William Friedkin

“Sunday Bloody Sunday. It came out the year of The French Connection and was nominated with The French Connection. They all bring back wonderful memories and I'm sure that this is going to be like seeing them as they were intended by the filmmakers, which is very hard to do in a theater anymore where the films are either scratched up or with dirt all over them.”

“The Killing of a Chinese Bookie. I just got that, Cassavetes. These are all the Cassavetes films. I mean, I'm sure he never thought they would have an afterlife, you know. He thought they'd play for a couple of weeks and be done, and if they worked or not, he would still be able to go out and make another one, but now here they are and they're going to live forever.”

“Vampyr, Carl Dreyer's film.”

“Pickpocket. I guess in this little room that you call a closet is the history of world cinema and if it isn't in here it will be someday.”

“Wow, what's this? What I think it is? Umberto D. Masterpiece. Vittorio De Sica.”

“Oh wow, there's another film that I love that you can almost never see, occasionally on television, one of Walter Huston's greatest performances: The Devil and Daniel Webster.”

“There's M, which I believe has the short that I made, the interview I did with, yeah, it's here: Conversation with Fritz Lang, a 50-minute film by William Friedkin. This used to be distributed by the BBC. Very humbling to see some of these pictures.”

“Brute Force was, I think, Lancaster's first film, by Jules Dassin. This was one of Dassin's first crime films. Of course, most of you will know him from his later films that he made in France like Rififi and He Who Must Die, both of which are masterpieces, and he was kind of a expatriate because of the belonging to the Communist Party, so he lived and worked out his life in Greece. But this is this was made in 1947, Brute Force, and I remember it as being a stunningly powerful film. I never thought I'd see this again. 1947, I hate to admit it, but I remember seeing this when it first came out. I'll I'm going to take this one, thank you.”

“Oh, let me just tell you, Casey and Peter and all of you at Criterion, surrounded by all of these riches, all of the great history of international film, this is the one for me. This is one of my favorite films ever, and I'm not even going to look for any more past this, because just to walk out of this building with this film on Blu-ray makes my day, my week, possibly my year. Thanks to Criterion, and thanks to Federico Fellini for one of the greatest film experiences I've ever had. Thank you.”