Quote: "An unusual release for Criterion, in that the subject is more famous than the director."

Quote: "Anger is a Hollywood-raised surrealist, an artist whose interest in dreams and the irrational is inseparable from his love of the glamour and artifice of the movies."

Quote: "Pialat's film is bound to annoy Van Gogh purists, but there are plenty of biographies and documentaries available if one wants an 'objective' account. This is, rather, an encounter with a major filmmaker, one who uses Van Gogh's story to explore his own ideas about art and human relationships."

Quote: "Rohmer is the master of the deluded and contradictory male protagonist, spinning elaborate rationales and justifications, desperately trying to understand his attraction to some elusive, inscrutable female (although Rohmer's females tend to present a guileless exterior, they are usually just as complex as the men and occasionally as confused; I think it would be wrong to suggest that men are the only deluded figures in Rohmer)."

Quote: "'Realism' is an often-abused word, but few filmmakers are as good at creating such an intense illusion of unmediated reality, through naturalistic, unforced performances, a command of setting and atmospheric detail, an intensely focused but unobtrusive camera style, and a total rejection of non-diagetic music. Their focus is on creating an intensely felt physical and social environment within which their narratives can unfold."

Quote: "It's masterful stuff, and Judge maintains a similar control over show's tone, making sure that the boys remain hapless and stupid but rarely malicious or detestable, always leaving the audience feeling an odd sympathy for these dumb, irritating kids who are just trying to make their way in a world that's way too much for them."

Quote: "Sterne's novel is a comedy about chaos, about the impossibility of ever reducing life's complexities into a coherent narrative. Tristram Shandy sets out to tell his life story, but gets so caught up in digressions and explanations that, 700 pages later, he hasn't even been born yet."

Quote: "Argentinian filmmaker Daniel Burman is often compared to Woody Allen, and there are indeed some similarities: both are Jewish and concerned with what it means to be Jewish, and both have an essentially comic sensibility within which they explore serious questions about human relationships."

Quote: "I've already mentioned how Haneke creates a clearly delineated world which is nonetheless deeply murky; the most obvious illustration of this is that we can never quite be sure whether any individual shot is the film itself or part of a video being watched by its characters. Of course, this could easily become the stuff of cheap mind games, but Haneke never overplays it and always makes sure, eventually, to orient us."

Quote: "It's a pretty bleak vision and Kechiche is admirable in his refusal to give the audience respite from the undramatic frustration of his characters' lives. He avoids the cliches of the 'gang picture'; the kids are fairly hostile to each other but they're not hard-eyed killers or drug dealers, and he resists the temptation to allow the plot's tension violent release."