"Seeing House for the first time is probably my fondest film-watching experience of the past couple of years. I’m drawn to the idea of creative purity, something House emanates in a way no other horror film I’ve ever seen does. That’s if you can even call it a horror film (the director himself doesn’t). Obayashi found his own moviemaking solution to Picasso’s lifelong goal of creating like a child: sourcing ideas for the script from his ten-year-old daughter. The result is a heartful, imaginative, creepy, weird, and wonderful dream come to life. It’s sort of like John Hughes, Miyazaki, Evil Dead 2–era Sam Raimi, and bizarre 1970s children’s TV rolled into one. The score in its more sincere moments is also incredible. I’m still in the totally infatuated honeymoon stage with this one, recommending it to people any chance I get."

"Le samouraï is a film I return to again and again. Like with any minimalist cinema, the less it states, the more you want to discover. Jean Pierre Melville’s film has been hugely influential, from Walter Hill’s The Driver through Luc Besson’s Leon: The Professional right up to this year’s Drive. Hell, even scenes from my own Hot Fuzz are ripped out of this. The iconic image of hit man Alain Delon lying on a bed in his bare apartment with just a canary for company is still echoed today. Melville took lone warrior mythology from Japanese culture, married it with the tough guy angles of ’40s gangster movies, and, along with John Boorman and Point Blank, ushered in a new age of neo noir. It’s a beguiling picture and one to stare at for a long time. Plus, it has so little dialogue that it is literally a must-watch."

"It's another strange thing; you had to keep some records as secrets on the punk scene, but John Lydon was into [founding member of Van der Graaf Generator] Peter Hammill. There's an idea that people would hide their Genesis records and get out The Damned ones if people came round. I didn't hide mine, although I didn't play them to Ian when he came round. They're a funny band, Van der Graaf Generator. At the time, with Pawn Hearts, all of your mates would say: "Ooh, there's a track that's three days long… it's pixie stuff". But 'A Plague Of Lighthouse Keepers' is completely overblown, like a nightmare with saxophones. I suppose it's the ultimate prog-rock album: it's really overblown, but still of the terrifying. I really like Peter Hammill. He's another guy who's really unique - he has a really individual way of singing, and it's very raw."