If you’re looking for a way to decide which movies should be at the top of your viewing list, Sight & Sound’s Best Movies of All Time poll is a great starting point. The poll, updated every 10 years, is a tradition among Sight & Sound staff, with hundreds of critics naming the undisputed best film of all time.
Since 1952, this list It reflects the changes in cinema over the years. Hundreds of the world’s most beloved films, from early films like Sunrise to more recent ones like Moonlight, were selected for the magazine’s survey.
Sight & Sound’s survey lists 250 movies, but we’ve boiled down the list to the top 12 and provided details about the movie’s plot and its importance in mainstream cinema. From Alfred Hitchcock’s American thrillers to early Soviet documentaries, here are the films that received the most votes in Sight and Sound’s latest poll.
Jeanne Dielman 23, Quai du Commerce 1080 Bruxelles
Six years after her husband’s death, a depressed housewife (Delphine Seyrig) handles household chores, cares for her teenage son, and casually sells her body to support her child and herself.
solar eclipse dizzyThe number one movie of all time goes to Jeanne Dielman23. Quai de Commerce 1080 Brussels. An emotionally charged and painfully minimalist film, it is an evocative portrait of the famous Jeanne Dielman and the contradictory lifestyle she leads on a daily basis, at once ordinary and extraordinary.
dizzy
John “Scotty” Ferguson (James Stewart) is a former San Francisco police officer who retired after developing severe vertigo. On behalf of his old friend (Tom Helmore), Scotty is hired to tail his friend’s wife (Kim Novak) around town, only to be constantly hindered by his distress.
Like most directors on this list, Alfred Hitchcock has many masterpieces to his name, but few are as beloved among critics. dizzy. A thriller of Freud’s nightmares, this film is a strange, surreal, almost dream-like film about fear and obsession (two hallmarks of this Master of Suspense’s many films). (common to most).
citizen kane
When wealthy newspaper magnate Charles Foster Kane (Orson Welles) dies, a reporter (William Alland) follows Kane’s life to piece together the meaning behind his mysterious last words, “Rosebud.” be hired by
Probably the most famous American film (or at least the most widely taught film in film schools) citizen kane This is the masterpiece of Orson Welles’ career as an actor, writer, and director. He introduced innovative technology that is commonplace in the industry, citizen kane It overcame its initial hostile reception and became a classic of mainstream cinema.
Tokyo Story
An elderly couple (Ryu Chishu and Higashiyama Chieko) who wanted to visit Tokyo with their adult children travel to Tokyo, but find that the children are too busy to spend time with their parents.
Alongside the famous Akira Kurosawa, Yasujiro Ozu remains one of Japan’s most respected film directors. Tokyo Story It is his major work. Although heartbreaking in its content, this is a film that makes you think about family relationships and how incredibly hurtful you can be to those you love, even when you don’t mean to.
In the Mood for Love
Maggie Cheung and Tony Leung, neighbors in the apartment, learn that their respective partners have eloped with each other and form a close friendship to mend their broken hearts, gradually developing romantic feelings for each other.
When most hardcore movie fans think of modern writers, Wong Kar-wai should be one of the names that immediately comes to mind. Known for its wonderful Hong Kong romance films that mix various genres, In the Mood for Love It’s a drama similar to short encounter – and every bit as hauntingly beautiful and overwhelmingly emotional as David Lean’s classic film.
2001: A Space Odyssey
After a mysterious extraterrestrial monolith is discovered on Jupiter, scientists are sent there to investigate, only to find themselves increasingly hostile to the sentient supercomputer HAL (Douglas Raines). The mission will be at risk.
Almost all of Stanley Kubrick’s films are included in Sight & Sound’s survey, even the speculative dystopian works such as clockwork orange Even psychological horror movies like The Shining. However, despite Kubrick’s many acclaimed films, 2001: A Space Odyssey Take the proverbial cake regarding Kubrick’s groundbreaking work. It uses cutting-edge techniques that still look great today, not to mention an intentionally challenging and open-ended story. 2001: A Space Odyssey It continues to rank among the best science fiction films of all time.
Beau Travail
At his home in Marseille, a former French Foreign Legion officer (Denis Lavant) recalls his days leading troops in Djibouti, until the arrival of a new recruit (Grégoire Collin) takes his career back on track.
No other movie has ever dissected the harsh military life so thoroughly. Beau Travail. Dissecting everything from masculinity to jealousy to defensive attitudes about one’s destined career path, this film is just another example of why Claire Denis is one of today’s most exciting directors.
Mulholland Drive
After a car accident on Hollywood’s famous Mulholland Drive leaves her with severe memory loss (Laura Harring), a young aspiring actor (Naomi Watts) helps her discover who she is. trying to remember.
Mulholland Drive, a stylistic continuation of the equally captivating film Vertigo, marked a return to form for David Lynch after a decade of critically so-so films. Combining Lynch’s trademark surrealism with classic noir motifs, the film reads like Lynch’s take on a Hollywood industry filled with envy, jealousy, moral corruption, and superhuman powers. Masu.
man with movie camera
In the late 1920s, documentarian Dziga Vertov used his trusty camera to capture life in the Soviet Union ten years after the fall of the Tsar, interacting with the citizens of Moscow, Kiev, and Odessa.
At the time this film was made, filmmakers were still exploring the boundaries of the documentary format.With the perfect name man with movie cameraVertov helped set these boundaries in place and introduced complex new techniques. These techniques were later adopted by future documentarians and almost all the filmmakers on this list in the coming decades.
sing in the rain
In the late 1920s, a group of silent film stars do their best to adapt to the changes in the industry brought about by the introduction of sound to movies.
Movies that represent the Golden Age of Hollywood, sing in the rain It’s one of the most beloved musicals of all time. Featuring incredible dance numbers from the legendary Gene Kelly and Debbie Reynolds, this film is a rare ’50s film with both style and substance.
Sunrise: Song of Two Humans
A farmer (George O’Brien) is forced to kill his wife by a seductive woman from the big city (Margaret Livingstone), but instead he rediscovers his long-lost love for her (Janet Gaynor). , rekindle your marriage.
An early American film directed by pioneering film director F.W. Murnau. Sunrise: Song of Two Humans is a very moving film and has aged surprisingly well. Despite the obvious lack of sound, the actors’ facial expressions and the music alone can convey a lot of emotion (interestingly, this was one of the first feature films to synchronize the soundtrack and sound effects). one of his).
godfather
After his gangster father (Marlon Brando) is plotted to be assassinated by a rival organization, an idealistic Marine (Al Pacino) reluctantly joins the family business and becomes a powerful Mafia don.
Many films were released during the acclaimed New Hollywood era, but few were as influential as Francis Ford Coppola’s crime epic. godfather. This film, one of the most influential American films of all time, is a changing portrait of Michael Corleone played by Pacino, and the film explores his attempts to live his life independently of his family. He begins as a mature young man. It’s only at the end of the film that we realize how complete Coppola’s descent into the criminal underworld has become, and Coppola symbolically closes the door on Michael, cutting off his chance at a normal life forever. Ta.
