“How Green Was My Valley.” Director John Ford can make you cry and laugh faster than anybody.
“To Have and Have Not.” Howard Hawks is probably the most consistently engaging director in all genres.
“The Shop Around the Corner.” Ernst Lubitsch is a master of the oblique, with the lightest touch in movies.
“Grand Illusion.” Jean Renoir is simply the best director in the Western world.
“Touch of Evil.” Orson Welles: still the touchstone for most of today’s directors.
A truly classic movie that you’re embarrassed you haven’t seen: I’m embarrassed to admit I’ve seen all of them.
The movie you have watched the most times in your life: “Citizen Kane,” because it’s so consistently surprising, and “Rio Bravo,” because it’s so relentlessly entertaining.
