Asif Kapadia

“Simon of the Desert by Buñuel. That is a brilliant movie. That is nuts. Have you ever seen it? Yeah. 45 minutes long, fantastic.”

“But I'm going to check out Blind Chance because it's one of the films that inspired my friend Amit, who's a filmmaker who likes to make stories with lots of different interpretations or different versions of events, a bit similar to Amores perros or something like that, and he was quite inspired by Blind Chance. I've never seen it, so.”

“Okay, one of the most beautiful films ever made, In the Mood for Love, Wong Kar-wai.”

“"Warning: explicit content." Just because.”

“I've already got this, but I've not got the Criterion. Don't Look Now is my wife's, probably my wife's favorite film. I tried to interview once Nic Roeg, and just as we were about to walk on stage, he said, "Let's not talk about any old films." So then we sat there on a stage like, "What do I talk about?" And then his conversation, nothing went in a straight line. He jumped forwards, backwards in time. You realize all of his films are exactly the way his brain operates.”

“Okay. Oh, The Vanishing. Is that the Dutch film? Mhm. Oh, it's a great movie. That is one of the most kind of darkest, most shocking movies. That's great.”

“Do the Right Thing somewhere. I've already got the Do the Right Thing, the Criterion, one of my favorite films. Yeah, I won't take that 'cause I've already got it, but, that's probably the film more than any that I would say kind of inspired me. When I, I left school in 1988, which is when this came out, and I saw it with friends, and I went to see it like three or four times at the cinema. It's probably the one movie that made me think I actually want to make films. It's still really powerful. The ending really hits you. You don't expect it to turn. It's been so funny and light, and then suddenly when the violence kicks off, you realize this film's still so relevant to what's going on in the US and a lot of the world right now.”

“Investigation of a Citizen Above... I don't know. I like... Interesting. No idea what it is, never heard of it.”

“The scene on a subway train on Code Unknown is like one of the most powerful scenes, all in one shot. Juliette Binoche on a train. Have you seen it, either of you? Mhm. It's, unbelievable, the, the, the strength that he can create, the tension that he can create in a movie.”

“Three Outlaw Samurai. Any idea what that is? It just sounds good, doesn't it? And it's got a great picture. No idea what it is.”

“Yi Yi. I don't know if I've got that. Great movie.”

“Kes, wow. Oh, you... Oh God, what age are you allowed to show Kes to your kids? Early Ken Loach film. It's the first time I, I noticed I was watching a film by a filmmaker. It's really powerful, quite shocking, beautiful story.”

“Gomorrah. What a good one to end on. Amazing movie. Okay, I'll end it there. I'll end it with like the fact that everything around us is corrupt. It's a good place to stop.”

“That's... Maybe I've got a bit too many samurai, but, you can never have too many, enough.”