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The fashion designer shares his close personal connections to Withnail and I and My Beautiful Launderette, finds inspiration in Breathless, and praises Akira Kurosawa’s use of color in Kagemusha.

The writer and director of Magellan praises the use of silence and space in Le samouraï, talks about how Mike Leigh and Kenji Mizoguchi explore the human condition in their films, and selects his good friend Béla Tarr's Werckmeister Harmonies.

The actor praises the Dardenne brothers compassionate approach to filmmaking, talks about Michael Haneke’s use of long takes in Code Unknown, and gets excited to explore The Wes Anderson Archive.

The actor talks about Steven Soderbergh’s use of nonlinear storytelling in Traffic, shares how Sid & Nancy continues to inspire him as a performer, and praises the visual poetry of Drugstore Cowboy.

The acclaimed cinematographer of Amores perros, The Irishman, 25th Hour, and Silence uses his selections to talk about the details of cinematic lighting, color, and sound design.

Nov 18, 2025 — A pre-Code aviation epic that makes pioneering use of the era’s innovations in cinematic color and sound, Howard Hughes’s directorial debut was Hollywood’s first modern portrait of World War I.

Oct 29, 2018 — Professor Jeff Smith breaks down how François Truffaut’s loving tribute to the crime genre Shoot the Piano Player uses anamorphic widescreen compositions to stylish effect.

Aug 27, 2018 — British master Terence Davies makes evocative use of dissolves to create a slippery narrative structure driven by emotion and memory.

Mar 26, 2018 — In a new episode of Observations on Film Art, now streaming on the Criterion Channel on FilmStruck, professor David Bordwell talks about Wong Kar-wai’s innovative use of narrative structure in Chungking Express.

Oct 26, 2017 — Professor David Bordwell uses the economically expressive performances of Jules Dassin’s Brute Force as an object lesson for breaking down the fundamentals of screen acting.