The tradition has carried for six decades, with an updated list of the 100 best films ever, published every 10 years.
In 2012, British Film Institute critics named Alfred Hitchcock’s 1958 movie Vertigo the greatest. Other classics, including Citizen Kane, Tokyo Story and 2001: A Space Odyssey also appeared within the 2012 top 10.
Ten years later, a relatively obscure entry has topped the list—and for the first time it was directed by a woman.
Jeanne Dielman 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles, a 1975 picture directed by Chantal Akerman when she was 25 years old, is the greatest film of all time, according to the 2022 Sight & Sound poll, which included 1,639 critics, programmers, curators, archivists and academics.
The movie, which runs for over three hours, centers on a Belgian widow who turns to prostitution to support herself and her son, but whose life begins to unravel over three days.
It has been hailed as the first masterpiece of feminist cinema. In an article for the British Film Institute, Laura Mulvey, professor of film studies at Birkbeck University in the U.K., said: “No other film made by a woman has ever even reached the top ten. In the first instance, this is unsurprising: women film directors have always, obviously, been few and far between; equally obviously, the contributing critics have been predominantly male.
“It was when Sight and Sound expanded the critics’ pool in 2012 that Jeanne Dielman first entered the list, at number 35; its rise to the top now is a triumph for women’s cinema.”
Peter Bradshaw, the Guardian film critic, described it as “disturbing and brilliant” and said: “With a fierce, cold, sustained blaze, the movie speaks to contemporary issues and questions: housework as work, sex work as work, the burden of motherhood and caregiving, the theatre of bourgeois respectability, the terrible loneliness of domestic life and female marginalisation, the unnoticed ubiquity of power and violence.”
Akerman herself died in 2015 at the age of 65. But while critics hailed the decision to put her movie at the top of the list, online commenters were less convinced. Where applause—and criticism—for such lists started out as scrawled praise and word-of-mouth complaints, social media has changed the game completely.
For some Twitter users, the film’s No. 1 ranking came as a complete—and not altogether welcome—surprise.
“I’ll let people click though and find the number one themselves, but isn’t this a massive shocker?” @3000Elsinore said. “Did anyone see it coming?”
“I sure as hell didn’t,” @GrandKeizer responded.
“It was 37th place back in 2012. It leap frogged over 37 spots,” they said. “Compare that to Vertigo, which only made the top 10 in 1982, and had to claw its way up every decade until 2012.”
“I remember watching the number one film at uni. There was a handful of us left by the end of the screening,” @nathanjcarr said. “I recognise its historical importance and strong themes but ‘a greatest film of all time’ surely needs to captivate an audience of film students.”
Twitter user @djxcqtion, however, offered the opposite opinion.
“Jeanne Dielman, 23, Quai du Commerce 1080 Bruxelles NO 1….,” they tweeted. “LETS GOOOOOOOOOOOO.”
While much of the online discussion surrounding Sight & Sound’s latest rankings remained focused on Jeanne Dielman 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles, other films included throughout the list caused stirs of their own.
Spike Lee’s 1989 picture Do The Right Thing, which was previously unranked, catapulted to the 24th greatest film of all time in 2022, much to the appreciation of Twitter user @kmstx78.
“The huge rise from DO THE RIGHT THING is awesome and well-deserved,” they tweeted.
“Love do the right thing getting it’s dues!,” @JDGonzales2 echoed.
Get Out, a 2017 film written and directed by Jordan Peele, was named the 95th greatest film of all time—an honor some Twitter users said was bestowed too soon.
“Get Out, errrrrr wtf?” @EdgeOfThePark tweeted.
“Ok film but wouldn’t even be in my top 1000 let alone 100,” @jeffreyarnold76 agreed.
“I feel like if a movie came out within the last 15 years, critical assessment hasn’t matured enough to throw it on a greatest of all time list,” @Mrtrick80 wrote. “Just saying.”
Despite the natural inclination to debate particulars of Sight & Sound’s most recent film rankings, other Twitter users took issue with larger themes associated with the list, commenting on the glaring lack of certain genres and cultures.
“My plea to the critics who vote in this poll: please watch some animated films. They’re really good,” @DisneyMusings23 begged. “Only [two] making the list is criminal.”
“Not a single Balkan film made it,” @__adn tweeted. “You absolute philistines.”
“Not a single Latin American movie,” @NicolsPrivider1 lamented. “Shame on you.”
Updated 12/02/22, 6 a.m. ET: This article was updated with additional information.
