"My favorite film from the maestro [Federico] Fellini."

"La Dolce Vita by Federico Fellini, who I’m sure you’re familiar with. And again, not the formula. He was incredible at expressing himself in a way that no other filmmaker could get away with. You see these sequences that may or may not be related. [laughs] Somehow, at the end of it all, it all makes sense, and you’re floored. The photography, and the shots, and the choreography can stand up to anything that’s been released up to now."

"Well, let’s go one, La Strada, which is Federico Fellini’s movie with Anthony Quinn and Giulietta Masina. When was the first time I saw it? Oh, my God, I was in high school. To me, it felt like a fable, and it was beautiful and so moving, and I cry every time I see it. I’m almost crying thinking about it. How both broadly drawn and subtle the characters are, and how much sympathy Fellini has for the people in the movie. Have you ever seen it?"

"Why? Well, I think it’s an act of freedom, the whole entire movie, practically. They didn’t have a script. In 1962, which is the year when the movie was shot, I thought it was unbelievable that somebody would just go into an experiment like that. It’s still a very experimental movie, very emotional in a way. I like what he says about the human spirit and creation; in a way, crisis of a man confronting life, his past, his present and his future in a very formal way. I mean formal in terms of format, how the movie was told, not only in the content of the movie, which is amazing. Also in the way that he decided to just do it absolutely free, inventing new rules for telling a story and not going in a traditional way. I thought it was the masterpiece of Federico Fellini that most attracted me; I feel very proud that I know [what it’s like for] a guy like Federico Fellini, who got the balls to just jump into such believable, reflections of mirrors, you know, inside the movie."

"When I first watched “Pain and Glory” it called to mind the work of Federico Fellini and Ingmar Bergman, who, like Pedro Almodovar, continuously displayed their ability to fuse their own lives and art, taking elements from their personal experiences and creating a world with rich and complicated characters. Nowhere has Almodovar’s talent as a director been put to such excellent use as in “Pain and Glory.” Clearly his most personal and best film to date, it is a contemplative triumph, rich and elegant yet intimate and subtle…"