Pretend you have a ballot for the 2012 edition of Sight & Sound's top 10 movies of all time list

Doesn't appear Sarris submitted a ballot before he died.

Yeah, that was one of the first things I checked. I was feeling like a creep for wishing his wife had solicited one from him on his deathbed, like Joe DiMaggio signing baseballs for his scuzzy agent.

The New World got 1 vote to The Tree of Life's 16.

Good job, S&S voters!

I've spotted four Paulettes so far, lapsed or card-carrying. This may require a separate poll.

wkiw Slavoj Zizek!

Another ancient British guy: V.F. Perkins (76). There were already old paperback copies of Film as Film around when I was in university circa 1980.

Has mark s. written about Pirates of the Caribbean somewhere?

A little, here. Also else where he sez "get it" = grasp why i might vote for this without me explaining at length (and "everyone" is rhetorical)

http://blogs.indiewire.com/theplaylist/30-essential-films-missing-from-the-sight-and-sound-top-100

La Terra Trema was Top 10 in '62.

Switching my favourite list to Josh Clover/Jane Dark: Nashville, Band of Outsiders, Ambersons, and Fast Times at Ridgemont High.

The rest of the top 250, for those who don't want to keep clicking "see more" at S&S's website:

102. -- 16 Votes
The Conformist (1970) Bernardo Bertolucci
Ivan the Terrible (1945) Sergei M Eisenstein
Last Year in Marienbad (1961) Alain Resnais
Meshes of the Afternoon (1943) Maya Deren
The Travelling Players (1975) Theodoros Angelopoulos
The Tree of Life (2010) Terrence Malick
Two or Three Things I Know About Her… (1967) Jean-Luc Godard
Wavelength (1967) Michael Snow

110. -- 15 Votes
L'Age d'Or (1930) Luis Buñuel
Bringing Up Baby (1938) Howard Hawks
The Lady Eve (1941) Preston Sturges
Los Olvidados (1950) Luis Buñuel
The Passenger (1974) Michelangelo Antonioni
Performance (1970) Donald Cammell/Nicolas Roeg
Viridiana (1961) Luis Buñuel

117. -- 14 Votes
Amarcord (1972) Federico Fellini
A Canterbury Tale (1944) Michael Powell/Emeric Pressburger
A City of Sadness (1989) Hsiao-hsien Hou
Days of Heaven (1978) Terrence Malick
Dr. Strangelove (1963) Stanley Kubrick
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962) John Ford
Mouchette (1966) Robert Bresson
Nosferatu (1922) FW Murnau
The Red Shoes (1948) Michael Powell/Emeric Pressburger
Trouble in Paradise (1932) Ernst Lubitsch

127. -- 13 Votes
Annie Hall (1977) Woody Allen
Apartment, The (1960) Billy Wilder
L'argent (1983) Robert Bresson
Celine and Julie Go Boating (1974) Jacques Rivette
Do The Right Thing (1989) Spike Lee
Don't Look Now (1973) Nicolas Roeg
Hiroshima Mon Amour (1959) Alain Resnais
Ikiru (1952) Akira Kurosawa
Jules et Jim (1962) François Truffaut
The Last Laugh (1924) FW Murnau
Meet Me In St. Louis (1944) Vincente Minnelli
Out 1 (1971) Jacques Rivette
Pulp Fiction (1994) Quentin Tarantino
The River (1951) Jean Renoir
Spring in a Small Town (1948) Fei Mu
Three Colours: Blue (1993) Krzysztof Kieslowski
Tropical Malady (2004) Apichatpong Weerasethakul

144. -- 12 Votes
Blow Up (1966) Michelangelo Antonioni
Chungking Express (1994) Wong Kar Wai
Diary of a Country Priest (1951) Robert Bresson
The Great Dictator (1940) Charles Chaplin
Memories of Underdevelopment (1968) Tomás Gutiérrez Alea
Napoleon (1927) Abel Gance
To Be or Not To Be (1942) Ernst Lubitsch
Vivre Sa Vie (1962) Jean-Luc Godard
The Wizard of Oz (1939) Victor Fleming
A Woman Under the Influence (1974) John Cassavetes

154. -- 11 Votes
Black Narcissus (1947) Michael Powell/Emeric Pressburger
Brief Encounter (1945) David Lean
Chimes at Midnight (1966) Orson Welles
Come and See (1985) Elem Klimov
Cries and Whispers (1957) Ingmar Bergman
Distant Voices, Still Lives (1988) Terence Davies
The Gold Rush (1925) Charles Chaplin
Hidden (2004) Michael Haneke
In a Lonely Place (1950) Nicholas Ray
Letter From an Unknown Woman (1948) Max Ophüls
Marketa Lazarová (1967) Frantisek Vlácil
My Neighbour Totoro (1988) Miyazaki Hayao
Once Upon a Time in America (1983) Sergio Leone
Only Angels Have Wings (1939) Howard Hawks
The Shining (1980) Stanley Kubrick
Solaris (1972) Andrei Tarkovsky
Vampyr (1932) Carl Theodor Dreyer

171. -- 10 Votes
Earth (1930) Aleksandr Dovzhenko
Goodfellas (1990) Martin Scorsese
His Girl Friday (1939) Howard Hawks
Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949) Robert Hamer
King Kong (1933) Merian C. Cooper/Ernest B. Schoedsack
Notorious (1946) Alfred Hitchcock
Star Wars (1977) George Lucas
Sweet Smell of Success (1957) Alexander Mackendrick
Tabu (1931) F.W. Murnau
A Trip to the Moon (1902) Georges Méliès
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964) Jacques Demy
Werckmeister Harmonies (2000) Béla Tarr

183. -- 9 Votes
Breaking the Waves (1996) Lars von Trier
The Conversation (1974) Francis Ford Coppola
Day of Wrath (1943) Carl Theodor Dreyer
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972) Luis Buñuel
E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (1982) Steven Spielberg
Eraserhead (1976) David Lynch
Faces (1968) John Cassavetes
The Grapes of Wrath (1940) John Ford
I Know Where I'm Going! (1945) Michael Powell/Emeric Pressburger
I Was Born, But... (1932) Ozu Yasujirô
Listen to Britain (1942) Humphrey Jennings/Stewart McAllister
The Music Room (1958) Satyajit Ray
Out of the Past (1947) Jacques Tourneur
Paris, Texas (1984) Wim Wenders
Rome, Open City (1945) Roberto Rossellini
The Story of the Late Chrysanthemums (1939) Mizoguchi Kenji
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) Tobe Hooper
The Thin Red Line (1998) Terrence Malick
A Touch of Zen (1969) King Hu

202. -- 8 Votes
Army of Shadows (1969) Jean-Pierre Melville
Badlands (1973) Terrence Malick
Berlin Alexanderplatz (1980) Rainer Werner Fassbinder
The Big Sleep (1946) Howard Hawks
Chelsea Girls (1966) Andy Warhol
Cleo from 5 to 7 (1962) Agnès Varda
Daisies (1966) Vera Chytilová
The Death of Mr. Lazarescu (2005) Cristi Puiu
The Devil Probably (1977) Robert Bresson
Duck Soup (1933) Leo McCarey
The Exterminating Angel (1962) Luis Buñuel
Floating Clouds (1955) Naruse Mikio
Germany Year Zero (1948) Roberto Rossellini
Killer of Sheep (1977) Charles Burnett
Kings of the Road (1976) Wim Wenders
The Life of Oharu (1952) Mizoguchi Kenji
Love Streams (1984) John Cassavetes
Manhattan (1979) Woody Allen
Paisà (1946) Roberto Rossellini
Red Desert (1964) Michelangelo Antonioni
Russian Ark (2002) Aleksandr Sokurov
Salo, or The 120 Days of Sodom (1975) Pier Paolo Pasolini
Shop Around the Corner, The (1940) Ernst Lubitsch
Spirited Away (2001) Miyazaki Hayao
La Strada (1954) Federico Fellini
A Tale of Tales (1979) Yuri Norstein
There Will Be Blood (2007) Paul Thomas Anderson
The Turin Horse (2011) Béla Tarr
Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (2010) Apichatpong Weerasethakul
Videodrome (1983) David Cronenberg
WALL-E (2008) Andrew Stanton
Wanda (1970) Barbara Loden
West of the Tracks (2002) Wang Bing

235. -- 7 Votes
An Autumn Afternoon (1962) Ozu Yasujirô
The Cabinet of Dr Caligari (1919) Robert Wiene
A Clockwork Orange (1971) Stanley Kubrick
The Double Life of Veronique (1991) Krzysztof Kieslowski
Gone with the Wind (1939) Victor Fleming
The House is Black (1962) Forough Farrokhzad
Kes (1969) Ken Loach
Melancholia (2011) Lars von Trier
My Darling Clementine (1946) John Ford
The Piano (1992) Jane Campion
Red River (1947) Howard Hawks
The Testament of Dr. Mabuse (1933) Fritz Lang
The Thin Blue Line (1989) Errol Morris
Three Colours: Red (1994) Krzysztof Kieslowski
Two-Lane Blacktop (1971) Monte Hellman
The World of Apu (1958) Satyajit Ray

from ilx and elsewhere, i get the feeling that this poll is def getting ppl to check out movies, maybe even 'obvious' classics, they've never seen before. i bet netflix (or whateves)'rentals' of eg MAN WITH A MOVIE CAMERA have shot up over the last month or so. there's about twenty films i've never seen out of the 100, one of which was, until the other day, IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE, which struck me as a perfectly 'nice' film but a bit underwhelming and not really top 100 material imho - still, another one ticked off (not really)

ITMFL is one of my favs but probably better after some chewing over imo, & on second/third/&c screenings. like i love it so much but part of what's so charming is knowing that it doesn't at any point go all out, which you only know after.

Thanks for the 101-250 list. I gave up clicking through--they've cross-formatted everything else really well, but the full 250 list is onerous.

Biggest gripe is that there are no director landing pages. I still haven't taken the time to see which Spielbergs landed in 2nd, 3rd, 4th, et al.

I'm not able to cut and paste from PDF files, but the print version has a bunch of appended lists after the critics section--by director, by decade, by country, by genre. The director list has the Top 25; here are the Top 10.

1) Hitchcock -- 318 votes
2) Godard -- 238
3) Welles -- 231
4) Ozu -- 189
5) Renoir -- 179
6) Ford & Dreyer -- 158
8) Kubrick -- 157
9) Tarkovsky -- 153
10) Bresson -- 149

Didn't know the fifth-place documentary, West of the Tracks, at all; going to see if the specialty video store I go to has it.

Jesus, Bunuel just can't catch a break, can he?

Sixteenth (114 votes), if that's any consolation--and ahead of, among others, Antonioni, Chaplin, Scorsese, Lang, Eisenstein, and Mizoguchi.

Yeah, Mizoguchi's another one that kinda got the shaft this time around, comparatively.

Academy-style aversion to comedy (the funny kind)

A bunch of Bunuel films in the lower half and hundreds.

the Academy isn't much a fan of comedy (the unfunny kind) either

The Artist!

I admit my compass is a little skewed, but ... that was supposed to be a comedy?!

love this list from another ilxor:

http://explore.bfi.org.uk/sightandsoundpolls/2012/voter/341

― Ward Fowler, Thursday, 16 August 2012 13:25 (9 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

That list is some all-time challops.

― Eric H., Thursday, 16 August 2012 13:26 (9 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

...whose blurb doesn't mention Pirates of the Carribean....

― a regina spektor is haunting europe (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 16 August 2012 13:26 (9 hours ago) Bookmark

Oh, but it does.

Hmm. I've been following this thread with interest and intend to pick up the magazine, if I actually see it. By coincidence, I've very recently been discovering I completely adore the WW2 era Powell & Pressburger films, but I also mean to check out a lot of the other films listed. (non film nerd here)

One thing. Where is Mike Leigh? Is he not respected / known outside the UK? I would have thought Secrets & Lies or maybe Career Girls would have been nominated by one person, at least. Nuts in May? C'mon! I remember seeing Bleak Moments at the BFI a couple of years ago and was astounded by its, well, bleakness. Loved that film actually.

idn't know the fifth-place documentary, West of the Tracks, at all; going to see if the specialty video store I go to has it.

― clemenza, Thursday, 16 August 2012 18:56 (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

advance warning in case you sit down to squeeze it in after a late tuesday night dinner it is nine hours long

Yeah, I was just surprised by the lack of Nuts in May. But then, Billy Liar only got one vote so the whole thing could surprise you all night.

Other surprises: Film Socalisme getting two votes, Chris Nolan only getting one (for Memento).

Interesting that four of the six people picking INLAND EMPIRE are Spanish

http://explore.bfi.org.uk/sightandsoundpolls/2012/film/4ce2b8bf0cf11

re: Leigh

as far as i can tell, he got the following votes:

#377 Naked (4 votes)
#447 Topsy Turvy (3 votes)
#588 Secrets and Lies (2 votes)

imho, over time Topsy Turvy will become the default Leigh 'classic' - it won't date because of the period setting, the millieu means it avoids problems of class and caricature that always count against Leigh, and it is a rare comedy about artistic creation and the nature of collaboration that communicates some of Leigh's obvious fondness for actors and performers.

but it's at least superficially an aberration, "problems of class" are what define him.

Think Topsy-Turvy got 4 votes last time around (which was, in '02, good enough for the top 100).

I love Leigh, but I simply wouldn't put any of his on a top-10 alltime list, which is my problem with "Where is..." reactions.

The Big Lebowski
Where Is My Friend's House?
All That Heaven Allows
The Gospel According to St. Matthew
Husbands
The Puppetmaster
All About Eve
How Green Was My Valley
Belle de Jour
Sicilia!
The Band Wagon
The White Ribbon
F for Fake
A Moment of Innocence
The Wind Will Carry Us
Rocco and His Brothers
Blissfully Yours
Flowers of Shanghai
Colossal Youth
Death in Venice
All About My Mother
The Cloud-Capped Star
Pandora's Box
Le Samouraï
By the Bluest of Seas
Stromboli
A nos Amours
Throne of Blood
Umberto D
Les demoiselles de Rochefort
Sullivan's Travels
Shadows

These films also had 7 votes and are ranked at 235. I wonder what the rationale was for leaving them off the main list.

A lot of awesome movies in that grouping. Boo on them getting the online shaft. (My hunch is that nothing outside of the top 100 is being published in the magazine itself.)

Also, I think Fear Eats the Soul was left off the top 100, though it tied for 93rd with 17 votes.

i feel you guys but i think it is a pretty big additional complication to decide in which order equal-ranking entries that crossover the various cutover points - ie 101 ->, or 251 -> should be listed. like what would be a good criteria for denoting hierarchy? i guess they could cross correlate with director votes or something, but it doesn't seem like a huge deal to me.

effin' enrique w/ Ferris Bueller

possible schlump top ten contender
if it doesn't make it it's cause the breakfast club did

The other voter for Bueller gave votes to De Palma and J. Lewis, tho. :D

Another good list:

http://explore.bfi.org.uk/sightandsoundpolls/2012/voter/350

Thoughts on Lucia and Dodeskaden?

Maaaybe saw Dodeskaden long ago, don't remember.

Nic Rapold, hero:

http://explore.bfi.org.uk/sightandsoundpolls/2012/film/4ce2b6b08035d

Dodeskaden is meh, but I can see how someone who listed Gleaners would also list that.

that warner list is terrible

Eniaios is made up of 22 sections, which, when printed in their entirity, will run for approximately 80 hours. Since Markopoulos’ death in 1991, his companion and heir, filmmaker Robert Beavers, has been printing it whenever possible, but only a handful of the film’s sections, or ‘Orders’, have yet been shown. I have seen all of Order II and Order V, and about half of Order III. Any one of them alone would be at the top of my list, so on faith I list the entire film. My inclusion of India is based on the Cinémathèque Française print I viewed in 1970, which had reasonably good colour. I don’t get much from the recent restoration. If the new print is all that will ever be shown, I would list Rossellini’s The Messiah instead. I constructed my list by first determining my favorite filmmakers, and then limiting myself to one film by each. My criteria have been entirely aesthetic. The focus in such lists on the value of individual films as separated from their makers’ oeuvres is, in my view, more than a little dubious, and is altogether too much of a piece with the object-oriented, consumerist nature of our culture. One gains much more from considering a filmmaker’s output whole, and it is considered this way that, I believe, my choices will make the most sense. Each great filmmaker uses film language in a unique way, and each film helps one learn how to see the others. A major filmmaker’s work also offers a more expansive vision than does any film taken individually. Thus I would prefer that an interested viewer see any ten films by a single filmmaker on my list rather than one by each. Mizoguchi’s Genroku Chushingura, for example, is not necessarily greater, and certainly not more emotionally affecting, than Sansho Dayu, but it has both a uniqueness and a perfection different from that found in his later films, a comparison that only becomes clear when one has seen many. Eniaios is perhaps the most purely cinematic of films. Other arts are major inspirations, to be sure, but the film itself, with its flash frames and solid blacks and whites alternating in amazingly architectural rhythms (I thought, among other things, of classical temple columns separated by sky) can stand for, and in some ways surpass, what is best about the greatest films: a rhythmically pulsating rectangle of light. It attains an all-encompassing hugeness unparalleled in any other film I know. Mizoguchi attains an ineffable spatial perfection, raising to sublimity the weight of human emotion, history and some sense of emptiness. Rossellini’s world-encompassing vision in India is unique in his work. Brakhage’s Egyptian Series attains a level of abstraction beyond even that of his ‘Romans’ and ‘Arabics’, shifting clouds of textured light conveying qualities that have no verbal equivalents. L’Argent is a terrifying mechanism, a vision of horrible inevitability, an emptying out that surpasses even other Bresson films. Schwechater, which is only one minute in length, is one of the most perfect, ecstatic and amazingly complex of constructions. Naruse’s late ‘Scope films are perhaps his greatest, being indescribably moving even while avoiding the emotionalised visual expressions of so many melodramas to instead create an unbiased openness to the world. It is hard to choose a best Hawks – his visual style seems to grow from the tiniest of character gestures to patterns of space and light that parallel the organicity of bodies in space. While Seven Women is in some ways the greatest Ford, The Sun Shines Bright combines a depth of vision with a perfection of narrative that perfectly matches Ford’s visual evocations of honour, community, memory and loss. As with most of the other films on my list, Robert Breer’s many short masterpieces have yet to receive their proper recognition, but he achieves a cinematic intensity unlike any other filmmaker, combining flicker, color, line and depth paradoxes that underline the artificiality of film space, together with a humour that underlines absurdities. The vision that he achieves is transformative.

http://explore.bfi.org.uk/sightandsoundpolls/2012/voter/598

fred camper does actually use paragraphs so forgive the formatting

anyway, he is by the most interesting critical outlier

a rhythmically pulsating rectangle of light

The Warner list has a couple of items that have my attention. No way its 'terrible', and chimes in with her interests.

Camper's one has more than a couple of items that I'll be interested in.