Studying with legendary editor Ralph Rosenblum, Kimberly learned how the brilliant structure of ANNIE HALL came into being, with pivotal moments landing "like needle drops on an album."
It took several viewings for Kimberly to fully appreciate the complexity of Roman Polanski's neo-noir. "Literally every line of that script is just genius," she says.
Kimberly talks about how Fellini's surrealist classic inspired her to become a director, citing Marcello Mastroianni's rakishly charming protagonist as a personal revelation: "If I could've been Marcello, that would've been my alter ego."
François Truffaut's giddy French New Wave love triangle dispenses with convention and races toward the new. Watching it, Kimberly says, "you feel like you're defining the future of what love can be."
Kimberly was spellbound by the cinematography and storytelling in Wong Kar-wai's aching account of a turbulent romance. "I think it was the first time I had seen a classically shot, beautifully told male-on-male film, with male desire."
Kimberly describes the sensual, immersive world of Alfonso Cuarón's Y TU MAMÁ TAMBIÉN. "It's very much in tune with the human body," she says. "You feel that it's a continuation of your own agency and curiosity and desire."
An ahead-of-its-time film that captures Wilder "at his best," SOME LIKE IT HOT contains some of Kimberly's favorite performances and cinematic moments. "The sequence in the train, I could watch that on my deathbed," she says. "Or any bed."
Kimberly Peirce's debut feature BOYS DON'T CRY hinges on a pivotal love scene. Up to the point of making that film in 1999, the director had not seen many authentic depictions of queer intimacy on film.
