"I get what Bryan Ferry is trying to do – experimenting in a bizarre world and then couching what he finds in the style and language of the hunting set. It's an exotic, intriguing concept and he's the only one doing it. This song [about a love affair with a blow-up doll] reveals a corner of your psyche that not many people would like to admit exists: that the mind wanders into dark places and the body follows. It's a romantic delusion and it's fascinating material for a song."

"Mark Sandrich was the superlative director of Fred Astaire musicals, strikingly more successful at this demanding (though charming) form than the better known George Stevens. It’s very funny, chock-a-block with great character actors, and with wonderful music (Cole Porter) and choreography (Astaire with Hermes Pan). There’s something about works at the beginning of a form or style of cinema, even if rough and lacking couth, that I find more lovable and compelling than that form perfected (which in this case would be the gorgeous Top Hat made by Sandrich the next year)."

"The harmony of music with the simplistic style of telling that story, as a framework for it, and then the acting… It’s like bringing Broadway — true Broadway — to the desert. Picking up a little naturalism from the desert. I believed Carl Anderson; believed every word of him, every frown, every inflection of his eyebrow. I love musicals. Always have. I think you have to tell a full story; it’s like asking someone, “Do you like black and white films?” or “Do you love 3D?” Music creates that third dimension."

"Juno is for me, the perfect one-liner movie. “Thundercats are go!” “That’s one doodle that can’t be undid.” I actually do use that one, more than rarely. It’s another film with a great overall soundtrack. It’s not a style of music that I always find myself getting into, but I think it’s one of those movies where the soundtrack fits the film to a T. The movie itself is quirky, it’s got a kind of a brash attitude, and I think the music really goes hand in hand with that."

"I was 12 or 13 when was introduced to the fantasy/adventure books written by the author of the famous Tarzan series, and first read this novel. The idea of a huge mole machine burrowing to the center of the earth and discovering flying reptiles and other dinosaurish creatures was magical. The writing style now seems somewhat formal and clumsy, but as a young reader I was whisked along into the unknown. Later, in the 1930s, the author has Tarzan make the journey, too. How could that not work?"

"I think the Dardennes are what you might get if you took Bresson and replaced his Catholicism with socialism. Strict naturalism instead of strict negation, but just as aware of space, sound, and the power of automatic action. Ascetic but genuinely compassionate. La promesse feels like their most vital film, maybe because it was the first one done in their house style. With bad teeth, floppy hair, and soulful eyes, Jérémie Renier has crazy presence, and Olivier Gourmet plays one of the best sad-shit dads in film history."