Critics' and directors' lists of greatest films per British Film Institute's opinion poll
The "Top 100 Greatest Films of All Time" is a list published every ten years bySight and Sound according to worldwideopinion polls they conduct. They published the critics' list, based on 1,639 participating critics, programmers, curators, archivists and academics, and the directors' list, based on 480 directors and filmmakers.Sight and Sound, published by theBritish Film Institute (BFI), has conducted a poll of thegreatest films every 10 years since 1952.[1]
In the 2022 critics' poll,Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles was ranked first,[2][3][4] replacingVertigo from 2012, andCitizen Kane, which held the top spot in the five critics' polls before that.[5] The film magazine describedJeanne Dielman as a "landmark feminist film", and stated that the 2022 list "shakes a fist at the established order".[6]Jeanne Dielman is the first film directed by a woman to top the list and, together withBeau Travail, one of the first two such films to appear in the top 10.[7][8]
BesidesJeanne Dielman andBeau Travail, two other films had never appeared in the top 10 previously:In the Mood for Love (2000); andMulholland Drive (2001). Nine of the 100 films on the 2022 list were released in the 21st century,[9][10][11] up from two in the 2012 list.[12]
In the 2022 directors' poll,2001: A Space Odyssey was ranked first,[14] replacingTokyo Story from 2012 andCitizen Kane, which held the top spot in both of the directors' polls previous to that.
The critic's poll selection ofJeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles as the greatest film of all time drew strong reactions from journalists, critics, and filmmakers.[15][4]
Peter Bradshaw ofThe Guardian praised the selection, writing that it is "high time a woman wonSight and Sound's all-time vote."[16]
Armond White of conservative magazineNational Review criticized the choice, describing the film as "a dullMarxist-feminist token" and alleging it was chosen for political reasons.[17] FilmmakerPaul Schrader also attacked the list, writing that "The sudden appearance ofJeanne Dielman in the number one slot undermines the S&S poll's credibility ... this year's S&S poll reflects not a historical continuum but a politically correct rejiggering. Akerman's film is a favorite of mine ... but its unexpected number one rating does it no favors.Jeanne Dielman will from this time forward be remembered not only as an important film in cinema history but also as a landmark of distortedwoke reappraisal."[18]
Richard Panek ofObserver questioned the very usefulness of the S&S poll itself, noting that "expressions of personal opinions, even in the aggregate, are by definition subjective".[19]
Victoria Oliver Farner, on hervideo essaySound & Sight & Time forMUBI, stated that:[20]
In the eagerness to classify cinema, lists of the greatest films of all time have been created, which perhaps tell much more about the society that compiles them than about cinema itself.In the same way,Sound & Sight & Time perhaps speaks more about me than aboutCitizen Kane,Vertigo, orJeanne Dielman.
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