The emotional elevation of the film is due in no small measure to the extraordinarily engaging performances of Anne Bancroft as the wife-mother-mistress, Dustin Hoffman as the lumbering Lancelot, and Katherine Ross as his fair Elaine.

Hitchcock is the most-daring avant-garde film-maker in America today.

I've always said to people that auteurism is nice, but it's hypothetical, and gradually you learn how much or how little influence different directors had.

There's a part of me that looks beyond everything now.

I was a solipsist and a narcissist and much too arrogant. I have a lot more compassion now, but it took a long time.

Lemon Tree is well worth seeing as a first-class artistic achievement bridging two civilizations.

I hate to go out on a limb after only one viewing, but Nashville strikes me as Altman's best film, and the most exciting dramatic musical since Blue Angel.