"I watched this 1947 stark, black and white, noirish prison drama as part of research for a film I directed called Animal Factory, written by novelist and ex-convict Eddie Bunker. For years I thought director Jules Dassin was a Frenchman working in the U.S. I was surprised to learn he was an American (Russian Jew) from Connecticut who fled the U.S. during the red scare of the fifties. He ended up in Paris and made the wonderful French film Rififi, which added to my confusion. The Naked City (1948) by Dassin is also a classic, shot on gloriously gritty locations in New York City."

"I guess you got to put The Shawshank Redemption in there somewhere, right? That movie was just so amazing. It’s a wild ride, because it’s very emotional. I just remember the line at the end where he’s like, “My friend.” There’s such an amazing friendship plot in that, and then there’s that line at the end that just makes you bawl your eyes out, you know? So, it’s like, get ready for an emotional… It’s very dark. He gets raped in prison. He’s getting attacked. But that story between Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman, it’s just this friendship plot that runs through the movie. I just thought that was really powerful."