"I love the whole BRD trilogy for Fassbinder’s truthful rendering of the German psyche after World War II devastation and post–Marshall Plan de-Nazification, and for the great parts that he offered to his female actors. Being a teenager in the fifties, in Germany, I left for Paris to avoid being sucked into the materialistic obsession displayed here."

"You see this film underneath so many other films—it’s incredible to see it just by itself, with that Prokofiev score (and those battle helmets)! Current events have really been making me feel that it’s time to revisit World War II with fresh, even more unflinching eyes. This is a great film to watch from that headspace."

"This delicious novel is part war story, part love story. Set in the beginning of World War II, it tells the story of Italian Captain Antonio Corelli of Mussolini’s Army as they invaded Greece. On the island lives Pelagia, the daughter of a Greek doctor with whom Captain Corelli begins an affair, despite her engagement to a fisherman who is headed to join Greek forces. It is one of the most beautifully written books I’ve ever read."

"Every spring, the three younger Makioka sisters don their finest kimonos to stroll beneath the cherry blossoms at Kyoto, a ceremony that seems to encapsulate the ritualized elegance of their lives and their deep bonds of affection, both of which are threatened by the family’s declining fortunes and a Japan that is swiftly changing on the eve of World War II."