"Actually, I have to add one more in. I have to add RoboCop only because of the one line at the very end, when they go, “What’s your name?” And he says, “Murphy.” It’s the greatest way to end any movie, ever. It’s true, if you think about that. Everybody in the audience stood up and screamed. They went ballistic; I know, I was there. I’m probably revealing some geekdom here. I was there in the theater opening weekend! I remember everybody — as soon as he said his name, he got his humanity back, and it was such a powerful moment. It was awe-inspiring."

"I was also introduced to Michael Powell’s work during film school, and this one particularly blew my mind. I love when all the kids rush into the theater at the beginning to get good seats in the balcony. A title comes on-screen that reads, “45 minutes later,” but the shot never cuts or changes. From that point on, I knew I was in good hands. This film taught me that silent-film techniques could, and probably should, be employed in modern sound films. It has taken me several projects of my own to incorporate this lesson, but I’m getting there. I also love films about artists and the creative process."

"I watched this film at a small theater in Paris, with an audience of mostly French people in their sixties. In that environment, it actually managed to resensitize me to cinema violence, something I assumed was impossible. Hearing the gasps from the audience allowed me to see the film as intended. These poor old French people were being assaulted by the film. It was rocking their world! When the lights came up, I was both upset by the film and delighted by the expressions on the faces around me. We were all just looking at each other in silence. After that, I better understood the power of a collective cinema experience."

"The first, and to date one of maybe three, film I ever bought a second, superior edition of. I have seen this film perhaps ten times in the theater, and watched it at home maybe twice but still felt the need to own it, and then own it again. I came to this film because, my freshman year of film school, we did a class on cinematography, one on music, one on acting, one on editing, etc., and then watched this film as an example of something that does every one of those things with sublime perfection. I never get tired of revisiting it."

"Number three, I don’t know the name of the director [Ed. note: Eliseo Subiela], unfortunately, but it was a movie made in the ’80s called Man Facing Southeast. It’s an Argentine film. I should really find out who the director is, ’cause I saw it a bunch of times in an art theater in the mid ’80s when it was released. I fell in love with it and I dragged all of my friends to go see it, and of course none of them liked it as much as I did, but something about it I just found incredibly powerful and it really resonated with me."