"I saw Robert Flaherty’s 1922 quasi-documentary film in fourth grade. We watched it on some weird early-’70s, pre-video school format where the teacher popped something that looked like a tape into a machine that jiggled as it played ten-minute segments on a small, dark screen. It looked like shit but the film left an indelible impression on me. The blubber-eating scene, mixed with the perfumed scent of Eugenie, my fourth-grade crush—oops, I mean, teacher—is a heady sense-memory."

"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?"

"I just am an Italian girl. My father grew up in that exact era and I remember seeing it in Italian class, in school, and then going home and showing it to him and tears streaming down his face as he watched it. He was a boy with a pair of shoes and who was fascinated by the movies, and there was, like, one theater in his town. So that movie has just always struck a personal nerve for me as a daughter of an immigrant."

"London. The swinging ’60s. But not for these broke actors, who have just left drama school. To break the monotony of the phone never ringing, they make the fatal error of leaving London for “a charming weekend in the country.” Gay uncles, disgruntled farmers, terrifying poachers, and lots and lots and lots of alcohol ensue. Hang on for the ride. Richard E. Grant has never been better. Paul McGann plays it straight and anchors the whole thing. The soundtrack is wonderful. Must watch with alcohol."

"When will Gérard Blain's filmmaking be fully recognized and given its rightful place in the history of French cinema – one of the highest? Was it his acting career that cast a shadow; or his radicalism, the radicalism of the most authentic disciple of Robert Bresson; or the controversies that accompanied the work of this provocateur so impossible to integrate into any school or religion and into an industry even less. All of Gérard Blain's films are important – among them The Pelican is perhaps the most shattering."

"The granddaddy of all modern comedies, Spinal Tap set the gold standard for the mock documentary. Just like with Stranger Than Paradise, I had an encounter with this film when I was in film school: I drove past the set one day in downtown L.A. and saw the band in their wardrobe walking to the set, and thought it looked like some dumb movie with crazy costumes. Little did I know I was so close to the set of one of the funniest movies ever made."