile, Halle Berry\u2019s nomination of The Shining<\/a> gave her the perfect opportunity to discuss why she wanted to make Never Let Go, which she was shilling at the time. Out promoting Paddington in Peru, Ben Whishaw even gamely played along by speculating what the marmalade-munching ursine star\u2019s own top picks would be, while no doubt quietly wondering if this was really what his Rada training had been building toward. (Whishaw claimed Paddington would be drawn to Marilyn Monroe in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, suggesting that perhaps animated bears prefer them as well). Alternatively, abandon subtlety altogether. Geena Davis and Carol Kane both kept it personal, with two of their four favourites being their own movies.<\/p>\n 3. Look cool<\/p>\n Allow Instagram content?<\/p>\n This article includes content provided by Instagram. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. To view this content, click ‘Allow and continue’.<\/p>\n Even if you\u2019re not out promoting a movie, you\u2019re building an image of yourself. As Kristen Stewart remarks after reeling off her picks<\/a>, \u201cI feel like you can tell a lot about a person from seeing them in Letterboxd\u201d. Unsurprisingly, rappers such as Snoop Dogg and Busta Rhymes protect their tough-guy credentials by choosing Scarface rather than confessing to any secret passion for Disney classics. Others take the opportunity to display their arthouse credentials. Heretic star Chloe East proclaims her love of Kurosawa, adding that \u201cthere\u2019s your pretentious favourite movie and then just your favourite movie\u201d.<\/p>\n The point is that it\u2019s not just about which movies you aimlessly switch on when bored but constructing an ambience, a microcosm of yourself. How people define their favourites is a movable feast: what makes for an ideal group, the ones you love today or always? Technical brilliance or emotional devastation? Taking a much-needed opportunity to draw attention to lesser-known artists? Past Lives actor Teo Yoo explains during his turn that \u201cit changes every day because every day I\u2019m another person\u201d.<\/p>\n 4. Be coherent<\/p>\n Your four little film posters sit side by side. You know this. They need to make sense together. Hugh Grant<\/a> didn\u2019t get the memo. He \u2013 apparently seriously \u2013 dived in with The Sound of Music, followed it up with Auschwitz drama The Zone of Interest and then went with Finding Nemo; this is a man oscillating wildly between genocide and animated clownfish. Mackenzie Davis even switched around The Princess Bride and The Night Porter on the grounds that The Princess Bride should be watched after The Night Porter.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n And you do read the Guardian so there need to be great directors and performances in there. Pretend you\u2019re on a first date. Be your best self, not the slob re-watching Pee-wee\u2019s Big Adventure in your underpants. Willem Dafoe\u2019s choices<\/a> (Onibaba, The Magician, Barry Lyndon, Poor Things) each spiked in popularity, so try to bring overlooked gems to light. Then throw in one that\u2019s ironic or deeply personal, like a film that shaped your early years. But avoid the fatal mistake Andrew Garfield made of choosing only childhood favourites<\/a>, since your taste has hopefully developed since the days of Bugsy Malone and The Goonies.<\/p>\n Because, let\u2019s be honest, this is just a way to associate ourselves with great cinema. We may have had nothing to do with the production, but we\u2019re still tied to it in some small way because we have correctly identified genius. In an ephemeral age of streaming, Letterboxd functions as a form of ownership, a way of holding on to and possessing art, not dissimilar to keeping the DVD on a prominent shelf or walking around with a record under your arm. And this is no different from the days of putting up a poster for The Dreamers to show off how cool you were for \u201cgetting\u201d it. Except, before, you didn\u2019t know that Mia Goth agreed with you<\/a>.<\/p>\n