"The next one is a Carl Theodor Dreyer film, The Passion of Joan of Arc, which is just an astounding film. Another film that is so powerful in its representation of human emotions. The film traces the trial of Joan of Arc, but it does so in a way that really gets us to focus on the ways that she’s processing this experience and transcends it through her feeling of connection to God. The lead actress in the film, Maria Falconetti, delivers a performance that… I don’t think anyone has ever delivered a stronger cinematic performance than this one. Dreyer is relentless in his closeups on her; I think 95% of the shots of her are in closeup. The nuances of facial expression that she manages to perform in itself, to give us a sense of all these things that she is feeling that you can’t really say out loud, absolutely remarkable. He does lots of other things in terms of really candid camera angles and disorienting kind of editing patterns that make us feel what her consciousness is experiencing. It’s just one of the classics of world cinema."

"That was one of the 50 albums my mum played all the time when I was a little kid - that is just so deep in my subconscious that I can't even describe what it is I feel when I hear her singing. I remember coming back from college and playing some Laura Branigan for Chris Keating or some friend and them just thinking it was second rate Donna Summer, which it probably is. But I'm like, "Don't you hear the emotion in her voice - it sounds like she's crying!" That was the kind of over the top but still sincere genuine passion I wanted to get on 'Hold You Tight' from the musical. All the reviews of the musical are very critical of this one song, which is probably one of my favourite songs, because it actually sounds like it could be from a musical. It's very Broadway and not very indie rock at all, and I kind of wish we'd been a little less conservative in just going for it. 'Self control' is a timeless theme. Keep it under control in the day and let loose at night."

"The whole [Godfather] series was brilliant. I loved all three of them. But my favorite was number two. I thought it was extraordinarily shot. I think the way Francis Coppola puts these incredible stories together where he has the juxtaposition of having people be killed while this incredible symphonic music is playing and some opera is taking place — it’s all an opera. I think the whole Godfather series is like one magnificent opera. I just think it’s one of the great movies of the century — since film making. I think he is a genius. I think he just captured the passion and the anger and the ignorance of the whole world of the Mafia, and what that meant — the Black Hand. He glamorized them in a way that made us want to know them, be there, experience it — even though it speaks of great danger. But there was something so enticing about their world, that whole world. And the people were such rich studies of character. Robert De Niro was the greatest he’d ever been, and of course, Pacino. Those performances – every single performance was genius. I loved the films. I even like the third one."