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Guillermo Del Toro, Darren Aronfsky, Rian Johnson, Ava DuVernay, And More To Share Their Quarantine Watch Lists

guillermo del toro quarantine watch list
By Hoai-Tran Bui

Guillermo del Toro has always been a wonderful Twitter presence, frequently sharing his unabashed love for cinema, television, and frequent collaborator Doug Jones. But after a period of silence during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic quarantine, del Toro has one-upped himself with a massive Twitter thread about the many books and films he's consuming to get him through his quarantine.

The Shape of Water director, who has taken a break from filming his upcoming Nightmare Alley, invited his fellow filmmakers and all of Twitter to share their own reading and watch lists, and was quickly answered by the likes of Darren Aronofsky, Ava DuVernay, Rian Johnson, Ari Aster, and more, culminating in maybe the best list of recommendations floating around for free on the Internet.

Twitter can be a bad place to spend your hours during quarantine, as bad news and negative emotions can be amplified when everyone has too much time on their hands. But del Toro is seeking to make Twitter a better place, just for a little bit.

"I hope this can be about things we love," del Toro said on Twitter. "Not about things we hate or things we are weighed down about. We cannot answer questions out in the open but please read and respond to each other as much as possible."

Del Toro kicked things off in a giant Twitter thread, in which he shared he has been streaming many titles from the Criterion Channel including Gustaf Molander's A Woman's Face, Ermanno Olmi's Il Posto, and Celine Sciamma's Girlhood and Tomboy. Meanwhile, his kids have been engaging in "bulletproof stuff" such as Singin' in the Rain and Rear Window. And del Toro shouted out TV he loved too, including critical darlings Ozark and Better Call Saul, and the Food Network guilty pleasure Chopped.

Immediately, del Toro's request for everyone to share things they love was answered by a slew of prominent filmmakers who shared their own watch lists. Doctor Strange director Scott Derickson recommended Alex Garland's FX on Hulu sci-fi series Devs, while Ava DuVernay admitted to indulging in guilty pleasures like Notting Hill coupled with the Hungarian philosophical drama The Turin Horse. Ari Aster has been rewatching The Sopranos, Rian Johnson found himself surprised to love Robert Altman's 3 Women, and to no one's surprise, Aronofsky has been reading a lot of Henry David Thoreau.

See what the responding filmmakers had to say below. Read del Toro's full Twitter chain here.

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