"My late father’s favorite movie. The film is disturbing on so many levels: the fact that it was made during the Occupation; the way theater and real life are layered and confused; the performance by Arletty, who would later be convicted as a collaborator. She notoriously justified her treason by saying, “My heart belongs to France, but my ass is international.”"

"This was the first real classic I remember reading. It occupied my heart from page one. It’s still with me. The whole panorama of life (yes our human experience too!) can be told through the experience of this magnificent noble beast. Riding was my first sport, horses were my first love. Black Beauty and Ginger were then my favorite fictional characters."

"I’ve had the advantage of seeing this movie at many different times in my life, and I don’t really know how it’s put together or why it works. Peter Bogdanovich captures the lives of real people using every aspect of filmmaking: casting, location, and period music whose static-y radio sound cuts against the desolate wind of a decaying small town."

"A masterpiece and one of the key achievements of 1970s New Hollywood—maybe only behind the Godfather films. Its mix of loving classicism, European influences, and ’70s permissiveness is jolting and desperately real. American small-town life has never been rendered with such empathy, unapologetic frankness, sadness, and despair. Timothy Bottoms’s performance is the most wrenching portrayal of male adolescence ever."

"Hitchcock’s best film, for my money. But then any movie with the sinister Ivan Triesault gets my vote. He’s the one who takes Claude Rains in the final moments for his last ride, for us and for Claude. I wonder if, even in real life, the villainous Triesault could smile. The suspense in the wine cellar upsets my nerves every time."