"I love Chinatown. Great movie, I mean, it just is what it is. Unbelievable, just a classic. I just really respond to that movie. It’s real; it has this heightened reality about it. Very powerful. It’s something that sticks out in my head. Seeing it, and watching it again and again, then seeing it as an adult. Something I can continue to watch through the years and be inspired by, and get lost in, and just forget about everything and say, “I just had a movie experience.”"

"The searing regret of having made the wrong decision in life and realizing it too late makes this book as heart-wrenching today as it was a century ago. Wharton’s writing style, too, is fresh and durable—surprisingly modern when compared with that of her friend and contemporary Henry James. Among the most memorable passages are her prose portraits. Her mocking 165-word description of the doyenne of New York society Mrs. Manson Mingott in chapter four is a hilarious classic of the genre"

"A total classic from George Lucas, pre Star Wars. It's the start of pop culture going retro, as it created a whole kind of rock & roll revival with records being reissued and that double LP soundtrack being released. It's the past informing the present so it's important in terms of pop culture and teen films. It influenced a couple of other movies that we're going to talk about later. And I love the music – 'I Only Have Eyes For You' and all those tunes. Fantastic."

"The American title — Big Deal on Madonna Street — must be the worst of the international variants for Mario Monicelli’s brilliant incompetent-caper comedy, said to be the absurd version of Rififi. The direct translation — Persons Unknown — used elsewhere, seems funnier once you’ve seen the film; the Spanish distributor had the wit to call it Rufufu and there it’s a treasured classic. The shooting style — the great use of the so-called “curtain effect” — has also been something we always try to put to use."

"I used to have a huge collection of film soundtracks. I don’t get enthusiastic about them any more, though, because now most soundtracks are just a collection of rock songs, half of which don’t even appear in the movie. This is a real classic. It has a great min theme which brings the movie right into your head. All the tracks hold up – it’s so damn effective. It took me ages to get hold of a copy, and, Jeez, I almost wept when I finally did."

"The second non-fiction book by the legendary novelist and screenwriter responsible for such classic films as The Princess Bride (a personal favorite), Marathon Man, All The President’s Men and Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid. Like the prequel, Which Lie Did I Tell includes candid behind-the-scenes stories, a window into the process of how to write good scripts and how The Princess Bride became his first screen credit in nearly nine years. A thoroughly entertaining insider’s look into how Hollywood works."

"I didn’t know anything about this film; I decided to just try it. I loved it. An old-style movie, and Mifune’s wild-man performance gives it special stature. There are not many actors with his charisma, a true strength, and humor, vulnerability, and truth. The film is well told, strong, honest, and simply filmed. I found it refreshing to be reminded that these simple qualities made the film, now fifty years old, beautiful and alive to me; a classic just like you promised, Crit"