CINDY SHERMAN, artist: Thomas Vinterberg’s brilliant The Celebration (1998) is especially important because it signals the future of the medium, away from Hollywood’s excesses.
JOHN WATERS, filmmaker: During the 1994 Cannes Film Festival I was sick in bed with the flu on the night Pulp Fiction premiered. Suddenly, from blocks away I heard the most stupendous roar of approval from the opening-night audience. I was so pissed to have missed the night Quentin Tarantino became an instant cinematic icon. But once I saw the movie I knew he deserved it. I guess you could call me a Quentin-hag.
KIMBERLY PEIRCE, filmmaker (Boys Don’t Cry): Zhang Yimou’s Raise the Red Lantern (1991). I loved the film’s reds, the scene at dawn in the courtyard lit with Chinese lanterns—and I fell in love with Gong Li.
DOUG AITKEN, artist: Jafar Panahi’s The White Balloon (1995). I liked this Iranian film’s directness,
— Compiled by Alissa Quart: Cindy Sherman, John Waters, Kimberly Peirce, Doug Aitken, Richard Price, Bell Hooks, Karen Cooper, David Salle, Jonathan Rosenbaum, Richard Flood.
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