Pretend you have a ballot for the 2022 edition of Sight & Sound's top 10 movies of all time list

I guess that one of these 3 films was the champion : Tokyo Story (1953) or 2001: A Space Odyssey, maybe The Rules of the Game (1939)

Of these three, I feel like 2001 stands the best chance.

I'd heartily endorse Regle at #1 but I fear it's descent is only going to continue

I’m not sure whether one of those three historically lauded films landing at #1 in a massively over-inclusive critics poll really would count as “very surprising”

Jeanne Dielman somewhere in the top 10 would be so great!

After seeing Blue Velvet again, I agree with Owen G that it was a groundbreaking Lynch film and one of his most important

In his rant against Vertigo - it's 2012 position at #1, and the subsequent analysis of it by critics - he makes a good case for how great it really is, and why other critics might see it the way they do

Just sent in my picks for the @BFI Sight & Sound Best Films of All Time director's poll, honored to get to vote!! pic.twitter.com/ijaWV3Bhp5

— Jane Schoenbrun (@janeschoenbrun) November 8, 2022

Genuinely hope Speed Racer tops Citizen Kane in the directors' poll

It sure seems like directors weren't explicitly asked NOT to share their ballots prior to the Dec. 1 unveiling

Thrilled to be asked to submit my picks for the @bfi S&S poll: pic.twitter.com/MfD4MEVtSp

— Rodney Ascher (@Rodney_Ascher) November 8, 2022

Citizen Kane probably is still the best movie though

Eh

Yep, except for Speed Racer.

Go, Speed Racer, go!

seriously though, I'm wondering what the "surprising change at the top" could possibly mean. I can't imagine a film outside of the previous top entries just swoop in to take the top spot.

I think one or more of the three silent films that were in the top 10 in the 2012 poll could easily fall out of favor with the new voters. Probably not Sunrise, but one or both of the other two

*could just

also it seems like The Searchers is due for a reckoning

Hasn’t it, like “Cold Turkey” before it, been slipping off the charts for a while now?

I think The Searchers will be lucky to make the top 25. If it were only Americans voting, likely even lower.

Man with a Movie Camera had an unusually high placement in 2012, at #8. It's at #70 in 2002 and #44 in 1992. Guessing that'll drop.

Shooting from beyond half-court: Mulholland Drive will be #1.

That’s been my outside bet for a while. But 2032 more likely.

So is it challops or something to still like The Searchers or okay just as long as you don’t rate it higher than, say, Speed Racer?

xxp Mulholland was my first thought too, tbh

this hadn't occurred to me before, but seeing it juxtaposed with The Searchers, it's interesting that Speed Racer seems to have evaded being accused of whitewashing its source material

The Searchers is very much underrated in this era, you don't have to be Morbs to feel that way

I agree, and I'm not much of a fan.

With The Searchers out of the way, Ford is going to enjoy the Bunuel conundrum in these all-time roundups -- too many contenders, with none clearly out in front

The Godfather
Raging Bull
L’Atalante
Nosferatu
The Swimmer
Blue Velvet
City Lights
No Country for Old Men
Sunrise — A Song of Two Humans
Playtime

For The Searchers to succeed on the level of its ambitions, you need spectators that see Wayne as a mythic figure, and I don't know if enough of those people exist to rank it highly in 2022.

the Bunuel conundrum in these all-time roundups -- too many contenders, with none clearly out in front

Mexican Bus Ride the surprise #1!!

Why do people think The Searchers is going to fall out of the Top 10? It moved into the Top 10 last poll. The film's politics? They've always been there--I don't think you're supposed to admire the Wayne character. (When it was made, I suppose, but the film is adaptable to time; you can see the character's deranged racism today, and the character is more complicated as time goes on.)

xp absolutely spot-on observation, Halfway

(the first post, not the second) (I've seen Mexican Bus Ride)

I feel like The Searchers is an ur-text for a generation of filmmakers (Scorsese, Schrader, Lucas) that don't have quite the currency that they used to--or at least, aren't as central to film culture as they were a few decades ago. If the film drops in the poll, I think (or at least I'd like to think) that, and not the film's easily-misread racial politics, would be the reason why. That said, I know next to nothing about the demographics of the voters here; still, I'd be very surprised if The Searchers ever topped the poll.

(basically, what Halfway said)

Yes Halfway OTM about the diminishing of Wayne's mythic status. Even in the last ten years, the horrors of the Wayne Playboy interview have been revisited for a new generation of filmists on Twitter etc.

I'd genuinely welcome Liberty Valence suddenly vaulting into the top 10

I've been trying to watch John Ford's films again, in order. There are so many of them, including charming silents like Just Pals and The Iron Horse, as well as many others I had never seen before. I've had to skip a lot of them because of access but so far I'm up through Fort Apache (1948).

I still haven't seen Liberty Valance

I like Liberty Valence, but--unlike The Searchers--it's not much to look at, and there's probably just as much cornball stuff in one as the other.

I've always found The Searchers very, very far from Ford's best, given that My Darling Clementine, Rio Bravo, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon exist.

er, Rio Grande.

Rio Bravo is Howard Hawks, but I assume that most people here know that, and yes, I see that you corrected yourself,

More understandable than if you'd typed in Blame It on Rio.

OMG

I don't know about top ten, but I would not be surprised if "Jeanne Dielman...", "In the Mood for Love" and "Mulholland Dr." all break the top 20 in the critics' poll this time. My guess for #1 on the critics' poll would be "Tokyo Story" (which actually was #1 in the 2012 directors' poll). I noticed it was the only Asian film in the top 10 (top 14, actually) for both polls in 2012.

I'm sure someone has crunched the numbers, but I wonder if my hunch is correct that the vast majority of voters limit one film per director on their lists, which might help boost "Tokyo Story" (Ozu's "Late Spring" was his 2nd highest ranking, #15 on the critics' poll but not even in the top 100 of the directors' poll.) as the Ozu frontrunner. Whereas a director like, say, Coppola has both "The Godfather" (#7 for directors) and "Apocalypse Now" (#6 for directors) in the mix.

I'm poring over this page, btw:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sight_%26_Sound_Greatest_Films_of_All_Time_2012

I think Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles, In the Mood for Love, and Mulholland Drive could all end up in the top 20 if not the top 10, and Apocalypse Now is going to continue to outpace The Godfather films in the ranking

I wonder how the silent film canon will fair. I get the feeling that Buster Keaton’s stock has risen in past ten years, so wouldn’t be surprised if ‘The General’ or ‘One Week’, did much better this time.

Jeanne Dielman's appearance in the poll last time surely an effect of it finally getting a dece home video release from Criterion; before that it was very difficult to see at all. I think many of the new arrivals this time round will also be tied to new physical media restorations.

I could see The General taking a hit for centering the Confederate army. Sherlock Jr might be easier to get behind.

I like Liberty Valence, but--unlike The Searchers--it's not much to look at, and there's probably just as much cornball stuff in one as the other.

I disagree on both points. It is very much something to look at tho not as much in the buttes department, and modern viewers' main beef with The Searchers isn't, in general, that it's "cornball."

Apocalypse Now is going to continue to outpace The Godfather films in the ranking

So long as S&S continues to force Godfather fans to pick one or the other or use two of their votes ... which, to be clear, they should continue to be forced to do

I could see The General taking a hit for centering the Confederate army. Sherlock Jr might be easier to get behind.

This is possible ... Sherlock Jr. sure fits nicely into the navel-gazing era Owen G. was railing about 10 years ago.