The Great Train Robbery (1979) - Michael Crichton

No respectable man is *that* respectable.

You pick me clean, you put me in a coffin with a rotten, stinking cat, and now you strip me bollock naked.

Olympia (parts I and II) (1938) - Leni Riefenstahl

Often called a "Nazi propaganda film", it was in fact commissioned by the International Olympics Committee.

Island, The (2006) - Pavel Lungin

An article about Pavel Lungin
Review from KinoKultura

Alive (2006) - Aleksandr Veledinsky

Dreaming of Space (2005) - Aleksei Uchitel

Review from KinoKultura

It doesn't hurt (2006) - Aleksei Balabanov

Review from Kinokultura
Popular and Unpopular Film Director Aleksei Balabanov
Le cinéma russe des années zéro

Hollywood Ending (2002) - Woody Allen

Thank God the French exist.

If someone saw me in a vintage '38, they'd think I was Himmler!

Would you recommend this film to a friend?
Not unless I was friendly with Hitler...

You know, I would kill for this job, but the people I want to kill are the people offering me the job.

Triumph of the Will (1935) - Leni Riefenstahl

Josef Goebbels: [Speech during the Nuremberg Reich Party Conference] May the bright flame of enthusiasm never be extinguished. It alone gives light and warmth to the creative art of modern political propaganda. This art rose from the depths of the people and in order to search out its roots and locate its power, it must always return to these depths. It may be alright to possess power based upon guns, it is however better and more gratifying to win and also to champion the hearts of the people.

Knife in the Water (1962) - Roman Polanski

“What I like is a realistic situation where things don’t quite fit in. I like to begin with a mood, an atmosphere. I begin to people the atmosphere with characters. When I thought of Knife in the Water, I thought, first, of the north of Poland where I used to sail and of a theme that wouldn’t involve large numbers of characters.”

Roman Polanski to the New York Times Magazine, 1971.

Some links:

Essay by Peter Cowie accompanying the Criterion DVD
Wikipedia entry

Everything for Sale (1969) - Andrzej Wajda

I had always wanted to work with Cybulski whom, although he starred in only four of my films, I also had the pleasure of directing twice in the theatre. Zbyszek was more than just an actor: he himself was a character worthy of being transferred onto the screen.

One evening in 1967, in London, I was discussing the idea of such a film with David Mercier. He knew Zbyszek well, so we had a great time remembering all the numerous anecdotes around which we could build the screenplay. Late at night, when I returned to my hotel room, Roman Polanski called to tell me that Zbyszek was dead. His death on that particular night seemed to me utterly unreal, like another episode from the planned film and it took me some time to absorb the truth of the finality of it: Zbyszek would never again act in any of my films.

Prior to beginning work on Everything for Sale, I shared my doubts with readers of the monthly magazine "Kino":

I can use neither his name, nor a photograph of him, not even fragments of his films. I used to think that the one great film that would crown Zbyszek's acting career was still before him. The characters in my film follow in his footsteps, quote anecdotes about him, brush against his props and the places that are still warm from his touch. He had entered their lives - our lives! - somehow disturbing and shaking them up. We had always sensed his passion and his violent intensity. All who worked with him found him an exceptionally inspiring personality with a gift for inventing countless spectacular episodes. He was a bit of a dreamer. I hope he will turn out like this in my film.

Everything for Sale is not a film aimed against actors. It is a film about people who make films.

The fact that the actors appear under their own names is not accidental. Why should I change their names when I had asked them to speak their own words? They say what they want. I knew from the very beginning who would act in my 'jumbo sale.' The only problem was who would play the film director.

To tell the truth, for quite a long time that I thought I should play the part myself, but finally decided not to. Not being an actor, I would not have played it even half as well as Andrzej Lapicki. (...)

Andrzej Wajda

From http://www.wajda.pl/en/filmy/film12.html

Belleville Rendez-Vous (2003) - Sylvain Chomet

A sweet little French film that only the French can make today.

Electra (1962) - Michael Cacoyannis

Silence and Cry (1967) - Miklós Jancsó

Zoltán Latinovits as the Police Commandant

Kinoeye: The depiction of the year 1919 in the films of Miklós Jancsó

Ninth Gate, The (1999) - Roman Polanski

A stupid film in which Polanski tries to do a 'Bond meets Omen' film. I would have said 'Bond meets Da Vinci Code', but this is a precursor to the Da Vinci code. The similarities are striking, though - the girl is French; she turns out to be a key person; there is a secret society (for the devil, instead of god), the search is through clues in an ancient manuscript, and the film is equally stupid.

I offer my hand and heart (1988) - Viktor Sokolov

Poster of the film.

Nikolai Grinko (not from the film).