Julia Louis-Dreyfus's Favorite Movies Will Make You Emotional

Julia Louis-Dreyfus began her career in comedy, as so many comedians do, with the Second City, the stalwart and long-lived comedy troupe based in Chicago. She was only 21, but Louis-Dreyfus gave such an impressive performance at a Second City event that she was immediately asked to join the cast of "Saturday Night Live." It seems that NBC talent scouts lurk at Second City performances all the time. She starred on "SNL" from 1982 until 1985, becoming friends with writer Larry David during her tenure. A few years later, David and comedian Jerry Seinfeld created the sitcom "Seinfeld," wherein Louis-Dreyfus starred as Jerry's friend Elaine.

"Seinfeld," once might recall, was something of a hit, lasting 180 episodes over nine seasons. Louis-Dreyfus was nominated for seven Emmys, winning one. She would go on to win another Emmy for her performance in "The New Adventures of Old Christine" and an additional nine Emmys for "Veep," eight of them for acting. She currently shares the record for the most Emmys ever won for a single role, matching only Cloris Leachman, who was repeatedly awarded for playing Phyllis Lindstrom on "The Mary Tyler Moore Show." Louis-Dreyfus is a comedy legend in her own right.

She also has good taste in movies. In 2020, Rotten Tomatoes reached out to Louis-Dreyfus about her five favorite films, and all of them are notably moving classics. One of them is a heartbreaking World War II drama, one is an achingly romantic movie, one is a celebrated sports movie, one is a tragedy set in a mental health clinic, and one is ... well, it's "The Wizard of Oz," one of the most famous movies of all time.

Louis-Dreyfus said she re-watches "The Wizard of Oz" every few years. She cannot remember the first time she watched it, though, explaining that the film is now "part of my brain." She especially loves Bert Lahr as the Cowardly Lion and the scene where he sets out to rescue Dorothy (Judy Garland) from the Wicked Witch of the West (Margaret Hamilton). The Lion speaks a big game and bravely declares he is not afraid. He then asks the Scarecrow and the Tin Woodman (Ray Bolger and Jack Haley) to talk him out of it. Comedy gold.

"The Wizard of Oz" was nominated for multiple Academy Awards, including Best Picture.

Louis-Dreyfus also loves Roberto Benigni's 1997 drama "Life is Beautiful." That film, she said, is "a very dramatic and comedic film all at once. It's a true mash-up. The drama of it, though, is the driver, and it's done so skillfully, and it is so heartbreaking." The film is about a father (Benigni) who is abducted by the Nazis and placed in a concentration camp with his young son. To protect his son's emotional state, he pretends the horrors of the camp are silly games and assures that they will be rescued any minute. It's astonishing that such a premise works.

"Life is Beautiful" was nominated for multiple Academy Awards, including Best Picture.

Up next on Louis-Dreyfus' favorites list: the Merchant-Ivory romance "A Room with a View." The film follows a young woman (Helena Bonham Carter) in 1907 England as she falls in love with a free-willed young man played by Julian Sands. Maggie Smith, Daniel Day-Lewis, and Judi Dench also appear. Louis-Dreyfus declared the movie "the most romantic film of all time," adding that it makes her cry "whenever I watch it." She also noted her Elaine hair on "Seinfeld" was inspired by Carter's hair in the film.

"A Room with a View" was nominated for multiple Academy Awards, including Best Picture.

Perhaps unexpectedly, Louis-Dreyfus then selected David Anspaugh's basketball drama "Hoosiers" as one of her favorites. She explained that "it is a sports story, but it's so much more. It's about an underdog team and beating the odds. It's about teamwork. And I am a basketball fan, but I will tell you that before I was a basketball fan, I was a fan of 'Hoosiers.' That's why I'm saying I think you should watch it, because you'll really, really enjoy it."

She also credited stars Gene Hackman and Dennis Hopper for buoying the film with their amazing performances. She was even impressed with the way Hackman drank coffee; there was, it seems, a great deal of authenticity brought to every gesture.

"Hoosiers" was not nominated for any Academy Awards.

Finally, like many, Louis-Dreyfus loves Miloš Foreman's 1975 drama "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," adapted from the novel of the same name by Ken Kesey. That film is about a criminal layabout named McMurphy (Jack Nicholson) who accepts a sentence in a mental facility rather than going to prison. However, he finds the facility's mentally ill residents are being poorly managed by the stern Nurse Ratched (Louise Fletcher), and that fear and oppression rule the land. Everything ends badly. Commenting on the film, Louis-Dreyfus described it as "a movie about social injustice and inequity and the disenfranchised, and it will kill you. It will sway you with its sadness, but in a way that is appropriate, and there is a glimmer of hope at the end, I would say."

"One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" was nominated for multiple Academy Awards, including Best Picture. This time, however, it won Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Screenplay. It's one of the best films of the 1970s.