Edward Berger

“Let me start with Do the Right Thing, Spike Lee. Such a great film. Reminds me of New York, of how I studied here. 1989. I came in 1991, so the movie just came out and it was like a revelation of a film. So, so that one I'm going to take. It says director approved, so Spike Lee approved it. It's wonderful.”

“This is a movie I absolutely adore. Downhill Racer, Michael Ritchie, 1969. This one, I've seen it many times. It's the best movie. I mean, if you love skiing, watch it. Or if you love sports, if you love Robert Redford, watch it. But also, sound. Sound is incredible. And I remember having, like, watching this and thinking like the sound is so good, it's so crisp, it's so precise. Every, like, you have these downhill racing scenes and it goes like you hear the skis fluttering on the ice and you hear his breath. And I remember asking my sound designer, Frank Kruse, a German guy, how they did that. And he said it's mono. That's why it feels so, it directs your attention to the sound, directly to the screen. And this mono, I'm thinking I'm gonna have to make a mono movie at some point, because this is the best sound design ever.”

“Cold War. I'm sure you know it. I adore it because it's so emotional while being so restrained. And it's, you know what, it's when you watch it, you think this is like Doctor Zhivago, this must be like three and a half hours. It is 88 minutes. It is really, it's really short, but it has the emotional impact of a massive epic. So this is a masterpiece that will stay forever in the canon of movies.”

“The Exterminating Angel. Great film. People are stuck in one building, in one room, they don't leave. And all I remember from this movie, I saw it a long time ago, so there's one character who keeps saying like, "And suddenly I lost all my hair." And so I, for some reason, I remember that. So, and it's very funny, so I think that's a great movie.”

“Then, oh. So Roberto Rossellini. I think I have to take him. Look at this, there is Journey to Italy, Stromboli, and Europe '51. Isabella was in my last film, and I think to just to remember her and to honor her, basically, I'll meet her later. I'll take this and remember her parents.”

“But I'm kind of torn because it is Germany Year Zero, it's in the War Trilogy. I think I'm going to take that, the War Trilogy, because sometimes, I live in Berlin, and I walk through the city a lot thinking, "God, look at that, look at how beautiful it could have been, and this is what happened." You know, a country that self-destructed, basically gave in to its sort of destructive impulses. And we have that so much now again that you see. And in Berlin you go through it, it makes you sad sometimes, and you see all these streets and they're all destroyed and been built up quickly. And sometimes they're old and they're beautiful, and then you go to the next street, it's just destroyed and reconstructed. And this movie captures that incredibly. I mean, he went to Germany right after the war, made this film. So I'm going to take both.”

“Oh, and here, last one. Fanny and Alexander, Ingmar Bergman's masterpiece. I'll take this.”