William Friedkin first saw Citizen Kane more than 50 years ago and has never looked at films the same way again. He explains how Orson Welles used the tools of the trade to create a masterpiece.
Directors select and watch a film that influenced their career and analyze why it had such a profound effect on them.
M. Night Shyamalan was captivated by Peter Bogdanovich’s The Last Picture Show and how the plot is secondary to tone and texture. He’s even tried to do it with his own films.
Jay Roach looks at how Elia Kazan’s A Face in the Crowd foreshadowed today’s political culture—and influenced his own films.
In Vittorio De Sica’s charming Miracle in Milan, the poor literally rise above it all. Milos Forman explains why the film touched him so deeply in his youth.
In Stanley Kubrick’s Barry Lyndon, the story is not the main attraction. Bennett Miller explains how it’s the filmmaker’s restrained style that casts a sublime spell.
Lawrence Kasdan considers how Stanley Kubrick pulled off a daring mixture of tones in Dr. Strangelove.
Little Miss Sunshine's Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris explain why George Cukor's Holiday is the model of the romantic comedy for them.
Long captivated by Raging Bull, Julian Schnabel considers how Martin Scorsese was able to make something so savage so beautiful.
Alejandro González Iñárritu analyzes Kurosawa’s Ikiru and explains how it influenced his latest film, Biutiful.
John Boorman presented a vision of heroism and bloodletting in Excalibur that captivated a young Zack Snyder. The director of 300 and Watchmen explains how it influenced his own mythical moviemaking.
Carroll Ballard's The Black Stallion is a legendary piece of visual filmmaking. Spike Jonze studied it for Where the Wild Things Are, and explains how Ballard effortlessly tells a rousing story with few words.
Antoine Fuqua watches Martin Scorsese's Mean Streets and talks about his personal connection to the film.
Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange entranced rocker-turned-director Rob Zombie when he was a kid. Taking another look, he stil sees a film that's like no other.
John Waters rhapsodizes about The Girl Can't Help It, and is not shy (surprise) talking about what he "stole" from it.
Robert Altman's The Long Goodbye changed the way Barry Sonnenfeld looks at movies. Watching it again, he marvels at the diretor's stylized take on the Raymond Chandler novel.
Since high school, David O. Russell has been a big fan of Mel Brooks' Young Frankenstein. Now he takes a closer look at how all the pieces fit together.
Everyone loves Annie Hall, but according to Ed Zwick it's more than just a charming movie. He explains how it revolutionized romantic comedies.
William Wyler's The Best Years of Our Lives is a film that has remained lodged in James L. Brooks' head and heart for all these years. He explains its inexorable appeal.
James Mangold leads us through the mean streets of Times Square in Sweet Smell of Success, directed by his mentor and teacher, Alexander Mackendrick.
Indie icon John Sayles strays from the socially conscious contemporary cinema he's known for and guides us through the moors of 11th-century Scotland in Roman Polanski's The Tragedy of Macbeth.
The Treasure of the Sierra Madre is the kind of straight-ahead film Paul Thomas Anderson would love to make. He explains what makes it great.
Billy Wilder's The Apartment is a film that inspired Nancy Meyers. The director chats about what makes it so special for her.
Stephen Frears takes a close look at Hitchcock's use of close-ups in Notorious. Repression never looked so good.
As an aspiring director, Darren Aronofsky watched Kurosawa's Yojimbo so much he wore out the tape. He watches it again and explains what he learned.
For Terry Zwigoff, Fritz Lang's mordant 1945 film noir Scarlet Street is a lot of laughs. He explains why.
John Singelton watches Spielberg's classic E-ride and analyzes what makes it so scary-and profound.
Director Miguel Arteta takes a look-a close look-at Martin Scorsese's The King of Comedy to find out what makes it tick.