Winona Ryder

“So this is a great Louis Malle film. I think it's somewhat autobiographical. It's about a Catholic School in France in occupied France in World War II who are hiding a few Jewish kids and also a great example of how you could make a film about a war without actually seeing any violence but feeling the emotional toll and the emotional violence. Anyway, absolutely beautiful.”

“I am going to pick The Learning Tree because I absolutely love Gordon Parks. He's one of my absolute favorite photographers of all time and he directed a few—he directed Shaft and he directed this and I haven't seen it for a while but I really, really love him. And if you're not familiar with his work, do yourself a favor, you will not regret looking at his absolutely stunning photographs.”

“Another absolute favorite, Ghost Dog by the brilliant Jim Jarmusch. I love every single movie he's made, every frame of every movie he's made. He's actually like he's one of my favorite people. Jim has this ability to get subtlety that really works in all of his films, but I really do, I really do love this one.”

“I feel like I mean this is an obvious one, Down by Law. Down by Law.”

“Lost in America. I'm an enormous Albert Brooks fan. This is a particularly hilarious movie about a couple who's dropping out of society and the Desert Inn has heart. If there's an expression all the kids use, 'if you know you know.' Anyway, it's so great, it's so great, I love it.”

“I know I keep saying that these are my favorite movies, but this truly is. This is Matewan directed by John Sayles. I really put Matewan on the top of my list along with this...”

“After Life. It is a masterpiece. It's a movie about what happens when you die and you're sort of in between and they're trying to sort of figure out where you go and they ask each person to come up with a memory that they really remember that was a beautiful memory. The two most comforting sounds growing up for me was my dad's typewriter and my mom's footsteps. That would be what I would pick to live forever because that's when I felt their presence.”

“This five films, John Cassavetes. Gena Rowlands is I think the greatest actress who I've ever seen. Gena had a huge impact on me doing what I'm doing because my Mother was a projectionist and when I was very, very young I got to watch Cassavetes films at a really young age. I didn't really understand what was going on because I was too young, but I remember watching Gena and just that's I just wanted to do what she was doing.”