"Satyajit Ray was an important discovery for me when I was growing up. This is such a fascinating trilogy about a boy who has cursed his family and brings death and destruction to everybody he loves—or at least it feels that way. Of course it’s about a million other things, and in the end it’s about everything. I love The Music Room and so many of Ray’s other films, but there is no overstating how wonderful these three are."

"It was hard to choose one Antonioni film, but Red Desert feels like the perfect summation of Antonioni’s work. Antonioni used color for the first time in order to show psychological imbalance and subjectivity. He depicted the modern alienation surrounding the industrial fog that’s imposed upon our lives in urban environments, and he shows how these forces can threaten our sanity. The film also has the most freakishly uncomfortable sex scene, which turns an entire room pink. Only Monica Vitti has that power"

"I saw this again at the twenty-fifth anniversary screening at BAM, and I (still) think it’s a masterpiece. Spike Lee’s day-in-the-life in Bed-Stuy feels more bracing and urgent than ever: angry, sexy, and very funny. It’s exhilarating filmmaking, both hugely entertaining and shocking. The ending is devastating. I always think of that image of three guys sitting in front of a red wall . . . the faces of the cops, driving past in slow motion, looking at them."