"I would say it’s one of my all-time favorite movies. There were times in my life when I had to watch Sans Soleil once a year, and I could because there was a cinema in Vienna that used to show it every summer. On one hand, it’s a perfect and artistic movie, but on the other, it’s like the basis of moviemaking. It’s an essay film dealing with documentary material, and it transforms it into a poetic idea of the world. For me, it’s the highlight of documentary filmmaking."

"The most influential rock film ever made (A Hard Day’s Night is probably second). It’s more than thirty years old, but it’s still the default reference for every rock group with a sense of humor (even if none of the band members were alive when it was originally released). It somehow has more cultural sticking power than most of the music it satirizes. There’s never been a real documentary about a real band that captures the nature of heavy rock as deftly as this unreal documentary about a fake band."

"I think this Dylan documentary offers an absolutely fascinating insight into a genius at the peak of his powers. The filmmakers are so integrated with the touring party that you become totally immersed in the events. Wonderful. —Stuart Braithwaite"

"This film actually frightens me, and that’s saying something for a documentary made some thirty years ago. The Maysles brothers and their team crafted a glimpse into the dark and dysfunctional world of the American family and a failing American dream."

"An incredible document of how man’s greatest endeavors have unsettling consequences,” Nolan told Criterion about Godfrey Reggio’s 1982 experimental documentary. “Art, not propaganda, emotional, not didactic; it doesn’t tell you what to think — it tells you what to think about."

"I don’t know how he made this movie, except that he used the real people. This is where Soderbergh learned half of his shit (as I’m sure he’ll admit). This is an amazing three-disc set, with hours of documentary footage."