"OK so number five is sort of topical because at the moment I’m in the midst of pre-production to start this western that I’m about to make. So number five is Unforgiven. For me, Unforgiven is a great film and it’s a great traditional sort of American western, and it’s a great critique about an older guy whose past is very different than who he is now. Being dragged into his past is complicated, even down to the details that it’s hard for him to get on his horse again. It’s a western that deals with violence in a very unique way in that it’s one of the only westerns where you get to see the ramifications and the accountability of violence. You see how it affects people. And you see how some people are capable of it and some people are not, and the people that act like they are often times are not, and I think those are really important, complicated issues in this genre that is known for glorifying violence. I think it’s a really brilliant take on that. I also think that it’s a very good representation of the culmination of someone’s career. If you can define Clint Eastwood in a nutshell — him as an actor, and him as a director — he’s older when he made this movie, but you can really see that he’s figured everything out, and then he made this movie. It’s an example of all that stuff being figured out, and it’s just done so masterfully. I think that’s a credit to him and the time he spent making westerns or films in general as both an actor and a director. There’s a control of that film that is really unlike many other westerns and it’s very inspirational."

"I always defend this movie. Some people hate it. I love it, although I am not in a rush to watch the first half again… There is a scene near the end of the film where it is just Monica Bellucci and Vincent Cassel lounging around their apartment. One of those lazy days you have with a partner. They were a real life couple and that chemistry shoots through to the film. You can tell they are madly in love. I always break into tears at this moment. It puts everything you’ve seen prior into heartbreaking context. The film is a tragedy told in reverse. I think it’s brilliant because by the design of its structure, it makes you think about the tragedy more than if you were just experiencing it in chronological order. Instead of getting to the end of the film and rooting for our protagonist to bash this guys head in, we get to the end of the film and think about how pointless all that pain and violence was and how heartbreaking it is that the violence destroyed this pure love."