"No other movie has turned the landscape of New York into something this magical. The cast is so fucking perfect. Gilliam uses cinema to force people to use their imaginations like a kid does."

"The camera is always exactly where it needs to be, all the movement is so physical and motivated. These guys are pushing the language of ass-kicking forward, if not the language of cinema."

"There are great movies, and sometimes masterpieces, but only once in a blue Belgian moon are there movies that forever change the way you look at cinema—not to mention the peeling of potatoes."

"Perhaps that which we called modernity in Europe died here, in this film in ruins. In any case, modern cinema certainly did. Afterward, we had to make do with the shadow that film cast."

"This adaptation of one of my favorite novels is hilarious, sweeping, exuberant and nearly perfect, because Sally Potter uses her cinema the same way Woolf used words: playfully, swoon-worthily, sharp as a tack."

"Tarkovsky is my hero, and the hero of Russian cinema—a man who found a way to make transcendent, transgressive films that went beyond his political circumstances and captured something far more primordial and enigmatic about the world itself. For this and many other reasons, he’s considered to be one of the great directors in cinema history, which is no small feat for a Soviet artist. If you’re a newcomer to his films, start with Ivan’s Childhood and go from there."

"Tarkovsky is my hero, and the hero of Russian cinema—a man who found a way to make transcendent, transgressive films that went beyond his political circumstances and captured something far more primordial and enigmatic about the world itself. For this and many other reasons, he’s considered to be one of the great directors in cinema history, which is no small feat for a Soviet artist. If you’re a newcomer to his films, start with Ivan’s Childhood and go from there."

"We’ve all wanted to be someone else at one point or another, but what if you took it to the extreme and made others believe you were that person? This is hybrid cinema at its best, showing that real life is truly stranger than fiction. Close-up has so many layers that I see something new each time I watch it. It’s a profound commentary on the power of cinema and the hold that it has on the outcome of our lives. "

"Despite the kind of movies I make, I love small, little movies. I love foreign films in general, I love to see something that really moves me emotionally, and that moves me to tears. Maybe Cinema Paradiso is a little bit of a cliché, but I’m sure every cinema lover lists it as their favourite movie. There’s something so beautiful about it, I love the milieu of the little town and this boy’s story and what the whole thing says about how lives go and about our dreams and memories. When he grows up and goes to the movie theatre and sees all the bits that the priest cut out and it reminds him of his childhood… Cinema doesn’t get more beautiful. The whole film is about the incredible nostalgia of movies in general."