Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975)
How should one go about rating movies? Did the movie make you cry? Are you still thinking about the movie several days after watching it? Do you want to watch the movie a second time? These are all valid tests that I have applied at various times to the movies I’ve watched. I can’t imagine a more passionate way to rate a movie, however, than Susan Sontag’s famous exclamation, “After watching the movie, I wanted to kiss the screen!”
The “Top 100 Greatest Films of All Time” is a list published every ten years by Sight & Sound, a publication of the British Film Institute. The list is based on worldwide opinion polls they conduct. They publish a critics’ list, based on 1,639 participating critics, programmers, curators, archivists and academics, and a directors’ list, based on 480 directors and filmmakers.
The top 10 from the 2022 critics’ list are:
Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975)
Vertigo (1958)
Citizen Kane (1941)
Tokyo Story (1953)
In the Mood for Love (2000)
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Beau Travail (1998)
Mulholland Drive (2001)
Man with a Movie Camera (1929)
Singin’ in the Rain (1952)
The top 10 from the 2022 directors’ list are:
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Citizen Kane (1941)
The Godfather (1972)
Tokyo Story (1953)
Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975)
Vertigo (1958)
8½ (1963)
Mirror (1975)
Persona (1966)
In the Mood for Love (2000)
Two of my favorite movies made the top ten, “Tokyo Story” and “In the Mood for Love.” “Tokyo Story” is my personal choice for the greatest movie of all time. “Tokyo Story” was fourth on both the critic’s and director’s lists.
The real shocker is that “Jeanne Dielman” came in first on the critic’s list! I certainly agree that this is a revolutionary movie. Among other strange things, it includes a lengthy scene of a depressed woman making meatloaf! Absolute boredom is a very real part of life! I salute “Jeanne Dielman” for its vivid depictions of boredom! But if I screened this film at my film club, EVERYONE would walk out!
Which films surprised you the most to see on Sight and Sound’s lists of the greatest films of all time? Which titles would you have liked to see on the list? What does your list of the top 10 greatest films of all time look like?