Todd Haynes

“And here's Brief Encounter, a movie that is just one of the most perfect of British mid-century film history that inspired and formed the sort of structure around my film Carol, and the performance, Celia Johnson's performance, and the cinematography, and Noël Coward's writing, and anyway, it's an amazing movie. And I don't know if I have it on, Blu-ray, so I'll just stick it in my bag.”

“Gus's My Own Private Idaho. This is a beautiful edition that I treasure in my collection.”

“Where's all the Sirks? And Ed Lachman, my DP, I think timed them for a Criterion, so Written on the Wind, All That Heaven Allows, and Imitation of Life, and I don't think Criterion has Imitation of Life, but they're just, and Fassbinder would agree with me, two of the most perfect films ever made, and they have to be seen by you guys, anybody, everybody.”

“Where's all the Sirks? And Ed Lachman, my DP, I think timed them for a Criterion. So Written on the Wind, All That Heaven Allows, and Imitation of Life, and I don't think Criterion has Imitation of Life, but they're just, and Fassbinder would agree with me, two of the most perfect films ever made, and they have to be seen by you guys, anybody, everybody.”

“Masculin féminin is an extraordinary Godard, that I also quote in my film I'm Not There. It evokes the '60s, and in some ways it's so exquisitely made, and it also is problematic in the depiction of women, I think, in the film, and it's something that I tried to actually bring into one of Dylan characters, the Robbie story played by Heath Ledger. And this film kind of embodies all of the contradictions of that time in a way that, of course, Godard can expose in himself.”

“Oh, Sunday Bloody Sunday. I return to it. It's maybe a lesser-known film. It's a John Schlesinger film with Glenda Jackson and Peter Finch, and it's just, and I looked at it a lot for my last film, May December, and it's just, an exquisite, mature, and complicated film, sexy and beautifully constructed. Notice how I just slipped it in my bag.”

“Okay, Night of the Hunter is just one of the mo— maybe the most important films that anybody should see, made outside of the Hollywood system with no money, and with a tone and with a nuance. It's Charles Laughton's only film as a director. It's just, it's been quoted and quoted, but it is an astonishment to watch every time.”

“Long Day Closes. Terence Davies just passed away. He was such an artist, so completely unique. Speechless.”

“Every movie I start to make, I rewatch Beau travail, and I'm ready for the next one.”

“Okay, and this, this film is by Irving Rapper, who's not, you know, a celebrated director as we're discussing, but something happened with Bette Davis at the prime of her career with this film, Now, Voyager. It is a perfect film.”

“Oh my God, my friend Kelly Reichardt made Old Joy. What a beautiful, beautiful version.”

“Joseph Losey's The Servant. It's probably the most well-known of Joseph Losey's films, but it's an amazing and strange and hypnotic, similar kind of lure of homoerotic subtext that you might project onto a movie like Persona, but with the Joseph Losey signature.”

“Now there's a dispute among the queer world between Valley of the Dolls and Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, and I'm in the Beyond the Valley of the Dolls camp, so to speak. It's Russ Meyer. The soundtrack is incredible. It's twisted and funny and dark and surprising.”

“I'll just end with one of the most perfect films made by Nicholas Ray, In a Lonely Place. If anyone hasn't seen it, you're lucky, 'cause you get to experience it. Okay, cut.”

“Now The BRD Trilogy is somewhere, and this is one of the most coveted box sets. It's so beautifully designed. It includes three of the later Fassbinder female-driven stories: Marriage of Maria Braun with, Hanna Schygulla, Veronika Voss, and Lola. It is just an exquisite and perfect object, collection of three masterpieces, and the perfect gift, and I just, every time I see it, I want to repossess it. Thank you, but I already have two copies.”