SBIFF Film Recommendations During Quarantine

Dear Cinephiles, “My mother was a very secretive and private woman. She had private rituals, private friends, private anxieties.” I saw “Hereditary” in the movie theatre when it first came out in 2018 – three times in a row. That’s how impressed I was with Ari Aster’s...

Dear Cinephiles, “I have all the characteristics of a human being: flesh, blood, skin, hair; but not a single, clear, identifiable emotion, except for greed and disgust. Something horrible is happening inside of me and I don’t know why.” I have been amused to see how,...

Dear Cinephiles, “Tell me this feeling lasts till forever Tell me the bad times are clean washed away Please understand that it’s still strange and frightening For losers like I’ve been it’s so hard to say.” There’s so much to love about “Little Shop of Horrors”...

Dear Cinephiles, Dick Hallorann: “Well, you know, Doc, when something happens, you can leave a trace of itself behind. Say like, if someone burns toast. Well, maybe things that happen leave other kinds of traces behind. Not things that anyone can notice, but things...

Dear Cinephiles, “Now get the hell down in the cellar. You can be the boss down there, but I’m the boss up here!” The horror genre has always been my favorite. As any student of mine will tell you, my syllabus always includes a handful of scary movies. When you think...

Dear Cinephiles, Rosemary: “This isn’t a dream! This is really happening!” “Rosemary’s Baby” (1968) is one amazing film. It’s so sturdily constructed. It can be taken at face value – and you can get creeped out by the possibility of a coven of witches impregnating...

Dear Cinephiles, V: “People should not be afraid of their government. Government should be afraid of their people.” "V for Vendetta" (2006) is a stimulating and eerie watch given the world today. This swashbuckling dystopian thriller takes place in 2020. A virus...

Dear Cinephiles, “The greatest moments of progress are followed by the most intense periods of retrenchment. That’s what happened after the civil war. Reconstruction was a high point for voting rights, and it was followed by nearly a hundred years of Jim Crow,”...

Dear Cinephiles, Jons: “Why do you paint such nonsense?” Church painter: “To remind people they’re going to die.” Jons: “It’s not going to cheer them up.” Church painter: “Why try to cheer them up? Why not scare them a bit?” I had been hesitant to recommend “The...

Dear Cinephiles, “Dear, our present comfortable state is at the most precarious sort. We don’t live, we visit.” Those words are spoken by Lady Susan in the wickedly good “Love and Friendship” (2016). It is based on a posthumously published novella by my unofficial...

Dear Cinephiles, “To Protect The Sheep You Gotta Catch The Wolf, And It Takes A Wolf To Catch A Wolf.” That motto used by corrupt policeman Alonzo Harris summarizes his situation in the ferocious crime thriller “Training Day” (2001) which - seen under the new...

Dear Cinephiles, “It’s been insane since the beginning. Actually, it’s a kid’s game. You took off of your word problems with leaking taps, and tanks that fill up and empty, and you planned a murder from it. In real life this kind of thing does not exist. Taps that you...

Dear Cinephiles, “It was never about money for us it was about us against the system. That system that kills the human spirit. We stand for something to those dead souls inching along the freeways in their metal coffins. We show them that the human spirit is still...

Dear Cinephiles, “Yes, I use foundation. I live with a man. I’m just an old queer. That’s right! But I know who I am now. It’s taken me 20 years to come to this, Laurent.” Those lines are spoken by Renato – the father of Laurent – in the outrageous and warmhearted “La...

Dear Cinephiles, “I don’t know man. I know I’m not crazy, but every day I have to come here and watch this clown show, man. Sometimes, I just can’t take it. “ There are a couple of moments in the irresistible comedy “Car Wash” (1975) that are so piercingly good and...

Dear Cinephiles, Tutor: “What does it feel like when you’re dancing?” Billy: “Don’t know. Sorta feels good. Sorta stiff and that, but once I get going... then I like, forget everything. And... sorta disappear. Sorta disappear. Like I feel a change in my whole body....

Dear Cinephiles, Eli Lapp: “This gun of the hand is for the taking of human life. We believe it is wrong to take a life. That is only for God. Many times wars have come and people have said to us: you must fight, you must kill, it is the only way to preserve the good....

Dear Cinephiles, “One day, in a week, a month, a year, on that day when God willing, we all return to our homes again, you’re going to feel very proud of what you have achieved here in the face of great adversity,” says Lieutenant Colonel Nicholson in the...

Dear Cinephiles, “I’m just asking you to acknowledge your responsibilities. Is that so bad? I don’t think so. I don’t think it’s unreasonable. And you know, another thing, and it’s that you thought you could just walk into my life, and turn it upside down, without a...

Dear Cinephiles, “Out there is one big struggle. You’ll have no father or mother. It’ll just be you, all on your own. If you’d rather face that reality than stay in this house of happiness, then let’s leave.” The above advice is given to Ada, one half of the lovers in...

Dear Cinephiles, “You never go in there. That’s a dangerous animal,” says trainer Myles referring to the wild mustang that is being held in a boarded-up pen. We’re able to hear all its grunting and hard breathing and see the metal gates tremoring from all the kicking....

Dear Cinephiles, Secondo: “He lives in a world above you. What he has, and what he is …is rare. You are nothing.” Pascal: “I’m a businessman. I’m anything I need to be, at any time. Tell me, what exactly are you?” I hadn’t seen “Big Night” (1996) since the time it...

Dear Cinephiles, Chief Bromden: “My pop was real big. He did like he pleased. That’s why everybody worked on him. The last time I seen my father, he was blind in the cedars from drinking. And every time he put the bottle to his mouth, he don’t suck out of it, it sucks...

Dear Cinephiles, “The question is, Frau Helm, were you lying then, are you lying now, or are you not in fact a chronic and habitual liar?!” asks Sir Wilfrid Robarts in the murder trial at the heart of the spellbinding “Witness for the Prosecution” (1957). I love a...

Dear Cinephiles, Ariadne: “Why is it so important to dream?” Cobb: “In my dreams we’re still together.” I thought it was just me. Since last March, I started having these incredibly vivid dreams. Spending most days in the same environment – unable to freely mobilize....

Dear Cinephiles, “The future is compromised,” a publisher tells Nathalie, a philosophy professor whose book is going out of print, in the exquisite French film “Things to Come” (2016). But the words, given what she’s undergoing, ripple unto bigger context - and they...

Dear Cinephiles, Quentin: “It’s just amazing how you’ve always analyzed everybody else’s stuff, and then you don’t do the same thing for your own self.” Writer/Director Malcolm D. Lee made quite a splash with his debut feature – the romantic ensemble drama “The Best...

Dear Cinephiles, “There are three sides to every story; your side my side and the truth. And no one is lying. Memories shared serve each differently,” says Robert Evans, the legendary film producer in the devilishly entertaining “The Kid Stays in the Picture.” Based...

Dear Cinephiles, Royal: “You know, Richie, this illness, this closeness to death... it's had a profound affect on me. I feel like a different person, I really do.” Richie: “Dad, you were never dying.” Royal: “But I'm going to live.” I can’t believe I hadn’t...

Dear Cinephiles, Fran Kubelik: "Some people take, some people get took. And they know they’re getting took and there’s nothing they can do about it." There’s no denying the sense of gloominess that has overtaken our lives since last March. I’ve made a big point to...

Dear Cinephiles, Dr. Hannibal Lecter: “We begin by coveting what we see every day. Don’t you feel eyes moving over your body, Clarice? And don’t your eyes seek out the things you want?” It’s ideas about the acts of looking and participating that linger long after the...

Dear Cinephiles, Otis: “I’m going to make a movie about you.” James: “Make me look good, Honey Boy.” I think we all know by now of the healing powers of cinema. I do not know what I would have done without it the past few months for it has definitely kept me sane and...

Dear Cinephiles, “The only thing that matters in life is relationships,” says Julian. There are movies that sneak past me. I try to be as open minded as possible and never try to judge a film by its cover. I had read about “Truman” (2015) - the Spanish film that had...

Dear Cinephiles, Aguirre: “Have you seen any solid ground that would support your weight?” I know I have recommended a lot of films to you in the past months, but if you have never seen “Aguirre, The Wrath of God” (1972) I encourage you to rectify this immediately....

Dear Cinephiles, “Heathcliff, make the world stop right here. Make everything stop and stand still and never move again. Make the moors never change and you and I never change,” exclaims Catherine in William Wyler’s 1939 adaptation of Emily Bronte’s gothic romance...

Dear Cinephiles, “I ask no favor for my sex,” says Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg at the beginning of “RBG” (2018). “All I ask of our brethren is that they take their feet off our necks.” Left bereft on Friday night, and simply not knowing whether to turn...

Dear Cinephiles, There’s a powerful – almost seismic – moment in the funny and affectionate “Dolemite is my Name” (2019). Three black men – including our main protagonist Rudy Ray Moore – decide to go to the movies and pick Billy Wilder’s “The Front Page” for the...

Dear Cinephiles, “I’m interested in the way we tell stories about our lives. About the fact that the truth about the past is often ephemeral and difficult to pin down,” says Sarah Polley in the enigmatic and affectionate documentary “Stories We Tell.” Memory and how...

Dear Cinephiles, Richard Bone: “You know, you’ve got one big problem.” Alex Cutter: “What’s that?” Richard Bone: “Your imagination.” Alex Cutter: “These are just the facts, Rich. I mean, I haven’t even begun to let my imagination loose on this one.” I’ve always loved...

Dear Cinephiles, “It’s amazing the clarity that comes with psychotic jealousy,” George comments about our leading lady in the insubordinate romantic comedy “My Best Friend’s Wedding” (1997). There are times during this big studio release starring America’s sweetheart,...

Dear Cinephiles, “He told me the whole earth was going up in flames... There’s gonna be creatures running every which way, some of them burned, half their wings burning. People are gonna be screamin’ and hollerin’ for help,” says Linda – the young narrator in Terrence...

Dear Cinephiles, Whenever I hear the rousing score of “The Magnificent Seven” I get goosebumps. Even on its own, it’s got to be one of the greatest compositions ever – but combined with the movie that goes along with it, the result is pure adventure and fun. I’ve...

Dear Cinephiles, “That’s why I like road trips. It’s good to remind yourself the world’s larger than the inside of your own head.” – Jake In the past few months, I have had extremely vivid dreams – and there have been times when my colleagues have momentarily confused...

Dear Cinephiles, Trip: “I ain’t fighting this war for you sir.” Col. Robert Gould Shaw: “I see.” Trip: “I mean, whats the point? Ain’t nobody going to win. It’s just gonna to go on and on.” The above dialogue is between Trip, a fugitive slave soldier fighting in the...

Dear Cinephiles, “We have to carry on with our lives as if nothing happened,” says Sarah in the deceptive and erotic thriller “Swimming Pool” (2003) directed by France’s François Ozon. The film stars one of the most alluring actors in cinema, Charlotte Rampling....

Dear Cinephiles, “I tried it once and it doesn't work. You get four guys, all fighting over who is going to be Mr. Black. But they don't know each other, so no one wants to back down,” says Joe Cabot – the organizer of the soon-to-go-wrong jewelry heist at the center...

Dear Cinephiles, “I think the reason why Mommy left... was because for a long time... I kept trying to make her be a certain kind of person. A certain kind of wife that I thought she was supposed to be. And she just wasn’t like that,” explains Ted Kramer to his...

Dear Cinephiles, “Even when I didn’t like you, I loved you,” admits Paul – one half of the newlywed couple whose marriage gets put to the test in the beguiling “Barefoot in the Park” (1967.) I was a little concerned about revisiting this classic romantic farce because...

Dear Cinephiles, “The only church that truly feeds the soul, day in, day out, is the Church of Baseball,” says Annie Savoy in the sexy, smart and humorous “Bull Durham” (1988). It happens to be in my opinion the best baseball movie – and a very entertaining film for...

Dear Cinephiles, “The human spirit is more powerful than any drug, and that is what needs to be nourished: with work, play, friendship, family. These are the things that matter. This is what we'd forgotten, the simplest things.” Those words are spoken by Dr. Malcolm...