"This record is a gift that keeps on giving. I listened to the CD on a loop for months in my car. It’s unsuspecting: On first listen, it just sounded like one long song, but upon closer inspection, there’s a whole universe of small, strange moments, peaks and valleys. It’s a progressive concept album—both extremely heavy and lighthearted—with some beautiful sadness sprinkled in between."

"Then The Graduate. It’s just one of the greatest comedies of all time. The way Dustin Hoffman is… You know, I guess that was his first big break and he just blew me away when I first saw that. Extraordinary performance, and you know, Mike Nichols. Just amazing, the way it’s shot; it’s just absolutely beautiful. And also, an incredible, quirky kind of love story."

"I’ve sent both my older kids Lolita and advised them to read the first chapter. They’re older than when I had it read to me – I was about 12. I didn’t read the whole thing [at the time]. The point was the first chapter is very short, half a page. It’s undeniably beautiful even to a young child, to someone who doesn’t really understand."

"‘The Main Theme’ is one of the greatest pieces of music written for a movie. It’s so haunting, so beautiful, – full of pan flutes and stuff. It’s shattering y’know – like a Morricone theme. Oddly enough, ‘The Main Theme’ works really well, but they never play it over the opening credits. They play it over the middle and during the closing credits, which is very strange"

"One of the greatest Scottish writers, probably the most affecting prose witness to the unique spirit of the Highland wilderness there has ever been. This book, chronicling life lived with otters on the remote west coast of Scotland, was made into a classic children’s film by Disney in the ’60s, but the book has depths and breadth untapped by the movie. Our Walden of the Hebrides. Beautiful."

"There’s a film called Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter… and Spring. I saw it at the Angelika on my birthday in New York, maybe ten years ago? It never left me — it’s such a good film. It’s tremendous and beautiful. There’s like twelve words in the whole thing. It’s about a floating monastery in the middle of a lake. There’s like three people in it. That was amazing."

"I was so excited by the news of this incredible release and restoration. Every moment is beautiful—as, of course, is the soundtrack by Ravi Shankar. Some scenes even seem to be able to penetrate the boundary of your own personal memory. Electrifying but peaceful. Throughout the entire trilogy, everything is leaving Apu behind, but the final scene shows all currents flooding home to him."

"The apotheosis of the Italian Western. Sergio Leone had been examining themes from the West of a number of pictures and here they coalesced into one poetic fable that is strikingly beautiful to watch and very moving. Again, it was not a success when it came out, and was brutally cut after a number of engagements, but now has belatedly been appreciated and restored."

"I adore melodrama. All That Heaven Allows and Written on the Wind are movies that I learned so much from. The trick for me is: how can you create something so beautiful, with such amazing mise en scène, color, and composition, and also talk about something profound? Sirk’s films grab viewers in an oblique way by getting through their hearts, not through their minds."

"I adore melodrama. All That Heaven Allows and Written on the Wind are movies that I learned so much from. The trick for me is: how can you create something so beautiful, with such amazing mise en scène, color, and composition, and also talk about something profound? Sirk’s films grab viewers in an oblique way by getting through their hearts, not through their minds."