Movie reviews

Every ten years since 1952, the film magazine/website "Sight and Sound" polls hundreds of critics, historians, and directors around the world to list the greatest films ever made. The 2012 poll was released in August. Here are the results:

Critics poll top 50 films of all time in descending order of votes...

 1930   8.3   8.5 

1. Vertigo (1958)

Mr. Saturn's rating: 

 1917   8.2   8.5 

2. Citizen Kane (1941)

Mr. Saturn's rating: 

 385   8.5   8.2 

3. Tokyo Story (1953)

Mr. Saturn's rating: 

 311   8.2   8 

4. The Rules of the Game (1939)

Mr. Saturn's rating: 

 392   8.6   8.3 

5. Sunrise (1927)

Mr. Saturn's rating: 

 2945   8   8.4 

6. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

Mr. Saturn's rating: 

 494   8   8 

7. The Searchers (1956)

Mr. Saturn's rating: 

 343   8.6   8.3 

8. Man with a Movie Camera(1929)

Mr. Saturn's rating: 

 430   8.8   8.2 

9. The Passion of Joan of Arc(1928)

Mr. Saturn's rating: 

 1019   8.4   8.1 

10. 8½ (1963)

Mr. Saturn's rating: 

 595   8.1   8.1 

11. Battleship Potemkin (1925)

Mr. Saturn's rating: 

 263   8.4   7.9 

12. L'Atalante (1934)

Mr. Saturn's rating: 

 772   8.1   7.9 

13. Breathless (1960)

Mr. Saturn's rating: 

 2800   8.1   8.6 

14. Apocalypse Now (1979)

Mr. Saturn's rating: 

 153   8.5   8.2 

15. Late Spring (1949)

Mr. Saturn's rating: 

 177   8.3   7.9 

16. Au Hasard Balthazar (1966)

Mr. Saturn's rating: 

 1449   8.6   8.8 

17. Seven Samurai (1954)

Mr. Saturn's rating: 

 847   8.5   8.2 

18. Persona (1966)

Mr. Saturn's rating: 

 439   8.4   7.9 

19. Mirror (1975)

Mr. Saturn's rating: 

 1310   8   8.4 

20. Singin' in the Rain (1952)

Mr. Saturn's rating: 

 262   8   7.9 

21. L'Avventura (1960)

 412   7.8   7.7 

22. Contempt (1963)

Mr. Saturn's rating: 

 4505   8.7   9.2 

23. The Godfather (1972)

Mr. Saturn's rating: 

 155   8.3   8 

24. Ordet (1955)

 815   8.1   8.1 

25. In the Mood for Love (2000)

 848   8.3   8.4 

26. Rashomon (1950)

Mr. Saturn's rating: 

 376   8.8   8.2 

27. Andrei Rublev (1966)

Mr. Saturn's rating: 

 2297   7.8   8 

28. Mulholland Dr. (2001)

Mr. Saturn's rating: 

 812   8.6   8.1 

29. Stalker (1979)

Mr. Saturn's rating: 

 111   8.8   8 

30. Shoah (1985)

 3126   8.6   9.1 

31. The Godfather: Part II(1974)

Mr. Saturn's rating: 

Director's poll...

 385   8.5   8.2 

1. Tokyo Story (1953)

 

Mr. Saturn's rating: 

 2945   8   8.4 

2. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

 

Mr. Saturn's rating: 

 1917   8.2   8.5 

3. Citizen Kane (1941)

 

Mr. Saturn's rating: 

 1019   8.4   8.1 

4. 8½ (1963)

 

Mr. Saturn's rating: 

 3366   8.2   8.5 

5. Taxi Driver (1976)

 

Mr. Saturn's rating: 

 2800   8.1   8.6 

6. Apocalypse Now (1979)

 

Mr. Saturn's rating: 

 1930   8.3   8.5 

7. Vertigo (1958)

 

Mr. Saturn's rating: 

 4505   8.7   9.2 

8. The Godfather (1972)

 

Mr. Saturn's rating: 

 439   8.4   7.9 

9. Mirror (1975)

 

Mr. Saturn's rating: 

 806   8.3   8.4 

10. Bicycle Thieves (1948)

 

Mr. Saturn's rating: 

 772   8.1   7.9 

11. Breathless (1960)

 

Mr. Saturn's rating: 

 1464   8.1   8.4 

12. Raging Bull (1980)

 

Mr. Saturn's rating: 

 847   8.5   8.2 

13. Persona (1966)

 

Mr. Saturn's rating: 

 815   8.3   8.2 

14. The 400 Blows (1959)

 

Mr. Saturn's rating: 

 376   8.8   8.2 

15. Andrei Rublev (1966)

 

Mr. Saturn's rating: 

 515   8.3   8.1 

16. Fanny and Alexander (1982)

 

 1449   8.6   8.8 

17. Seven Samurai (1954)

 

Mr. Saturn's rating: 

 848   8.3   8.4 

18. Rashomon (1950)

 

Mr. Saturn's rating: 

 929   7.8   8.1 

19. Barry Lyndon (1975)

 

Mr. Saturn's rating: 

 155   8.3   8 

20. Ordet (1955)

 

 177   8.3   7.9 

21. Au Hasard Balthazar (1966)

 

Mr. Saturn's rating: 

 1271   8.4   8.6 

22. Modern Times (1936)

 

Mr. Saturn's rating: 

 263   8.4   7.9 

23. L'Atalante (1934)

 

Mr. Saturn's rating: 

 392   8.6   8.3 

24. Sunrise (1927)

 

Mr. Saturn's rating: 

 311   8.2   8 

25. The Rules of the Game (1939)

 

Mr. Saturn's rating: 

 623   8.2   8.3 

26. Touch of Evil (1958)

 

 538   8.1   8.2 

27. The Night of the Hunter(1955)

 

Mr. Saturn's rating: 

 359   8.2   8.2 

28. The Battle of Algiers (1966)

 

 506   8.3   8.1 

29. La Strada (1954)

 

Mr. Saturn's rating: 

 812   8.6   8.1 

30. Stalker (1979)

 

Mr. Saturn's rating: 

 

# 8: bada bing bada boom, Sharon,

Thanks for the lists. I'm surprised at how many of those I haven't seen. Something to look forward to I guess.

My pleasure, MyCows. I've used the 2002 poll to pick out the films to see. Here are the one's I haven't seen:

Late Spring(I loved Early Spring, but I've never seen this one)

Ordet

Shoah(I think this is like 9 hours long)

Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Br...

Satantango

Journey to Italy

Pather Panchali

Gertrude

Close-up

Histoire(s) du cinema: Toutes les histoires(I've always wanted to see this one)

Fanny and Alexander

The Gospel accrding to St. Mathew

Come and see

A man escaped

Once upon a time in the west

Hour of the wolf

Not too bad

Thanks for the list! I'll have to add the ones I haven't seen to my movie queue.

Citizen Caine was a great movie, and I like a lot of Orson Welles work, but does it deserve to be #2 and #3 on these lists respectively? How much of this movie's critical cache is due to the story of the making of the movie?  The brilliant Hollywood maverick taking on the publishing magnate, William Randolf Hearst? I've often thought this film is included near the top of these lists because it's always been high on these lists. I'd like to see a rigorous critical reexamination of this film.

thanks for these lists.....

You're welcome corrijean and prazzzwal

@ electricpawn: Though I think Citizen Kane is very good, it does surprise me as well that it is always one of the top two or three rated films of all time, especially since I've watched so many of the other highly rated ones

Must be number 51, Lisa

Much of the high regard for Citizen Kane is for the technical excellence of the film.  The camera work and lighting are considered brilliant.  Part of their genius is that the images  are subtle and operating on our subconscious and we are not aware of them.  There is a window on the wall, that when Kane is in the foreground seems average size, but when Kane approaches the window it seems much bigger and dwarfs him.  But when Kane walks away from the window toward the camera he seems larger than life again.  Also you must realize that much of the brilliant camera work has been cropped if you are watching it on TV.  For the magic of the photography to work you need to watch it on a full sized  movie screen. You are just not going to catch the shift from larger than life to mere mortal (depending of your perspective and distance from Kane) on the small screen.

An interesting bit of trivia is that Welles found out that "Rosebud" was Hearst's pet name for his mistresse's private parts.  When Hearst saw the film it absolutely drove him up a wall to see Welles lips uttering " Rosebud".

That's an excellent point, blake78613. Most all the films that I have seen on those lists are serious attempts of cinema as art, and technically of very high quality. Citizen Kane's story may be more easily understandable than some of the others on the lists which may make it more popular. For instance, "Mirror" is an absolutely amazing display of technical brilliance, but I could not understand the story. Not that the story was convoluted, it's more that the story involved extra work--perhaps reading and understanding the poetry it was based upon. It wasn't all there on the screen, which it's director filled with incredible imagery. Citizen Kane, on the other hand, is easier to access. One can watch it just for the story, while the imagery is not very complex. For example, Welles shows Kane becoming estranged from his wife by simply showing the breakfast table becoming longer. We can easily understand the distance between the couple. These are images that can not only be easily understood, but can be easily taught to film students. So, both the technical side of the film and the story itself is something which doesn't require extra work for the viewer or the teacher. If you watch "L'avventura", it really helps to have an understanding of existentialism. If you watch "Persona", having taken psychology courses, as well as reading about the era of unrest it was made in will help to make it understandable. While Citizen Kane has the story on the screen, just like "Vertigo". And as you have pointed out, one could add more to Citizen Kane by reading about the backstory, but it is not necessary in understanding it.

I didn't know that about "Rosebud"

Oh, and nothing I said above applies to "The Apartment", which is just dumb.

I didn't know that about "Rosebud" either. I can't wait to have a mistress. I'm stealing it.

I don't mean to interupt y'alls fascination with "rosebud"(), but there's something else I find interesting about the lists. Is "Citizen Kane" Orson Wells' best film? Is "2001: a space odyssey" Kubrick's best? Is "Vertigo" Hitchcock's best? Is Ozu's "Tokyo Story" his best film? Is "Taxi Driver" Scorsese's best? Et Cetera.

I actually like "The Magnificent Ambersons" a bit more than  "Citizen Kane". Maybe "Dr. Strangelove", or "Paths of Glory" is better than "2001"?  "Notorious", or "Rear Window" may be better than "Vertigo". I definitely like "The age of innocence" more than "Taxi Driver". I like Tarkovsky's "Solaris" over his "Andrei Rublev". "L' avventura" is my third favorite Antonioni film. I think I like Wilder's "Sunset Boulevard" as much as "Some like it Hot". Et Cetera. So, for me, those lists led me to great directors whose works are so rich that their best films may not be represented. 

Just a thought

For those who want to pursue the rosebud controversy I would refer them to the reply letter of Gore Vidal to Jay Topkins in the New York Review of Books August 17th 1989:

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/1989/aug/17/rosebud/?pagination=false