Jenni Olson

“Jeanne Dielman, which is way up here if you'll follow me. I remember seeing Jeanne Dielman in my intro to film studies class at the University of Minnesota in a crappy 16 millimeter print in the early 80s and just being devastated and it was revolutionary and it was one of the films that made me want to make movies and feel like I could make people have feelings by slowing things down.”

“One of my favorite kind of Hollywood classics, Sweet Smell of Success. This is truly one of the greatest films ever made. The writing, the directing, the cinematography, the editing, the dialogue is incredible. It's written by Clifford Odets and Ernest Lehman and the dynamic—it's just relentless in its forward movement as a narrative and all the location shooting, New York City mid-50s. The performances, Burt Lancaster and Tony Curtis, this is an amazing film.”

“Donna Deitch's Desert Hearts, the director approved Blu-ray special edition. This is such an amazing film, this is so like the classic lesbian romance and I love this movie and I love all the extras on it and I can't wait to watch this Blu-ray.”

“I just got back from Cuba where I asked people, 'What is the greatest Cuban movie of all time?' and well, this was the number one film that they mentioned. Pretty much like nine of the other 10 films were by Tomás Gutiérrez Alea, but Memories of Underdevelopment seems to be everyone's named as everyone's favorite Cuban film or best Cuban film.”

“So Louis Malle made this documentary called God's Country in 1985 or 86. I grew up in Minnesota actually and in 1985 or 86 I remember seeing Ross McElwee's Sherman's March... And then at the same time I saw Louis Malle's God's Country in which he goes and talks to farmers in Glencoe, Minnesota which was like an hour outside of the Twin Cities where I grew up. I saw them at the same time and I just remember feeling this sense of wanting to make work like that.”