Kathryn Bigelow

“I think I’ll start with Detour, which is probably a fairly lesser-known title, done in 1945, and I know they spent only $60,000 on it, and I do bring this movie up a lot when people complain about their budget. I say, “Well, you can do a movie for $60,000.” And it’s fabulous. Very noir, very dark, very sordid. I mean, when you want the car to go in two different directions, you just flip the negative, so there’s an answer to everything.”

“I’m looking for Battle of Algiers. Okay, probably my favorite movie of all time. It’s incredible how the story is told, how it’s shot, the sort of tension, the metronome of tension in this is almost insufferable. But I say that as a compliment.”

“All right, now for the great Sam Peckinpah. And you have Straw Dogs, which is unrelenting and a great lesson in tension, ratcheting up tension, and credibility. It is so realistic and terrifying. This is a must-watch for sure.”

“Also one of the great, great, great movies of all time: Jean-Pierre Melville, Army of Shadows. Extraordinary movie about the French Resistance during the Second World War. I was knocked out by it, how it tells the story. It’s just very clear, clean, descriptive. This is beyond a must-watch. And I’m putting it in my bag.”

“Love Costa-Gavras. Where is Z?... I met him and I talked to him about Z. I said, “You know, you invented the political thriller.”... Because of my conversation with Costa-Gavras, I’m going to take home The Confession, which I’m sure will be as exciting and perfect as Z, which is one of the all-time greats.”

“All right, Hiroshima Mon Amour. When I was at film school, we must have looked at this many, many times. It’s a very meditative movie about the Second World War and postwar Hiroshima, which, of course, was an inconceivable experience. It’s really amazing.”

“And then, okay, there’s Notorious. My teacher at film school, one of them, was Andrew Sarris, one of the great critics of all time, and we spent six months on this movie. Every single week we would look at a little bit more of it, a little bit more, and really tried to break down and understand Hitchcock’s process and system, which is truly brilliant. He was a master.”

“But you know what needs to be... And you probably have them here, are his silent movies. They’re as good as the ones that we all know and love and are more in rotation. But his silent movies were extraordinary. Okay, The Lodger, if you want a real treat. It’s flawless. Absolutely flawless, so I recommend highly this movie.”