"This is one of two films on my list that are about a man—a dying man. McQueen comes to feature filmmaking by way of fine art, and it’s clear this is what makes Hunger so profoundly special. The structure of this film is masterful and includes a twenty-minute long take of uninterrupted dialogue. Though it’s extremely human, it’s not for the squeamish. This is a discomforting film about a discomforting life."

"I was vaguely familiar with Pina Bausch’s work when I decided to watch this film in theaters. I thought I knew what I was getting myself into, but I didn’t. I was continually surprised, not just by Bausch’s dance but also by Wenders’s vision. The film kicks into high gear with The Rite of Spring. My jaw dropped. Wenders expresses what Bausch’s work explores: our everyday gestures are performance. Our lives are art."

"Jeremy Irons plays identical twin gynecologist womanizers. Despite this being a relatively straight story by Cronenberg’s standards, his baroque obsession with body modification is not lost here—the film features a few particularly disconcerting props related to surgery that are true art pieces and worth the price of admission alone."

"I am mainly obsessed with the 1920s and 1930s. A lot of this record is inspired by the art, music, and film of that time, like Aelita, which is this 1920s sci-fi Russian film about a woman who lives in space. Their version of sci-fi in that time period was so elegant, beautiful, and minimal because they didn't have the same kind of imagination yet. It didn't become sci-fi in the way we see it now. "

"I’ve not seen another film or work of art come as close to recreating that specific, intangible feeling of having a nightmare. “So I just cut them up like regular chickens?” Incidentally, the very short film David Lynch did with a Lumière camera, Premonitions Following an Evil Deed, is also on this disc, and it is a perfect thing . . . Somehow, this was the only one of his films I was ever compelled to ask him about."

"I had the chance to see Pennebaker give a talk before a screening of Monterey Pop. The audience got incredibly rowdy during his discussion of his short film Daybreak Express and interrupted Pennebaker’s remarks, chanting “Let’s rock!” Pennebaker gave up and rolled the film. Really lousy, but fitting. Watching Pennebaker and the Maysles’ incredible documentaries in tandem give me those same raw and complex feelings about rock ‘n’ roll as an art and a primal force."

"I had the chance to see Pennebaker give a talk before a screening of Monterey Pop. The audience got incredibly rowdy during his discussion of his short film Daybreak Express and interrupted Pennebaker’s remarks, chanting “Let’s rock!” Pennebaker gave up and rolled the film. Really lousy, but fitting. Watching Pennebaker and the Maysles’ incredible documentaries in tandem give me those same raw and complex feelings about rock ‘n’ roll as an art and a primal force."