Doug Nichol

"The Criterion Collection contains some of the greatest documentaries, and these are my favorites. These discs give you a good dose of Werner Herzog (in front of the camera), Les Blank, and Errol Morris. You also get the short Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe, which makes me laugh me every time I watch it."

"I’ve always loved the mood of this film. This disc is worth buying just for the extras. The James Taylor screen test and interview and the acoustic version of “Riding on a Railroad” are so honest and beautiful."

"I saw both of these for the first time in film school, then I moved to Paris in my twenties and lived there for many years, always kind of romanticizing the Paris of the late 1950s that I saw in these two films but never quite finding it. You can still find a few little streets and alleyways in Ménilmontant where The Red Balloon was filmed, and a few years ago I found myself on the same beach in Normandy where Jean-Pierre Léaud runs in those beautiful long tracking shots that end The 400 Blows. Landscapes are just as important as story."

"The film was shot entirely on location using non-actors, with many of them playing parts similar to who they were in real life. For me, it’s the greatest father-son story ever made and one of the most deeply moving film experiences."

"The Criterion Collection contains some of the greatest documentaries, and these are my favorites. These discs give you a good dose of Werner Herzog (in front of the camera), Les Blank, and Errol Morris. You also get the short Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe, which makes me laugh me every time I watch it."

"A great collaboration between Wim Wenders and Sam Shepard. I love Robby Müller’s cinematography. They started the film with only part of a shooting script and then it evolved from the journey, the landscapes, and the shooting itself. That’s part of the reason the film is so special—it wasn’t all planned out ahead of time."

"La strada, 8½, and La dolce vita are my favorite Fellini films. It’s hard to pick one. But the ending of La dolce vita always moves me and sticks with me after the film has finished. It’s all done without words, just with images and the sound of crashing waves."

"Two great films about the search for meaning in the face of death. The scenes in which the main characters come to terms with their existence—the scene on the swing in the park with the snow falling in Ikiru, and the final scene in Wild Strawberries, where the main character calls across time to his parents and the past—are so powerful and beautiful. It saddens me that most modern-day films don’t approach this level of art and emotion."