"I guess the next one would be Naked, by Mike Leigh. Mike Leigh might be my favorite living filmmaker. A lot has been said about his working method, you know. He spends about six months with his actors basically finding the characters and improvising and building these relationships. Then after that, he’ll go off and write a script based on the improvisations that took place over those six months. It results in some of the most vivid character work I’ve ever seen. The relationships in his films are so rich, and you just feel so much history there. That’s because the history has really been built. It really exists. But what people don’t really talk much about is just how wonderful a craftsman he is. His films are gorgeous and they’re beautifully made. I mean, his work with Dick Pope is just incredible, and they’re all so impeccably structured. So, I just think he’s made so many masterpieces. I toggled between Naked and Topsy-Turvy and Secrets and Lies being my favorite. But right now, Naked is the one that is coming to me."

"Why? Well, I think it’s an act of freedom, the whole entire movie, practically. They didn’t have a script. In 1962, which is the year when the movie was shot, I thought it was unbelievable that somebody would just go into an experiment like that. It’s still a very experimental movie, very emotional in a way. I like what he says about the human spirit and creation; in a way, crisis of a man confronting life, his past, his present and his future in a very formal way. I mean formal in terms of format, how the movie was told, not only in the content of the movie, which is amazing. Also in the way that he decided to just do it absolutely free, inventing new rules for telling a story and not going in a traditional way. I thought it was the masterpiece of Federico Fellini that most attracted me; I feel very proud that I know [what it’s like for] a guy like Federico Fellini, who got the balls to just jump into such believable, reflections of mirrors, you know, inside the movie."

"You can’t leave Casablanca and Gone with the Wind and Citizen Kane off of this list, but there are other movies that I think of when I think, “I’m going to watch a movie tonight that I’ve already seen — what is it going to be?” It’s so hard. I think Groundhog Day is one of the great movies. To me — and I know a lot of movies — it’s a very original form. It has this light touch, and [a] cynical main character who is taught a lesson about what matters. It’s a profound movie and I never get tired of watching it. I think Bill Murray is amazing in it. The script is ingenious. Obviously, it’s one of a kind and everyone tries to figure out a new version of it, but it is what it is, and I salute it for its originality and for the fact that I always feel very emotional when the character just comes down to it and says every day is the same day, and it’s up to you to make something out of it. That’s something profound and it’s said in such a funny way."