"As with all Andrei Tarkovsky films, Stalker deserves multiple viewings. At three hours, and with most shots exceeding a full minute in length, it demands a commitment from the viewer. The production was infamous, a majority of the footage was lost and had to be reshot, and multiple cast and crew members died from cancer, which was attributed by many involved to toxic conditions at some of the shooting locations. The results of the film, however, are as unique as they are impressive. The imagery and symbolism remain some of the most beautiful and haunting ever put on film. And the soundtrack and score are interwoven with the images in a style not unlike the collaborations of Kobayashi and Takemitsu, where sounds are processed and stretched to disorient and then reconnect the viewer."

https://www.amazon.com/kindle-dbs/abr/arp/B08DL6GPJS?ref_=sin_abr_cat_art_list&theme=light "Normal People is one of the most realistic and heart-wrenching depictions of how young love nestles itself within the universal, vulnerable heart. It is a story that lays bare the beauty and brutality of coming-of-age discovery and first love with all of its divine, euphoric highs and melancholy, longing lows. The truth embodied in these characters makes you want to jump right into the pages to express your own empathy for what is being said and left unsaid. We have all lived these honest moments of connection and miscommunication in the soulful, connective force that is love. If I had to give this book a rating with stars I would give it a shooting star indeed."

"The Sign Fight This one is from my most recent film so it’s still fresh in my mind. The idea was to do a fight completely at height on the signs on our Hong Kong street set. We designed the sequence for months as the wire work with that many people was especially complicated. It was all done off real buildings, nothing was done in a studio. We were hesitant to commit to this sequence because we were shooting in the middle of typhoon season and we were worried the wind would destroy our set and we would not have time to rebuild and would have to scrap the sequence midway through. In the end, we took a chance and the heavens watched over us and we finished the sequence three days early."

"For my mentor Roy Andersson, De Sica was someone who was looking at individuals within a social structure. His films were looking at societal problems in a very political way, with a very realistic style of shooting, but at the same time, they were very self-aware about their set-ups. I love the scene when the father and son go to a restaurant to spend the last of their money to eat something, and at another table is a different family, with a young boy who is looking at the son. I’ll never forget the way they look at each other and the look of the other boy, who is used to being in fancy restaurants eating pasta. It’s so touching and such a humanistic way of looking at things."