"I wanted to mention a Spanish film because I’m Spanish. Criterion just released — I think this week — they just released The Executioner. Not many people know that film but it’s been considered the best Spanish movie ever. It’s black and white, it was made in 1963, and it’s a black comedy about the death penalty. It’s about this guy who falls in love with the daughter of an executioner and how, somehow — we find one thing: that he’s becoming more into the position of the father of his girlfriend, and eventually he becomes an executioner. That was shown during the Franco regime under a cruel, ferocious censorship regime. It’s as funny as depressing. It’s a very unique film, and it’s considered probably one of the more important Spanish films ever."

"Raw blues. This is from the 1920s but sounds contemporary. When I was recording Candylion I tried my hand at it on Spanish guitar. "

"This Spanish film is so dreamy, so poetic, so haunting. Exquisite cinematography. Possibly the finest acting by a child I’ve ever seen. You’ll never watch Frankenstein the same way again."

"Because I’m half Spanish, I want to add a Spanish film, which I think is a film from the ’70s which is called Raise Ravens — I think was the English title. Cria Cuervos, with Geraldine Chaplin. It’s a film by Carlos Saura, a famous Spanish filmmaker. This is a very peculiar film because it’s a ghost story. It’s a young girl [played by Ana Torrent who is fantasizing. You are in the head of a girl the whole time, and it deals with child visions. Nightmares. It’s a very spooky film, but it also reflects very well Spain at the time and of mysteries within families, and mysteries that go on from one generation to the other. It’s a fascinating film that many people don’t know about. That’s why I want to point that one out as well."

"I debated between Cervantes’ ‘Don Quijote’ and ‘Martín Fierro,’ because they both are great classic epic stories in the Spanish language, but ended up choosing José Hernández’s great poetic work because of my early connection with it as a child growing up in Argentina."

"Like Night of the Hunter, this is a movie that captures this uncanny, twilit feeling of childhood, one that’s full of wonder and possibility but also the dread of carrying the burden of a parent’s secrets. Of course here it’s inextricably linked to the Spanish Civil War and a reflection on the Franco era. But seeing El Sur for the first time, with very little knowledge of Spanish history or that Erice considers the film “incomplete,” I was still completely enraptured by it. I find the idea of a daughter discovering and living with her father’s hidden longing unbelievably powerful, and Erice and José Luis Alcaine’s imagery is unparalleled."