Following the British Film Institute and Sight & Sound magazine’s publishing of its once-a-decade ‘Greatest Films of All Time’ poll, film fans on social media have been engaged in debate.
Talk has gone well beyond the divisive choice of Chantal Akerman’s “Jeanne Dielman, 23 Commerce Quay, 1080 Brussels” taking the top spot away from “Vertigo” (which took it from “Citizen Kane” before that).
Some have debated the inclusion of Celine Sciamma’s 2019 film “Portrait of a Lady on Fire” so early and so high at #30, the lack of any musicals bar “Singin’ in the Rain,” only two westerns (“Once Upon a Time in the West,” “The Searchers”), and so few 21st century inclusions which are limited to “Mulholland Drive,” “In the Mood for Love,” “Spirited Away,” “Moonlight,” “Parasite,” “Yi Yi,” “Get Out” and “Tropical Malady”.
A good swath of the conversation though has been about its exclusions, specifically the twenty-five notable films that were included in the 2012 version but have been pushed out of the Top 100 this time.
Judging by the comments, the most egregious of these seems to be David Lean’s “Lawrence of Arabia” and Francis Ford Coppola’s “The Godfather Part II” being shoved off the list.
Other notable exclusions Orson Welles’ “Touch of Evil” and “The Magnificent Ambersons,” Roman Polanski’s “Chinatown,” Sam Peckinpah’s “The Wild Bunch,” Martin Scorsese’s “Raging Bull,” Howard Hawks’ “Rio Bravo,” and multiple Ingmar Bergman titles like “Wild Strawberries” and “Fanny and Alexander”.
Letterboxd has published the full list of those exclusions, which you can see below. The full list of the 100 Greatest Films is up at BFI.org.uk.
The films that fell out of the 2022 #SightAndSoundPoll
View the full list of 25 titles, courtesy of @kmjones234: https://t.co/Rh7ZtOpxJu pic.twitter.com/iVqjqRiDvH
— Letterboxd (@letterboxd) December 2, 2022
