Lightning in a Bottle: Cary Elwes’ Shortlist
The ‘Princess Bride’ star shares movie picks featuring electric performances.
The “Shortlist” in our name isn’t just a throw-away term, it speaks to the ethos of Tribeca Shortlist. We don’t just dump a ton of movies on our service and hope someone, somewhere likes one or two of them. Instead, we handpick the best cinema has to offer, curating only movies that we know are worth your time. Then we call upon our Shortlisters—actors, directors, producers and entertainers—to create lists of their favorite films on our service. Our November Shortlister Cary Elwes, star of The Princess Bride and an accomplished writer, created a list of favorites that capture an certain extra special something, what he calls “Lightning in a Bottle.”
For Cary, that means calling to attention the “incredible production value” of Ran, the “brilliant” chemistry between Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman in Midnight Cowboy, the “marvelous” presence of Paul Scofield in A Man for All Seasons, the “emotionally raw” performance of Marlon Brando in Last Tango in Paris, and the incredible ensemble cast of The Lion in Winter.
Choosing from our selection isn’t anything new to Cary, who in his intro video explains, “I was the school projectionist, so I ran the movies, and I got to pick the movies. After a while they would send me the catalogues and I would pick the films I wanted to see.”
So what does it mean to capture lightning in a bottle? Cary explains, “It’s a massive amount of teamwork. It’s magical, it’s hard to put into words, you kind of feel it when it’s happening.” In the playlist above, see Cary’s “Why Watch” intros for five of the films on his list.
Find more of our exclusive Shortlister videos here.
