"That’s probably my favorite film right now. Drinking Buddies was very inspired by this movie. I just love how it managed to be a real successful mainstream Hollywood comedy but it’s really complicated. The characters in this film are married, they have children, they’re still talking about open sexual relationships, and doing drugs, it just… it feels real to me, is how it feels. I’m very impressed by it, not only for its sense of humor which I think is spot on, but also for its sort of willingness to dip into dramatic elements and to have central characters who are not necessarily likeable all the time, who are, you know, sort of confused and behaving in very human realistic ways."

"Number one that always springs to mind is Billy Wilder’s The Apartment. I’m sure you’re familiar with that film. It’s one of those movies which manages to combine all sorts of flavors. People tend to think of it as a romantic comedy, but actually it has some quite dark elements; the Shirley MacLaine character tries to kill herself at one point. And that’s the sort of movie, I like to think — in terms of the sort of films I would like to try and make — are films which are hard to pigeonhole. It has elements of humor, maybe, but there’s also drama in there. Billy Wilder’s one of my heroes, because I think he’s able to sort of step between different genres and make masterpieces."

"I love It Happened One Night, which was… I’m trying to remember what year that was; was it 1929? But it was just this great, fantastic kind of screwball comedy, like one of the first real romantic comedies, and I think it was also like the first film to win all of the major academy awards. I’m a big Capra fan; I ove Frank Capra’s movies. That film really resonated with me when I saw it. Any chance I ever have to see that is great. I actually saw it in a movie theater once, and it was such a great experience. To see classic movies like that in a movie theater, it’s an opportunity that you rarely have. I really love that."

"I’m choosing Breillat’s film because it pulls me in and disturbs me. I’ll never forget that long push-and-pull seduction scene in the bedroom, which Breillat re-created in 2002’s Sex Is Comedy, or the sense of mounting menace that finally explodes. I don’t know how she does it, but she coaxes her actors into very private, intimate places. I imagine the process is born of deep trust, but it’s tough. As a director, it’s difficult to push people that far. Take this as a stand-in for many other films directed by women that, for whatever reason, aren’t in this collection: Claire Denis’s Beau travail being the obvious one that comes to mind, though there are many others."