John Krasinski directs Emily Blunt in this week’s A Quiet Place , in what’s been hailed by critics as a new modern horror classic since its SXSW debut. Krasinski and Blunt are married in real life, which inspires this week’s question: Which couples have made the best movies together?
Before we go about answering, some things to abide — because what’s a healthy relationship without some gently suffocating ground rules? First, only one person has to be the director, and the other a performer.
Second: Only couples who have made multiple movies together. This may be the first Krasinski/Blunt joint, but judging from Quiet Place ‘s critical response so far, we want these two working together again very soon.
And thirdly, we’re not counting movies where the director and star first met. Only movies made after the two were officially together, when conversation between them at one point drifted towards, “Gee, honey, how about exposing our fears and vulnerabilites for everyone to see on-screen? That’ll really spice things up.”
Bibi Anderson & Ingmar Bergman
The Seventh Seal (1957, 93%)
Wild Strawberries (1957, 95%)
The Magician (1958, 100%)
Average: 96%
Ingmar: The king of mixing business and pleasure. Expect to see ol’ Bergy on this list a couple of times. (If you’re confused who he is in this picture, he’s the one who doesn’t look like Elliot Gould with a beard.)
Paulette Goddard & Charlie Chaplin
Modern Times (1936, 100%)
The Great Dictator (1940, 92%)
Average: 96%
Goddard was with Chaplin starting at age 21, practically a spinster as far as his tastes went. They married several years later and made two of Chaplin’s artistic triumphs: capitalism-tweaker Modern Times and fascism-spoof Great Dictator .
Giulietta Masina & Federico Fellini
Variety Lights (1951, 100%)
The White Sheik (1952, 100%)
La Strada (1954, 97%)
Il Bidone (1955, 100%)
Nights of Cabiria (1957, 97%)
Juliet of the Spirits (1965, 81%)
Ginger & Fred (1986, 82%)
Average: 94%
Masina and Fellini were married for 50 years, until his death in 1993.
Diane Keaton & Woody Allen
Sleeper (1973, 100%)
Love and Death (1975, 100%)
Annie Hall (1977, 97%)
Interiors (1978, 77%)
Manhattan (1979, 95%)
Average: 94%
From slapstick nonsense to portentous drama to that nice spot between the two, Keaton was there to facilitate the three professional moods of Allen.
Emma Thompson & Kenneth Branagh
Henry V (1989, 100%)
Dead Again (1991, 83%)
Much Ado About Nothing (1993, 89%)
Average: 91%
Branagh’s love for Shakespeare wasn’t the only torrid relationship up there on-screen; he and Thompson were married until 1995. She labels Branagh’s affair with Helena Bonham Carter that ended the marriage as “blood under the bridge.”
Anna Karina & Jean-Luc Godard
A Woman Is a Woman (1961, 87%)
My Life to Live (1962, 93%)
Le Petit Soldad (1963, 80%)
Band of Outsiders (1964, 96%)
Pierrot le Fou (1965, 85%)
Alphaville (1965, 90%)
Made in U.S.A. (1966, 89%)
Average: 89%
Karina made Godard fun, creating his most entertaining and accessible yet Frenchly challenging work.
Ingrid Bergman & Roberto Rossellini
Stromboli (1950, 83%)
Journey to Italy (1954, 95%)
Average: 89%
Bergman’s affair with Rossellini was so red-hot scandalous at the time, it’d melt the pinstripes of your suit. She fled to Europe and made five films with Rossellini in this period, but only these two have Tomatometers.
Frances McDormand & Joel Coen
Blood Simple (1984, 94%)
Raising Arizona (1987, 91%)
Miller’s Crossing (1990, 91%)
Barton Fink (1991, 91%)
Fargo (1996, 93%)
The Man Who Wasn’t There (2001, 81%)
Burn After Reading (2008, 79%)
Hail, Caesar! (2016, 85%)
Average: 89%
McDormand and Joel were already married when they made Blood Simple a calling card for her and the Coen brothers. And in a plan that seems to have gone off without a hitch (contrast that to a typical plot in one of their movies), McDormand has made every appearance in a Coen brothers movie a Certified Fresh one.
Harriet Andersson & Ingmar Bergman
Summer With Monika (1953, 100%)
Sawdust & Tinsel (1953, 100%)
A Lesson in Love (1954, 100%)
Dreams (1955, 40%)
Smiles of a Summer Night (1955, 100%)
Average: 88%
Before Bergman became an international legend with Seventh Seal , he had a run with Harriet (second on the left, and no relation to Bibi) that produced minor if wholly appreciated films.
Liv Ullman & Ingmar Bergman
Persona (1966, 89%)
Hour of the Wolf (1968, 88%)
Shame (1968, 69%)
The Passion of Anna (1970, 100%)
Average: 87%
After Harriet, after Bibi, there was Liv. Persona (and if you’re feeling freaky, Hour of the Wolf ) rank up there with Bergman’s other signature works.
Louise Lasser & Woody Allen
What’s Up, Tiger Lily? (1966, 83%)
Take the Money and Run (1969, 90%)
Average: 87%
Lasser and Allen divorced in 1970, though she still appeared up in 1972’s Bananas . After that, Diane Keaton shows up and takes the role of on-screen muse.
Susan Sarandon & Tim Robbins
Bob Roberts (1992, 97%)
Dead Man Walking (1995, 95%)
Cradle Will Rock (1999, 64%)
Average: 85%
The two were in a long-term relationship from the late ’80s and late 2000s. A high point were the ’95 Oscars, where Robbins was nominated for Best Director and Sarandon won Best Actress for Dead Man .
Mia Farrow & Woody Allen
A Midsummer Night’s Sex Comedy (1982, 74%)
Zelig (1983, 100%)
Broadway Danny Rose (1984, 100%)
The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985, 91%)
Hannah and Her Sisters (1986, 93%)
Radio Days (1987, 88%)
September (1987, 64%)
Another Woman (1988, 67%)
Crimes and Misdemenaors (1989, 93%)
Alice (1990, 77%)
Shadows and Fog (1992, 50%)
Husbands and Wives (1992, 95%)
Average: 83%
No couple made more movies together than Farrow and Allen, and certainly none ended more acrimoniously.
Anne Wiazemsky & Jean-Luc Godard
Weekend (1967, 95%)
La Chinoise (1967, 100%)
Sympathy for the Devil (1968, 50%)
Average: 82%
Godard hopped in with Wiazemsky right after the Anna Karina affair ended. A little after, the mid-to-late so-called ‘watchable’ era of Godard’s career ended as well.
Rebecca Pidgeon & David Mamet
The Spanish Prisoner (1997, 88%)
The Winslow Boy (1999, 97%)
State and Main (2000, 86%)
Heist (2001, 66%)
Redbelt (2008, 67%)
Phil Spector (2013, 50%)
Average: 76%
Pidgeon married Mamet in ’91 after performing for one his plays, and has since appeared within six of his nine directed movies.
Leslie Mann & Judd Apatow
The 40-Year-Old Virgin (2005, 85%)
Knocked Up (2007, 89%)
Funny People (2009, 68%)
This Is 40 (2012, 51%)
Average: 73%
Apatow, clearly a big fan of how much time and money you save when you can automatically cast your wife, has expanded into weaponizing his daughters for on-screen comedic folly. Consider This is 40 : an interpersonal look at how much better life would be if your wife were married to Paul Rudd and had your kids.
Helena Bonham Carter & Tim Burton
Big Fish (2003, 75%)
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005, 82%)
Corpse Bride (2005, 84%)
Sweeney Todd (2007, 86%)
Alice in Wonderland (2010, 52%)
Dark Shadows (2012, 37%)
Average: 69%
Death, taxes, and Burton casting HBC in a wacky movie. At least, that’s how it used to be. *sniff* Simpler times.
Berenice Bejo & Michel Hazanavicius
The Artist (2011, 95%)
The Search (2014, 22%)
Godard Mon Amour (2018, 56%)
Average: 58%
The two married after making the first OSS 117 Bond sendup, and won Best Picture in America three years later. Their latest movie tracks Jean Luc-Godard’s time with Anne Wiazemsky, though Bejo doesn’t perform that role. We could’ve had a guy directing a movie about a guy directing a movie starring his girlfriend played by the wife of the guy who’s directing the movie!
Christine Taylor & Ben Stiller
Zoolander (2001, 64%)
Tropic Thunder (2008, 82%)
Zoolander 2 (2016, 23%)
Average: 56%
Once upon a time, there was a failed pilot called Heat Vision and Jack , created by Stiller and starring Owen Wilson as a talking motorcycle. From its state-of-the-art ashes arose the communion of TayStill, as Christine had been cast as a guest in the show.
Tanna Frederick & Henry Jaglom
Hollywood Dreams (2007, 36%)
Irene in Time (2009, 29%)
Queen of the Lot (2010, 29%)
Just 45 Minutes From Broadway (2012, 10%)
The M Word (2014, 38%)
Ovation! (2016, 43%)
Average: 31%
The closest most people get to an H.Jag movie is when staring perplexedly at one of its bus ads on San Vicente Blvd. (They look like poster parodies, for example .) Still, it’s good for husbands and wives to share a hobby.
Milla Jovovich & Paul W.S. Anderson
Resident Evil: Afterlife (2010, 23%)
Resident Evil: Retribution (2012, 31%)
Resident Evil: The Final Chapter (2017, 36%)
Average: 30%
Jovovich didn’t stay with Luc Besson (we could’ve been up to 13th Element by now), but she did get together with her original Resident Evil director. They married in 2009 and have since stuck around in sickness (every Resident Evil movie after that) and in health (???).
Melissa McCarthy & Ben Falcone
Tammy (2014, 24%)
The Boss (2016, 22%)
Average: 23%
The two have been together for decades, but it’s only since McCarthy’s wildfire breakthrough success that we’ve been gifted their collaborative cinematic vision.
Kate Beckinsale & Len Wiseman
Underworld: Evolution (2006, 16%)
Total Recall (2012, 30%)
Average: 23%
De Anza College alum Wiseman married Beckinsale after working on set Underworld . One sequel and Schwarzenegger remake later, they divorced.