Todd Haynes

“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 Noel 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... 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... 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 and beautifully constructed. Notice how I just slipped it in my bag.”

“Night of the Hunter is just one of the most, maybe the most important films that anybody should see, made outside of the Hollywood system with no money and with the 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 but The Long Day Closes and I'm ready for the next one. I could probably watch it every day of my life and be happy. All right, I'm going to take it.”

“And 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 because you get to experience it.”

“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.”