"I am mainly obsessed with the 1920s and 1930s. A lot of this record is inspired by the art, music, and film of that time, like Aelita, which is this 1920s sci-fi Russian film about a woman who lives in space. Their version of sci-fi in that time period was so elegant, beautiful, and minimal because they didn't have the same kind of imagination yet. It didn't become sci-fi in the way we see it now. "

"What I love about Truffaut is that he’s a modernizer and a revisionist. He’s taking care of the tradition, but at the same time he’s inventing new forms. I think this film is a testament to his love of filmmaking and to its absurdity. The fact that he plays the director is also fascinating. Of course there are other examples of films about filmmaking, but Truffaut does it with so much grace and levity that it’s captivating and beautiful."

"What I love the way that Bergman used the medium as a form of expression—like in the opening, which seems to depict his subconscious or the characters’ . . . or maybe the subconscious of film history. So many things are being combined there in such an iconoclastic way. And the moment when the faces of the two women are combined into one face—I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything so beautiful and horrible at the same time."

"I was so excited when I found this edition of Charade. The DVD I previously owned looked like someone had video taped a TV broadcast. And of course this edition is beautiful. The opening credits are simply the coolest. And you can never go wrong with pairing such charming and lovely icons as Audrey Hepburn and Cary Grant. This is one of those films you can watch over and over because it’s so fun and enjoyable."

"Then I’ll go with Ikiru by Kurosawa. The scene about a man who died. The opening scene is like, “Oh, this guy died — let’s talk about his life.” And then it goes back. It is, you know, it was made in the ’50s and it was hard to get good prints of it, but now the Criterion Blu-ray is out and it looks a lot better. It’s just a beautiful movie, astonishingly; the movie and the message."

"A film of perfectly realized proportions about broken marriages and failed utopian ideals. Slyly understated and very funny, this portrait of a Swedish commune in the mid 1970s is filled with vivid, affectionately-drawn characters, incredibly sympathetic children, and, in the end, a profoundly moving final scene. When I have lost hope in humanity (which sadly occurs more frequently than I would like) I re-watch this stirringly beautiful film and feel my faith in the world restored."

"For our little group of starving filmmaker friends muddling through our twenties, this particular box set was sort of a holy grail. I’m barely exaggerating when I say that it was mythic-like Harry Smith’s Anthology in the West Village folk scene in the sixties. If somebody had the Criterion Brazil at their apartment, it would draw a crowd. A beautiful transfer, exhaustive supplements, and the “Love Conquers All” cut is a holy terror of a revelation."

"A sense of shredded nerves pervades the whole film, soothed by some of the most beautiful colors ever seen on a cinema screen (the rhyming green of Monica Vitti’s coat chief among them). Remember that weird almost-orgy down by the docks, in some kind of hut? It’s one of those scenes—and one of those films—you watch again and again to see if it’s really as you remember it. Of course it is—and isn’t."

"If anyone ever asks if an artist should be primarily concerned with aesthetics or politics, answer with three words: “Yep” and “Grace Paley.” Her funny, fond, wild energy produced stunningly beautiful stories, poems, and essays, and a lifetime of passionate social engagement. Pair this with the lovely documentary (Grace Paley: Collected Shorts) by Lily Rivlin, for a sense of who Grace Paley was, and why it’s so important to keep her memory and work alive in our time."

"After our son Walker couch-surfed in Rio last year, we felt obliged to take in one of the Brazilian friends he met. She brought a copy of Sebastião Salgado’s beautiful but expensive book Genesis. We felt bad because she doesn’t have a lot of money and also because it is in Portuguese. However, 95% of the book consists of Salgado’s brilliant photographs, which need no translation. It seems that the people with the least often give the most."