"In 1950s Baltimore, my parents were pretty open. They read The New York Times and listened to Woody Guthrie records, so you can imagine what kind of a household that was. They were immigrants from Scotland, and their taste included a lot of American folk music like, Woody and Pete Seeger, both of whom made children’s albums, so that’s what I would hear. Later, I heard their other songs, which obviously had a political slant and a story to tell and a point of view. That was something to realize at a young age: that a song could do that."

"I think this is a work of genius. It manages to be utterly hilarious, completely tender and touching, and biting and satirical at the same time. It actually taught me a lot about America. As I saw it shortly after I moved here, I realized that if these type of situations and characters were being parodied then they must actually exist. When the DVD came out, I bought it and I’m still reeling from the number “This Bulging River”. I think the only people I’ve ever geeked out about in an embarrassing way are the people responsible for this film."

"One of the things I like about Scorsese so much is – and we had a little bit of that in I, Tonya – I love the sweeping shots. I love the way he shoots. The way the camera gets pushed in, zoomed in. I think visually is how I respond to him a lot. And he’s also a very musically-oriented guy. But the thing about Taxi Driver is, everything is done from Travis’s point of view. It’s all shot through these windows, these sort of glossy, dirty taxi windows. Everything is meant to highlight his isolation and how lonely he is."

"Medium Cool. I’m crazy about that film. To me, there are a lot of great films from that era because I was seeing them in our movie house when I was a kid [Luhrmann’s dad ran a theater for a period], but what I love about Medium Cool is that it preempts the idea of taking a real historical event and weaving a drama around it. So that’s great about it. Robert Forster is great in that picture. Not to mention — and I’ll be a bit flippant here — the clothes are fantastic. It’s just a great pop cultural picture."

"That’s another great sprawling big epic that follows various episodes in the life of Andrei Rublev, who was an icon painter in probably the 15th or 16th century — I’m not sure — and just various episodes in his life. I mean, he hardly features in many of them. He’s just an observer of a lot of this, but it’s magnificent. You really, really get a feel for what it might have been like to live in medieval Russia. It’s much more approachable than some of [Andrei] Tarkovsky‘s work. I absolutely adore it and watch it again and again."

"This film made me cry real tears! It’s about the 1976 Soweto Uprising and the injustice experienced by many Black people due to corrupt police and the flawed South African governmental system. I think it’s worth listening to Miriam Makeba and Hugh Masekela whilst looking at the momentous history of apartheid, and the fact many writers and musicians had to go to into exile in fear of prosecution. Also, in Come Back, Africa (1959) by Lionel Rogosin​, Makeba makes a cameo and sings two songs in a bar. One I cherish a lot is a lullaby called “Lakutshon, Ilanga”."

"I’m a huge Mike Leigh fan and would love to work with him. His approach to filming sounds fascinating and exciting. I understand that he doesn’t give his actors a script but instead hands them scenes and encourages improvisation. I’m not sure if this is indeed his process, but the result is nothing short of beautiful intimate moments. And this film is full of them! At times it feels so intimate it’s almost voyeuristic. To me, that’s what makes a performance really exciting…when you’re almost embarrassed to be peeking into peoples’ lives. And that happens a lot in this perfect emotional drama."

"I saw this with my parents as a very young child in the seventies, on television, and I never forgot it. I went back to it over the years on VHS and DVD, but this Criterion edition is quite a rediscovery. It’s an unusual VistaVision beach western with unstable and elusive racial narrative elements. It’s also the product of star power and a studio willing to go along, with reportedly messy results, but I see nothing wrong with this film. I like it a lot. Brando is wonderful in it, both as a director and as a star."