"Three Italians! I remember crying really badly with that when all the films in the projection room are on fire. I remember that also it was a film that when I was really young I could see myself reflected in the younger part of the film. And you can grow with the film, you know. When you become more mature you find a lot of sadness in the story of the old guy while he’s watching at the beginning and the end"

"Satyajit Ray was an important discovery for me when I was growing up. This is such a fascinating trilogy about a boy who has cursed his family and brings death and destruction to everybody he loves—or at least it feels that way. Of course it’s about a million other things, and in the end it’s about everything. I love The Music Room and so many of Ray’s other films, but there is no overstating how wonderful these three are."

"Satyajit Ray was an important discovery for me when I was growing up. This is such a fascinating trilogy about a boy who has cursed his family and brings death and destruction to everybody he loves—or at least it feels that way. Of course it’s about a million other things, and in the end it’s about everything. I love The Music Room and so many of Ray’s other films, but there is no overstating how wonderful these three are."

"Satyajit Ray was an important discovery for me when I was growing up. This is such a fascinating trilogy about a boy who has cursed his family and brings death and destruction to everybody he loves—or at least it feels that way. Of course it’s about a million other things, and in the end it’s about everything. I love The Music Room and so many of Ray’s other films, but there is no overstating how wonderful these three are."

"It’s a documentary, but I remember liking Crumb a whole lot. When Crumb came out I would go and see it like three times a week; I would be bringing different people to see it. I’d seen a couple of documentaries before, from Errol Morris or whatever, but that, I mean that one took it to a whole other level as far as I was concerned. I just thought it was the most interesting family I’d ever seen in a movie, really."

"The Daphne du Maurier book on which this film is based is on my summer reading list every year. This film is such a solid early example of feminist horror. It’s an obsessive love triangle between three women, one of whom is only known as “the second Mrs. De Winter” and another of whom is dead. This gorgeous film draws you in with a dizzying seductiveness while at the same time plunging itself into your chest and stopping your beating heart."

"I saw this again at the twenty-fifth anniversary screening at BAM, and I (still) think it’s a masterpiece. Spike Lee’s day-in-the-life in Bed-Stuy feels more bracing and urgent than ever: angry, sexy, and very funny. It’s exhilarating filmmaking, both hugely entertaining and shocking. The ending is devastating. I always think of that image of three guys sitting in front of a red wall . . . the faces of the cops, driving past in slow motion, looking at them."