The Greatest Movies Ever? -- My Analysis of the 2022 BFI Sight and Sound Polls (Livestream)

No mention of Ed Wood?

I see this list as a tiny monument to art house snobbery. No doubt, there are many great films on it, but “Jeanne Dielman” (which I have seen) is not one of them. I am fine with having a more diverse list of directors, but diversity should not be voting criterion, IMO. Finally, I am surprised that “No Country For Old Men” and “Roma” did not make either list. Those are my top two films of the 21st century.

No back to the future, no gregory's girl, no gone with the wind, no titanic

It would make sense for each individual vote to be weighted based on where it fell in an individual top 10. For example, a movie placing No. 1 in an individual top 10 would earn that movie 10 points toward the overall ranking, and a movie placing at No. 10 would get 1 point and so on.

This list is just stupid. They claim it's about the movies but then go out of their way to include female directors or other subjects that are representative of certain groups of people. How does being a female or black make your movie better? This list lacks credibility in every sense. Want to make it on the list, make a better movie or list should change its name to "most diverse movie director selection or whatever".

"Get Out" being included in the list at all just shows me there's lack of objectivity at all. This is suppose to be de facto best movies EVER. And yet they have included so many of the "meh" choices. It seems trend is no popular movies allowed which is questionable at best. That's like posting a list of fastest cars ever and then deciding to exclude majority of them because they were not designed by a woman or designer didn't like color blue. How is that list good then?

I'd be totally fine if this list was named "must watch 100 movies" or something like that. But calling it best movies of all time, am sorry but no. And if you have issues with my opinion, according to my parents and friends am the best movie critic there is. Same credibility as this list of hand-picked people to vote for a list of things that everyone is suppose to consider best.

Things have been a bit crazy at home this last week and I've only just had the chance to watch, sorry. I just want to hold my hands up and admit my comments about "Elitist trolling" were based on an assumption that the nominations were somehow ranked. My bad. Apologies to BFI and all the critics involved.

It should be purely about the art irrespective of the creators identity. That said, if the critics and directors involved in the voting are now more representative of society we should expect a big shift in poll results. But Jeanne Dielman at no 1 is an over reaction and over compensation.

The best movie ever made is on some kid's iPhone. Few people will see it. No big loss. Warhol was right.

It's stunning you never heard of it. I was a screenwriter wannabe for a few years. I dove into the field. The Criterion Collection was a big part of my own education. So I saw the film mentioned over and over, I just never decided to buy it. Vertigo, The Searchers, and Sunrise are my top three. I love Man With a Movie Camera and Ozu.

I studied art history, and once attended a lecture at the National Gallery in London in 1992. They had a debate between two young art historians, one male, one female. They were discussing two portraits from the 18th century, one by a man, one by a woman. It was good-natured and fun. Today it would be toxic. That explains our current predicament.

Hollywood movies are dead. As I kid, I always dreamed of my comic books hero in well-made movies. Be careful what you wish for.

James Cameron or Ridley Scott who is the better Director in your opinion 🎉 1) Aliens vs Alien 2) Terminator-2 vs Blade Runner 3) Titanic vs Gladiator 4) Avatar vs The Martian 5) True Lies vs Black Hawk Down 6) The Terminator vs Thelma & Louise 7) The Abyss vs Prometheus

a poll list that doesn't have "Schindler's List" as one fo the 100 best is invalid. Case closed..

and you're correct about the "ballot" system of listing 10. If the poll was to "list the 3 best films you've ever seen" you'd have a completely different S&S list.
The tendency of all voters with this type of thing is to give a "true" top 7-8, then give 2-3 who "deserve recognition".

Approach these lists the way a sensible person approaches a religious text: a nice guideline, but not the final word on anything.
No. 1? It is... whatever makes you love the form.

I enjoyed the Director’s list more for sure.

Some of Great Movies missing in the list:
Vivre Sa Vie
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
Amadeus
Godfather Part II
Wild Strawberries
Treasure of Sierra Madre
Belle de Jour
The Master
Ben-Hur
A Clockwork Orange
Lawrence Of Arabia
Gattaca

I find it interesting that almost nobody in the comments seems to have put Jeanne Dielman very high on their list of favorites. I acknowledge that the seemingly slow pace could alienate some people. However, I think there are many good reasons for why numerous critics, directors, as well as I, love this film.

In my opinion, this movie is the ultimate character study. It's about someone who could be almost any stranger who's just passing by on the sidewalk. On the other hand, it also provides an emphasis on the fact that while many would hate such lifestyle, others may find "sanity" from repetitive tasks. To me the main reason for this is the crafting of the film.

The style reminds me a lot of directors like Ozu in that camera motion is avoided. It also benefits from Bresson-like minimalism in that emotions are often held back making events unpredictable, the only music heard is diegetic, and no word or shot is wasted. Sound is used subtly heighten tension like when a baby cries or the kettle is on producing a high pitch. Akerman also effectively stresses the normally unimportant things like when food is overcooked, a utensil is dropped, when coffee doesn't taste right, or when she gets free time. And while the pacing, especially at the beginning, is awkwardly slow, it deliberately makes viewers uncomfortable and attentive.

I remember when I watched this movie with my family a little over a year ago; the last five minutes left all of us with our mouths open stunned in a way that I've rarely known.

Do you have a list from episode one to present ?

Coppola DESERVES all four of those spots on the director's poll. If you've ever seen The Conversation, you'd know. The only reason it didn't win the Oscar is because Godfather II beat it out. Funny thing about our man Francisco here is that (in my opinion) he never made a great movie again. One might say... he made JACK squat!

I'mma let you finish, but PULP FICTION is the greatest film of ALL TIME!!!

Jeanne Dielman number 1, I'm surprised we don't get a Spike Lee film at number 2.

Merry Christmas🌲!
Totally agree with your Kieslowski-Spot... Three Colors Red and Blue, Double Life and especially Dekalog are all in my Top 250. As a German I also miss Fassbinder... Berlin, Alexanderplatz for example...
Then one of my personal favorites Lumet and of course Kobayashi... I think u have to list minimum 500 works to get the best overall and maybe some forgotten Gem's... Like Chahine's The Land, or Soleil o, Cranes are flying/Soy Cuba, Georgian Cinema etc...

Jeanne Dielman 23, Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles...Technically brilliant; story and plot line as boring as can be. So, for me, no where near the top spot in this list.

as a woman, as much as i want to put a woman director on my top 20 favorite film directors, the closest I can ever include on the list is isabel coixet or agnes varda. but let's be honest, even if they're good, their works are...i don't know, it doesn't resonate to a lot of people and they are not inclusive. these pathetic film wokes just like to run and control things at the expense of what is really appreciated and loved by so many and these attempt by sight and sound is basically an act of control. and so i decided not to believe in this list anymore, especially that Kieslowski is not on the list.

What is a great film?
The problem to me is, that people either tend to judge films on their artistic and/or historical level/significance or judge film only based on how the films impacted them on a personal level. To be truly great a film has to do both of those. Let me give three examples.
- Harry Potter is pure joy to me. I love those films as I grew up with them, and they have such an emotional impact on me even while im watching them today. But do I really think are some of the best films of all time? Hell no! They have not done anything for cinema in historical terms and for cinema as an artform.
- Battleship Potemkin is one of the most important films ever if you want to study the grammar of cinema, but it did very little to challenge me intellectually and it didn't manage to move me at all.
- Tokyo Story does both! It stimulates me on an intellectual level as well as on an emotional level. AND it is important for Cinema history and cinema as an artform with Ozus unique style.

Conclusion: Neither Harry Potter or Battleship Potemkin belongs on a top 100 list for me. Tokyo Story does.

Man. I was just happy when they put Chantal Akerman in the Oscars' Reel of Death, after she died. Now this.

Sunrise falling to #33 and The Searchers to #72 just about invalidates the whole directors' poll for me. Where the hell are their eyes??? Where the hell are their hearts????????

If Kurosawa had been left off, I would have been forced to commit suppuku

I think there is a lot of pseudo intellectual group think in these polls. I have seen Jeanne Dielmen on TCM, it is provocative and a bit haunting, but you have to be eschewing the entire concept of a movie existing to be entertainment to list it as the greatest film. Who did it influence, what was it's importance in Cinema history? It always seems every ten years or so, a different "reassessed" work becomes the film to list ahead of Kane. It was "Rules of the Game" then "Vertigo"' now its Jeanne Dielmen.

Blue is 1

Tree of Life should be in any serious film's list top 10.

I am interested to see what movies professionals think are great movies.

You don’t think Citizen Kane is good?

You should be honest.

Sex not gender.

Jaws is fantastic.

Yes, Miyazaki is anime.

I love 2001.

Meh, if that is the #1 movie on the list, that is probably a list that doesn't interest me.

Days of Heaven and Badlands are way better than Thin Red Line and Tree of Life. Those first 2 were poetry on film. Thin Red Line and Tree of Life were trying way, way too hard to be poetic. Pulp Fiction, The Master, Aguirre The Wrath of God, Fitzcarraldo, Once Upon A Time In America, There Will Be Blood, No Country For Old Men, The Last Detail, Harry and Tonto, One Flew...

Also worth noting that this list isn’t objective for everybody

I really appreciate your channel. I’ve recently started exploring and trying to understand cinema as an art form and this channel has been helpful and entertaining. Thank you for all the great videos.

Just watched Jeanne Dielman. The film has zero camera movement. It is basically a stageplay on celluloid, a dollhouse of intentional boredom. All it has to offer is pretty drab mise-en-scene while watching a woman doing chores and occasionally prostituting herself. It is honestly an insult to the art form to put that thing on number one. There is plenty of great female directors that you could make an argument for to rank highly. But to make this particular movie the "new" Citizen Kane is honestly a sad joke.

Hi Josh. I'm a big fan. I used to teach film in my former life and still avidly follow all things film.

It seems to me that the canon is being challenged as to what is considered a 'great' film. The list has always leant towards 'art' as opposed to popular cinema which, I think, is a good thing with the rise of the online aggregators you mention (Rotten Tomatoes, IMDB, Metacritic) catering more for popular taste. However, with the general increase in cineliteracy, more 'popular' movies have been considered greater than before in the name of inclusivity and the traditional canon is being challenged for being elitist (e.g. Citizen Kane was considered the greatest movie in poll after poll for more than 50 years!)

Your question as to what makes a movie 'great' is an important one because, in this newly cineliterate landscape, the criteria of what makes a movie great seems to have changed. I do think, though, that many contributors seem to have been selecting films on the basis of 'deserving to be included' as opposed to being great. So whether Jeanne Dielman is a greater film than Citizen Kane or Vertigo seems to be less important in this poll than the fact that such a movie deserves to be included as part of the conversation.

I think it's a shame that this seems to have been the motivation for this list (we can see a similar trend in Rolling Stone's greatest albums of all time which recently voted Marvin Gaye's What's Goin On as the greatest and in the greatest songs poll, Aretha Franklin's Respect was voted the greatest) because I don't doubt that films directed by women or black film-makers ought to be included but that doesn't necessarily make them great or greater than some of the usual choices.

That said, we have to acknowledge that there has often been complaint about the same titles appearing poll after poll and now we have a radically different one, there are still causes for complaint! The way film is viewed and appreciated is changing and though it might be sad to see some titles disappear as they fall out of favour and new ones appear, it can only be invigorating for a poll that has long been regarded as elitist and may now start to reflect a wider breadth of taste.

The taint of feminism

The thing that's missing from this list is recent movies. In 1952, cinema had a shorter history and there were more silent movies held in wide esteem then, but also Citizen Kane was number one and that film was only a few years old at the time...

Although this was almost a year ago, I'd like to chime in. In terms of best 250 list of an constantly changing and evolving list =, I'd say for educational purposes to film students is the letterboxd 250.

1. The IMDB list has very askewed ratings with a lot of cultural bias and also people who aren't into cinema rating films.
2. This S&S list as you mentioned is that only a select few of accredited people can vote and therefore either like the latest poll change the lists to fit changing cultural representations or have a lot of bias from classic hollywood and imo put way too much emphasis on films which are basically just filmed stage plays (most films pre 1945)

But letterboxd. Of all of them. Seems the most demcoratic with users on it usually people who specifcally are interested in film and thus have a more critical lens towards art. And also has scores and list shift changes weekly reflecting the current people's mindset of people who are into film. Hara-kiri, Seven Samurai, Come & See etc. all seem most appropriate to be in a top 10 as they are all films that SPEAK cinematic language and use the medium to its actual potential. If you are showing students anything I believe the letterboxd top 250 seems to be although not perfect, the best representation of the current zeitgeist.

Just had to come in here and say that Sergio Leone was not influencing Japanese cinema; it was actually the other way around. Akira Kurosawa actually sued Leone for remaking Yojimbo as A Fistful Of Dollars without permission and won.

You 'can't' have a list that's properly diverse. They don't have the bandwidth or the contacts to do that.
You'd need a:
West african - straight male, straight female, gey male, gey female, trans, refugee, white expat, asian expat.
East Asian - straight male, straight female, gey male, gey female, trans, refugee, white expat, african expat.
North American - straight male, straight female, gey male, gey female, trans, refugee, east asian expat, african expat.
South Asian - straight male, straight female, gey male, gey female, trans, refugee, east asian expat, african expat.
etc etc etc you know what I mean? Actually every subcategory should have a younger and an older representative too.
I imagine this list if made up of at least 50-65% Anglo Saxon / White European descent, mostly male.
Then the reset being 'diversity representation'. And the majority trying to add their own 'representation' without actually being in the know of those minority groups.
Are Japanese films over represented compared to say Korean films?

Never even heard of Jeanne Dielman lol. And I call myself a cineast. (Well not out loud haha but still sortof)
I might add it to my 'should watch but seems boring' list even before knowing anything about the film.
A lot of the films here I was being lectured on when doing Film Studies in university 35 years ago. Same old people still voting?