Twenty of Mel Brooks' favorite films of the past century will screen in Los Angeles this fall, as part of a series the 100-year-old comedian and director programmed himself. The American Cinematheque, Los Angeles' year-round nonprofit film festival, worked with Brooks to assemble his favorites list, which spans from Charlie Chaplin's City Lights (1931) to Taika Waititi's Jojo Rabbit (2019), a dark comedy about a Nazi-era German boy with Adolf Hitler as his imaginary friend.
First public sharing of favorites
"For the first time, Brooks is publicly sharing his favorites, with the series offering unique insight into his knowledge and appreciation of film history spanning the last century," the American Cinematheque said in its description. The event honors Brooks' 100th birthday, which fell on 28 June.
The series excludes Brooks' most famous films, such as The Producers, Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, Spaceballs, and Robin Hood: Men in Tights. Instead, the list includes only one of his own movies, The Twelve Chairs (1970), which was perhaps his "biggest commercial flop" and one he has urged more people to watch.
Personal and cinematic influences
Only two films from the past 25 years made the list: Jojo Rabbit and Dolemite Is My Name (2019), a biopic of comedian Rudy Ray Moore starring Eddie Murphy. The most recent other film dates from 1994.
Chris LeMaire, the American Cinematheque's director of programming, told the Los Angeles Times that Brooks' choices evolved over several days, as the centenarian called his assistant with updates, who emailed new suggestions to the Cinematheque. Brooks did not explain his choices.
Jeremy Dauber, a Yiddish professor at Columbia University and one of Brooks' biographers, said the 20 films provide "a little bit of a skeleton key into his own biography," emphasizing "familial and personal relationships" and artistic influences.
From Chaplin to Fellini
The list, nearly all American films, includes formative works from Brooks' childhood and youth, from Chaplin and Marx Brothers comedies to musicals like Fred Astaire's Top Hat (1935) and Broadway Melody of 1940. It also reflects his social consciousness with The Grapes of Wrath, and films he spoofed, including Psycho, an inspiration for his 1977 parody High Anxiety. Federico Fellini's semi-autobiographical I Vitelloni (1953) adds Italian cinema.
Some choices are deeply personal, such as The Miracle Worker (1962), which won his wife Anne Bancroft an Academy Award for best actress. "She was his miracle worker," said Sue Matheson, a film scholar at the University College of the North in Manitoba, Canada, who edited essays on Brooks' work. Matheson noted Brooks fell in love with Bancroft at first sight in 1961, pursuing her despite her status as "an unapproachable screen goddess." "His whole life changed when he met her," Matheson added. "He said he would have stayed a TV comedy writer if he hadn't been with her."
Lifelong relationships and hidden gems
Other films showcase Brooks' relationships with Carl Reiner and his son Rob Reiner, who directed This Is Spinal Tap and When Harry Met Sally. The list also includes The Elephant Man (1980), which Brooks produced but kept his name off to avoid associating his comedy reputation with David Lynch's "serious art," Matheson said.
Neither professor was surprised that The Twelve Chairs, a "really good ethnic comedy," made the list. An adaptation of a Soviet novel about a chase for family jewels hidden in chairs, the film "didn't get good reviews. It flopped at the box office. The audience wasn't ready for it," Matheson said. Shot in Yugoslavia, where Brooks joked the crew had "one taxi and one lightbulb," it was a difficult production. Matheson called the 1970 film Brooks' best ever, "better than The Producers."
LeMaire told the Los Angeles Times that The Twelve Chairs and Down and Out in Beverly Hills (1986), starring Bette Midler, Nick Nolte, and Richard Dreyfuss, have been among the most challenging to find appropriate digital restorations for screening.
Programmed by Mel Brooks: 100 Years at the Movies will screen in Los Angeles from 3 September to 1 November 2026 at three historic cinemas: the Aero, the Egyptian, and the Los Feliz Theater.
