The Prestigious Sight & Sound Poll (2022) The 100 Greatest Films Of All Time (1 Viewer)

[Keith Cobby]

I've always liked European cinema and foreign language films so the list is fine for me except perhaps for some of the placings. I do understand that many folks don't stray from English language films, I don't care for silent films (with about three honourable exceptions). Everyone has different tastes but the benefit of these types of lists is that they can prompt you to watch films you wouldn't otherwise consider.

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

And this is why I'll always prefer the AFI List even if it hasn't been updated in 15 years and is made up entirely of English language films. Its still less pretentious than this direction of smug highbrow trolling that Sight and Sound is going all in on.

Yes, it is the Sight & Sound list so they are leaning way more into Euro art house than they are into big American entertainments. It's funny, I had two big first time watches to start this month. Jeanne Dielman, which I thought was a cool looking picture, but three hours of a woman doing house chores is not something I will return to. I mean, I knew that going in, which was why I had kept putting off seeing it. House chores not being something I felt would be something I would want to spend that kind of time on. To me, it is beautifully shot but not an exciting film and no, it would not make it into my top 100 films or even top 500 films. Probably not my top 1000 films. Does it accomplish the goal to put you in the mind of the lead character, yes, and so it does what it wants to do with a level of skill and beauty. I appreciate it, I understand why some people will like it, it makes an excellent film for students to show what you can do in a scene with a locked down camera shot. I mean I plan to watch Vertigo and Citizen Kane many more times, Dielman is a one and done. If part of the criteria for selection a great film is you want to see it again...Dielman does not get there. Just being honest.

I also watched another picture for the first time, it is not on this list but it could be. Kurosawa's Dersu Uzala was a picture I had never seen. Wow, I loved this film. It is also a slow picture but it is like a great a Western. These men all out in the wilderness together, exploring, and having these adventures while they bond. Yes, I guess where people would call Dielman a "woman's picture" this is a "guy's picture" and I mean, what can I say, I'm a guy. Rather than the indoor landscapes of Dielman we get the beautiful outdoors shot by Kurosawa and his team. It is just a fantastic film and a perfect December watch with the many snowy landscapes and vistas of the mountains and forests. Great stuff.

I don't see it as a competition but I was fully involved watching the Kurosawa picture and it may actually now be in my top 100 pictures. I do have the urge to watch it again, which to me plays a large part in my feelings on how great a film is.

 

[Gary OS]

This was an April Fools joke list, right?

 

[jayembee]

I also watched another picture for the first time, it is not on this list but it could be. Kurosawa's Dersu Uzala was a picture I had never seen. Wow, I loved this film. It is also a slow picture but it is like a great a Western. These men all out in the wilderness together, exploring, and having these adventures while they bond. Yes, I guess where people would call Dielman a "woman's picture" this is a "guy's picture" and I mean, what can I say, I'm a guy.

I love Dersu Uzala, as I do all of Kurosawa's other pictures. But I have a different perspective than you do. I'm a guy, too. A straight white cis-male American, and have been one for 69 years. I know what it's like to grow up male in America. Not completely, as I don't know what it's like to grow up a poor Appalachian (though my maternal grandmother did), or grow up in the Western Frontier, or fight in a war. But, more generally, I don't know what it's like to grow up female, or black, or gay, or trans, or in the Middle East, Asia, or Eastern Europe.

For me, one of the purposes of art is to present me with experiences outside of those of my own life. Which, while I don't necessarily shy away from art that presents the viewpoint of the straight white cis-male American, I'm far more interested in art that presents perspectives alien to my experience.

 

[mskaye]

Wow! I guess that makes me a pretentious smug highbrow troll then because I find the S&S list infinitely more fascinating than the middle class collection that the AFI lists. Raiders Of The Ark, Rocky, Forrest Gump, The Sixth Sense, The Graduate, It's A Wonderful Life, Mr. Smith Goes To Washington, The Sound Of Music, Lord Of The Rings, Gone With The Wind etc. the greatest films of all time? The mind reels ... well, at least my mind

That being said, even though the AFI list doesn't interest me, it is every bit as valid as the S&S list. It just doesn't reflect my cinematic sensibilities anymore than the S&S list reflects yours. Your hostility toward those who have a different view than you of what constitutes "great" is ..... well, mystifying.

I agree.

And this is why I'll always prefer the AFI List even if it hasn't been updated in 15 years and is made up entirely of English language films. Its still less pretentious than this direction of smug highbrow trolling that Sight and Sound is going all in on.

I give an IMDB list as much as cred as the AFI lists...all mainstream titles. No surprises. Say what you want about the S&S list - I will be exposed to new films and perhaps learn something new about cinema, the world and maybe myself. I don't learn anything from seeing Raiders of the Lost Ark atop the greatest action films of all time. I'm done w seeing Gone with the Wind on any list other than one with an asterisk.

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

I love Dersu Uzala, as I do all of Kurosawa's other pictures. But I have a different perspective than you do. I'm a guy, too. A straight white cis-male American, and have been one for 69 years. I know what it's like to grow up male in America. Not completely, as I don't know what it's like to grow up a poor Appalachian (though my maternal grandmother did), or grow up in the Western Frontier, or fight in a war. But, more generally, I don't know what it's like to grow up female, or black, or gay, or trans, or in the Middle East, Asia, or Eastern Europe.

For me, one of the purposes of art is to present me with experiences outside of those of my own life. Which, while I don't necessarily shy away from art that presents the viewpoint of the straight white cis-male American, I'm far more interested in art that presents perspectives alien to my experience.

This is one of the wonderful things a picture can do, allow you a view into people or a place or a time that exist outside of our experiences. This is in part why I love period pictures so much.

For me the subject matter is a big part of why I will make the time to watch a film. As I said about Dielman, I knew about the picture, always intended to check it out, but kept putting it off because I often never felt like watching a woman do house chores for 3 hours. I mean, why watch that when I can check out some other type of picture that plays more to my interests?

Dersu Uzala was a picture like Dielman, that I kept meaning to get to but, as I recall, there was not an easy way to see it for most of my life. Plus it was not a Kurosawa that got talked about a lot, and the truth is it would slip out of my mind because it was so often out of sight.

Man, it hit me like a lightning bolt when I saw it. Just a fantastic film that was right up my alley. I love this kind of outdoor film and these guys just wandering through the forests, sitting by campfires, interacting with wildlife, I could not believe I had not watched this sooner.

 

[jayembee]

As I said about Dielman, I knew about the picture, always intended to check it out, but kept putting it off because I often never felt like watching a woman do house chores for 3 hours. I mean, why watch that when I can check out some other type of picture that plays more to my interests?

But you never know what will appeal to you until you've actually seen it. In some ways, Tarr's The Turin Horse is the same sort of deal. A significant portion of it is just a lot of (a) man & daughter get up in the morning, (b) have a breakfast of boiled potatoes, (c) suffer through extreme weather doing their chores, (d) eat more boiled potatoes for dinner, (e) go to bed. Rinse. Repeat. Whenever they try to exit this repetitious existence, they just end up circling back to it.

The entire thing is rooted in this existential nothingness of the Everyman, where life is exactly the same, day in and day out. Then some things that may or may not portend an apocalyptic event occur. Is it better or worse than their drab lives?

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

But you never know what will appeal to you until you've actually seen it. In some ways, Tarr's The Turin Horse is the same sort of deal. A significant portion of it is just a lot of (a) man & daughter get up in the morning, (b) have a breakfast of boiled potatoes, (c) suffer through extreme weather doing their chores, (d) eat more boiled potatoes for dinner, (e) go to bed. Rinse. Repeat. Whenever they try to exit this repetitious existence, they just end up circling back to it.

The entire thing is rooted in this existential nothingness of the Everyman, where life is exactly the same, day in and day out. Then some things that may or may not portend an apocalyptic event occur. Is it better or worse than their drab lives?

I agree but so little time, so many movies. So, I did prejudge something like Dielman and kept putting it off. I agree you don't know how you will feel until you watch it.

The issue with a film like Jeanne Dielman to me is that to me it made me think about Tarkovsky, in that I love Tarkovsky pictures BUT could not really recommend them to most people. I know they would find Tarkovsky boring. So, I would not ask someone to watch a Tarkovsky film with me because I would expect them to say "What the hell, Reg? Why don't we just watch paint dry and the grass grow?"

So, I feel like Tarkovsky or Dielman are things you just watch alone for your own enjoyment alone. Or at least that seems like the best way to enjoy them.

 

[Thomas T]

So, I feel like Tarkovsky or Dielman are things you just watch alone for your own enjoyment alone. Or at least that seems like the best way to enjoy them.

A good thing about the internet is that it allows us to make contact with other film lovers who feel as we do about cinema. In my "real" life I have friends who love movies but for the most part they're Hollywood product. I have zero interest in stuff like Top Gun: Maverick, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Avatar: The Way Of Water etc. And even though they sit on my shelf, will I ever watch Gone With The Wind, The Wizard Of Oz, The Graduate, Annie Hall, King Kong (1933), The French Connection again? I'm on film sites where I've connected with people and trust their recommendations on films that I've never heard of (foreign or indie, I know classic Hollywood product backward and forwards) or hesitant to watch and discovered new favorites.

As has been mentioned here, a list like S&S encourages us to go outside the box and challenges us as film goers. Does a list with "safe" tried and true favorites really do any good other than make us feel comfortable about our movie choices?

 

[Panavision70]

Where is Ross Hunter's "Lost Horizon"

 

[jayembee]

Where is Ross Hunter's "Lost Horizon"

Ah....lost??

 

[Thomas T]

Where is Ross Hunter's "Lost Horizon"

It would be on my list!!! Infinitely preferable to the creaky 1937 Capra version.

 

[jayembee]

It would be on my list!!! Infinitely preferable to the creaky 1937 Capra version.

The remake is surprisingly good, but I still prefer Capra's.

 

[Thomas T]

The remake is surprisingly good, but I still prefer Capra's.

Well, it does have Jane Wyatt swimming in the nude!

 

[Panavision70]

Well, it does have Jane Wyatt swimming in the nude!

Father did know best.

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

A good thing about the internet is that it allows us to make contact with other film lovers who feel as we do about cinema. In my "real" life I have friends who love movies but for the most part they're Hollywood product. I have zero interest in stuff like Top Gun: Maverick, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Avatar: The Way Of Water etc. And even though they sit on my shelf, will I ever watch Gone With The Wind, The Wizard Of Oz, The Graduate, Annie Hall, King Kong (1933), The French Connection again? I'm on film sites where I've connected with people and trust their recommendations on films that I've never heard of (foreign or indie, I know classic Hollywood product backward and forwards) or hesitant to watch and discovered new favorites.

As has been mentioned here, a list like S&S encourages us to go outside the box and challenges us as film goers. Does a list with "safe" tried and true favorites really do any good other than make us feel comfortable about our movie choices?

Yes, I like being able to have discussions on the internet with people about pictures because in a place like this we get to meet people with common interests. I am like you, Thomas, in that I also don't have a lot of interest in the big budget present day stuff. I mean, I watch some of those, but many of them just do not connect with me.

I understand that what is on this list are not pictures that many people today would have an interest in. Probably the vast majority of what is on the list are pictures made prior to 1980. There have been a large number of changes in motion pictures since 1980 and I think people born after 1980 likely see cinema in a very different way than those born before that. I think doing a decade by decade list of greatest films would be interesting.

I do agree with people though that criticize this list because this list does not seem to account for pictures that, while more on the entertainment side, are a part of film history and did impact the pictures that came after them. This kind of diversity, a diversity in the various types and genres of films, seems not to be of interest here. Which again, I am fine with but it does make this list all the more specific and less diverse in many ways.

This Sight & Sound list seems like a list by critics and people with a deep investment in film, for other critics and people with a deep interest in the history of motion pictures. As your friend points out, this is kind of a list for those of us in the "Criterion crowd" that enjoy art house and foreign films. It's less of a challenge for those of us in that group but kind of a major challenge for those that don't take great pleasure in the Criterion Collection.

That's fine and as others have already said, there are many other "great films" lists people can go by. My favorite I think remains the They Shoot Pictures list and probably that will remain my main reference point.

To specifically answer your question, how you judge a list of great films probably should rely upon what criteria they were using to decide what they were going to put on the list. With this list they were definitely thinking films that have a serious take on the human condition and a deep investment by the filmmakers in creating art. They wanted to create a list with an array of world cinema, personal cinema, and that they felt promoted diversity, not really of cinematic endeavors, but of the filmmakers themselves.

I think that is why so many of the films on the list were made before 1980. Before 1980 many more films were made that had this focus and world cinema was promoted more. It had an incredible impact on the filmmakers of the 1970s. After 1980, I think the decline begins where, the interest in the type of cinema we see on this list falls out of favor. It never goes entirely away but post 2000 I think the difficulty in getting films like this made skyrockets.

I think us older guys grew up being fed a vast array of cinema of all different types. And as with food, your palate expands when you are sampling all kinds of different things. You can enjoy a foreign film, a slow film, an experimental film, and your desire for variety expands.

I can't speak for the whole world but here, in the US, I think that what is thought of as cinema has shrunk to such a narrow definition that a picture like The Joker is challenging cinema. Mainly because it very slightly strays out of the very specific formula. So, if that is challenging now, to most audiences, well what is Jeanne Dielman?

 

[mskaye]

Yes, I like being able to have discussions on the internet with people about pictures because in a place like this we get to meet people with common interests. I am like you, Thomas, in that I also don't have a lot of interest in the big budget present day stuff. I mean, I watch some of those, but many of them just do not connect with me.

I understand that what is on this list are not pictures that many people today would have an interest in. Probably the vast majority of what is on the list are pictures made prior to 1980. There have been a large number of changes in motion pictures since 1980 and I think people born after 1980 likely see cinema in a very different way than those born before that. I think doing a decade by decade list of greatest films would be interesting.

I do agree with people though that criticize this list because this list does not seem to account for pictures that, while more on the entertainment side, are a part of film history and did impact the pictures that came after them. This kind of diversity, a diversity in the various types and genres of films, seems not to be of interest here. Which again, I am fine with but it does make this list all the more specific and less diverse in many ways.

This Sight & Sound list seems like a list by critics and people with a deep investment in film, for other critics and people with a deep interest in the history of motion pictures. As your friend points out, this is kind of a list for those of us in the "Criterion crowd" that enjoy art house and foreign films. It's less of a challenge for those of us in that group but kind of a major challenge for those that don't take great pleasure in the Criterion Collection.

That's fine and as others have already said, there are many other "great films" lists people can go by. My favorite I think remains the They Shoot Pictures list and probably that will remain my main reference point.

To specifically answer your question, how you judge a list of great films probably should rely upon what criteria they were using to decide what they were going to put on the list. With this list they were definitely thinking films that have a serious take on the human condition and a deep investment by the filmmakers in creating art. They wanted to create a list with an array of world cinema, personal cinema, and that they felt promoted diversity, not really of cinematic endeavors, but of the filmmakers themselves.

I think that is why so many of the films on the list were made before 1980. Before 1980 many more films were made that had this focus and world cinema was promoted more. It had an incredible impact on the filmmakers of the 1970s. After 1980, I think the decline begins where, the interest in the type of cinema we see on this list falls out of favor. It never goes entirely away but post 2000 I think the difficulty in getting films like this made skyrockets.

I think us older guys grew up being fed a vast array of cinema of all different types. And as with food, your palate expands when you are sampling all kinds of different things. You can enjoy a foreign film, a slow film, an experimental film, and your desire for variety expands.

I can't speak for the whole world but here, in the US, I think that what is thought of as cinema has shrunk to such a narrow definition that a picture like The Joker is challenging cinema. Mainly because it very slightly strays out of the very specific formula. So, if that is challenging now, to most audiences, well what is Jeanne Dielman?

What Makes a Movie the Greatest of All Time? (Published 2022)

The much-respected Sight and Sound poll of the best films ever shows that what is valued onscreen has changed over time, sometimes radically.

www.nytimes.com

----apologies to people who can't access if they don't have a New York Times account (which is essential and well worth it in my opinion.)

 

[Winston T. Boogie]

What Makes a Movie the Greatest of All Time? (Published 2022)

The much-respected Sight and Sound poll of the best films ever shows that what is valued onscreen has changed over time, sometimes radically.

www.nytimes.com

----apologies to people who can't access if they don't have a New York Times account (which is essential and well worth it in my opinion.)

One thing I have to agree with in that article is I was also stunned that Dr. Strangelove did not make this list. I get it, they put more than one Kubrick picture on the list but The Shining made it over Strangelove? Don't get me wrong, I love The Shining and have watched it many times, not as many as I have seen Strangelove, but to me it is maybe one of Kubrick's most minor films. Let's face it though, if The Shining is one of your minor films, the rest of your catalogue is pretty damn awesome.

The rest of that article just kind of highlights how they added female and black filmmakers to the list. Which they certainly did. I have to admit, if their intent was to stun people with the number 1 pick, they did that for sure. So, if that was part of the list making, to stir things up, point taken.

I was probably as surprised to see Get Out on the list, as I do not even feel like that was one of the top 100 films of the last decade, never mind on a list of the greatest films ever. Honestly, if they wanted to put something more recent on that was a picture by a black filmmaker with black actors, I would have went with Boots Riley's Sorry to Bother You. A far more interesting and inventive picture than Get Out. Well, in my opinion anyway.

This is what lists are for though, to pick apart, see what you agree and disagree with.

 

[Thomas T]

Just for fun, I put together my own 100 "greatest" movies ever made list. However, unlike the S&S and most lists I didn't rank them. How can one say that The Maltese Falcon is better than Double Indemnity and thus ranked higher. Or Psycho better than All About Eve? What's the difference that make the 10th best on the list better than the 11th best on the list. Surely the margin must be razor thin. Anyway, my 100 list is alphabetical (ask me tomorrow and the list could look different):

All About Eve (1950) (Joseph L. Mankiewicz)
All About My Mother (1999) Pedro Almodovar
All That Heaven Allows (1955) Douglas Sirk
Asphalt Jungle (1950) John Huston
L'Avventura (1960) Michelangelo Antonioni
Battle Of Algiers (1966) Gillo Pontecorvo
Battleship Potemkin (1925) Sergei Eisenstein
Bay Of Angels (1963) Jacques Demy
Black Narcissus (1947) Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger
Blue Velvet (1986) David Lynch
Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice (1969) Paul Mazursky
Bonnie And Clyde (1967) Arthur Penn
Call Me By Your Name (2017) Luca Guadagnino
Children Are Watching Us (1943) Vittorio De Sica
Carrie (1976) Brian De Palma
Citizen Kane (1941) Orson Welles
Close Encounters Of The Third Kind (1977) Steven Spielberg
The Conformist (1970) Bernardo Bertolucci
Contempt (1963) Jean Luc Godard
Day Of Wrath (1943) Carl Theodor Dreyer
Discreet Charm Of The Bourgeoisie (1972) Luis Bunuel
Do The Right Thing (1989) Spike Lee
Dogville (2003) Lars von Trier
La Dolce Vita (1960) Federico Fellini
Double Indemnity (1944) Billy Wilder
E.T. (1982) Steven Spielberg
Earrings Of Madame de (1953) Max Ophuls
Everything Everywhere All At Once (2022) Daniel Kwan & Daniel Scheinert
Fires On The Plain (1959) Kon Ichikawa
Garden Of The Finzi Continis (1970) Vittorio De Sica
The Godfather (1972) Francis Ford Coppola
Great Beauty (2013) Paolo Sorrentino
High And Low (1963) Akira Kurosawa
Imitation Of Life (1959) Douglas Sirk
In The Mood For Love (2000) Wong Kar Wai
Invasion Of The Body Snatchers (1956) Don Siegel
Johnny Guitar (1954) Nicholas Ray
Jules And Jim (1962) Francois Truffaut
The Killing (1956) Stanley Kubrick
La La Land (2016) Damien Chazelle
Last Picture Show (1971) Peter Bogdanovich
Last Tango In Paris (1972) Bernardo Bertolucci
Letter From An Unknown Woman (1948) Max Ophuls
Lolita (1962) Stanley Kubrick
M (1931) Fritz Lang
Magnificent Ambersons (1942) Orson Welles
Magnolia (1999) Paul Thomas Anderson
Maltese Falcon (1941) John Huston
Manchurian Candidate (1962) John Frankenheimer
Marnie (1964) Alfred Hitchcock
Metropolis (1927) Fritz Lang
Napoleon (1927) Abel Gance
Nashville (1975) Robert Altman
Night Of The Hunter (1955) Charles Laughton
Nights Of Cabiria (1957) Federico Fellini
Nutty Professor (1963) Jerry Lewis
On The Waterfront (1954) Elia Kazan
Once Upon A Time In The West (1968) Sergio Leone
Onibaba (1964) Kaneto Shindo
Passion Of Joan Of Arc (1928) Carl Theodor Dreyer
Persona (1966) Ingmar Bergman
Proud And The Beautiful (1953) Yves Allegret
Providence (1977) Alain Resnais
Psycho (1960) Alfred Hitchcock
Purple Rose Of Cairo (1985) Woody Allen
Reflections In A Golden Eye (1967) John Huston
Rocco And His Brothers (1960) Luchino Visconti
Rosemary's Baby (1968) Roman Polanski
Rules Of The Game (1939) Jean Renoir
The Searchers (1956) John Ford
Seven Samurai (1954) Akira Kurosawa
Seventh Seal (1957) Ingmar Bergman
Shoeshine (1946) Vittorio De Sica
Shoot The Piano Player (1960) Francois Truffaut
Singin' In The Rain (1952) Stanley Donen & Gene Kelly
Skin I Live In (2011) Pedro Almodovar
Smiles Of A Summer Night (1955) Ingmar Bergman
Some Came Running (1958) Vincente Minnelli
Spartacus (1960) Stanley Kubrick
Streetcar Named Desire (1951) Elia Kazan
Sunrise: A Song Of Two Humans (1927) F.W. Murnau
Suspiria (1977) Dario Argento
Sweet Smell Of Success (1957) Alexander Mackendrick
Taxi Driver (1976) Martin Scorsese
They Shoot Horses Don't They? (1969) Sydney Pollack
Tokyo Story (1953) Yasujiro Ozu
Touch Of Evil (1958) Orson Welles
Tree Of Life (2011) Terrence Malick
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) Stanley Kubrick
Umberto D (1952) Vittorio De Sica
Umbrellas Of Cherbourg (1964) Jacques Demy
Vertigo (1958) Alfred Hitchcock
Violent Summer (1961) Valerio Zurlini
Vivre Sa Vie (1962) Jean Luc Godard
Weekend (1967) Jean Luc Godard
West Side Story (1961) Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins
Wild Strawberries (1957) Ingmar Bergman
Written On The Wind (1956) Douglas Sirk
Young Girls Of Rochefort (1967) Jacques Demy
Z (1969) Costa Gavras

 

[Robert Crawford]

What a horrible list.