Cultural Life: Julie Christie, actress

Film

No! I never watch Doctor Zhivago. I'm not a Gone with the Wind type of person. I've never been a great one for romantic epics. I thought Cristian Mungiu's Romanian film Four Months, Three Weeks, Two Days was astonishing. Silent Light, directed by the Mexican Carlos Reygadas, is about a Mennonite family dealing with infidelity. I love Hal Hartley's films; my favourite is Henry Fool. There's a spate of films about Iraq – In the Valley of Elah and Rendition, made while the war is happening, unlike Vietnam.

Television

The American TV series Mad Men about an advertising agency in New York, and The Wire, a crime drama set in Baltimore, Maryland.

Books

I never stop reading! Enemy Combatant: A British Muslim's Journey to Guantanamo and Back by Moazzam Begg is a very important book, a first-hand account about what it is like to be incarcerated, innocent and tortured. Harbor by Lorraine Adams is about Algerian illegal immigrants in Boston; it's an amazing account of what it feels like to be terrified and hunted every second of the day. The Glass Palace by Amitav Ghosh is an epic view of Burma and its history. I couldn't live without Haley's Cleaning Hints by Graham and Rosemary Haley; I'm always spilling things. The Paradise Trail by Duncan Campbell is about the hippie trail in the Sixties in India.

Music

I'm clearing up at the moment; I can't keep collecting music. I'm listening to Comicopera by Robert Wyatt, the jazz musician Andy Sheppard, and Jolie Holland singing with Willie Nelson.

Theatre/opera

I want to see That Face by Polly Stenham, starring Lindsay Duncan. I saw War Horse at the National; I want to see it again. I'm also going to see Black Watch again; it is about the Royal Highland Regiment. I'm slack on opera; I just wish somebody would take me.

Julie Christie discusses her film 'Away From Her' at the Tricycle Theatre, London NW6 (020-7328 1000; www.tricycle.co.uk) on 29 May at 8.15pm