The Top 100 Greatest Films of All Time - Sight & Sound - BFI PDF

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In our biggest ever film critics’ poll, the list of

best movies ever made has a new top film,
ending the 50-year reign of Citizen Kane. (/taxonomy/term/868)
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The 100 Greatest
Films of All Time
surveys/greatest-films-all-time/introduction)
☞ See all our coverage of this poll (/sight-sound-
magazine/greatest-films-all-time-2012-homepage)
☞ See our annual best-films lists and more surveys

(/news-opinion/sight-sound-magazine/polls-surveys)
Sight & Sound contributors , Ian Christie (/people/ian-christie)

Updated: 23 March 2020
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1. Vertigo (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-
people/4ce2b6b9caca4)
Alfred Hitchcock, USA 1958
A former detective with a fear of heights is hired to follow a woman apparently possessed by the past in
Alfred Hitchcock’s timeless thriller about obsession.
The accession of Vertigo to the top spot in this poll is hardly in the nature of a coup d’état. Tying for
11th place in 1972, Hitchcock’s masterpiece steadily inched up the poll over the next three decades,
and by 2002 was clearly the heir apparent to the long-ruling Citizen Kane. Still, even ardent
Wellesians should feel gratified at the modest revolution – if only for the proof that film canons (and
the versions of history they legitimate) are not completely fossilised.
There may be no larger significance in the bare fact that a couple of films made in California 17 years
apart have traded numerical rankings on a whimsically impressionistic list. Yet the human urge to
interpret chance phenomena will not be denied, and Vertigo is a crafty, duplicitous machine for
spinning meaning…
— Peter Matthews’ opening to his commemorative poll essay Vertigo rises: the greatest film of all
time? (/news-opinion/sight-sound-magazine/polls-surveys/greatest-films-all-time/vertigo-hitchcock-
new-number-one)
See all 191 votes for Vertigo (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b6b9caca4/sightandsoundpoll2012)
Also read Forever falling: Miguel Marías’s advocation for Vertigo as the greatest film of all time (/news-
opinion/sight-sound-magazine/features/greatest-films-all-time/forever-falling-vertigo)
Watch Vertigo online in BFI Player (https://player.bfi.org.uk/rentals/film/watch-vertigo-1958-online)
Watch Kim Novak discuss Vertigo (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Im8wCTSCw4)

Yes, I agree
/
2. Citizen Kane (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-
people/4ce2b6a7a801b)
Orson Welles, USA 1941
Given extraordinary freedom by Hollywood studio RKO for his debut film, boy wonder Welles created a
modernist masterpiece that is regularly voted the best film ever made.
Kane and Vertigo don’t top the chart by divine right. But those two films are just still the best at doing
what great cinema ought to do: extending the everyday into the visionary.
— Nigel Andrews (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/sightandsoundpoll2012/voter/246)
In the last decade I’ve watched this first feature many times, and each time, it reveals new treasures.
Clearly, no single film is the greatest ever made. But if there were one, for me Kane would now be the
strongest contender, bar none.
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All celluloid life is present in Citizen Kane; seeing it for the first or umpteenth time remains a
revelation.
— Trevor Johnston (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/sightandsoundpoll2012/voter/38)
See all 157 votes for Citizen Kane (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-

people/4ce2b6a7a801b/sightandsoundpoll2012)
Read The mark of Kane: David Thomson on Kane’s long reign as the Greatest Film of All Time (/news-
opinion/sight-sound-magazine/features/greatest-films-all-time/mark-kane)
3. Tokyo Story (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-

people/4ce2b6b8908e4)
Ozu Yasujiro, Japan 1953
The final part of Yasujiro Ozu’s loosely connected ‘Noriko’ trilogy is a devastating story of elderly
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Ozu used to liken himself to a “tofu-maker”, in reference to the way his films – at least the post-war
ones – were all variations on a small number of themes. So why is it Tokyo Story that is acclaimed by
most as his masterpiece? DVD releases have made available such prewar films as I Was Born,
But…, and yet the Ozu vote has not been split, and Tokyo Story has actually climbed two places
since 2002. It may simply be that in Tokyo Story this most Japanese tofu-maker refined his art to the
point of perfection, and crafted a truly universal film about family, time and loss.
— James Bell
See all 107 votes for Tokyo Story (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-

people/4ce2b6b8908e4/sightandsoundpoll2012)
Watch Tokyo Story online in BFI Player (https://player.bfi.org.uk/subscription/film/watch-tokyo-story-

1953-online)
Read The master of time: Thom Andersen on Ozu Yasujirô (/news-opinion/sight-sound-
magazine/features/greatest-films-all-time/ozu-yasujir-master-time)

4. La Règle du jeu (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-
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people/4ce2b6b41d658)
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Jean Renoir, France 1939
Made on the cusp of WWII, Jean Renoir’s satire of the upper-middle classes was banned as demoralising
by the French government for two decades after its release
Only Renoir has managed to express on film the most elevated notion of naturalism, examining this
world from a perspective that is dark, cruel but objective, before going on to achieve the serenity of
the work of his old age. With him, one has no qualms about using superlatives: La Règle du jeu is
quite simply the greatest French film by the greatest of French directors.
— Olivier Père
See all 100 votes for La Règle du Jeu (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-

people/4ce2b6b41d658/sightandsoundpoll2012)
Watch La Règle du jeu online on BFI Player (https://player.bfi.org.uk/subscription/film/watch-la-regle-

du-jeu-1939-online) (UK only)

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5. Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans
(http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b6b7568ee)
F.W. Murnau, USA 1927
Lured to Hollywood by producer William Fox, German Expressionist filmmaker F.W. Murnau created one of
the silent cinema’s last and most luminous masterpieces.
When F.W. Murnau left Germany for America in 1926, did cinema foresee what was coming? Did it
sense that change was around the corner – that now was the time to fill up on fantasy, delirium and
spectacle before talking actors wrenched the artform closer to reality? Many things make this film
more than just a morality tale about temptation and lust, a fable about a young husband so crazy with
desire for a city girl that he contemplates drowning his wife, an elemental but sweet story of a
husband and wife rediscovering their love for each other. Sunrise was an example – perhaps never
again repeated on the same scale – of unfettered imagination and the clout of the studio system
working together rather than at cross purposes.
— Isabel Stevens
See all 93 votes for this Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-
people/4ce2b6b7568ee/sightandsoundpoll2012)
Read Where to begin with F.W. Murnau (/news-opinion/news-bfi/features/where-begin-fw-murnau)

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6. 2001: A Space Odyssey (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-
people/4ce2b6b9450a5)
Stanley Kubrick, UK/USA 1968
Stanley Kubrick took science fiction cinema in a grandly intelligent new direction with this epic story of
man’s quest for knowledge.
2001: A Space Odyssey is a stand-along monument, a great visionary leap, unsurpassed in its vision
of man and the universe. It was a statement that came at a time which now looks something like the
peak of humanity’s technological optimism.
— Roger Ebert
See all 90 votes for 2001: A Space Odyssey (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-

people/4ce2b6b9450a5/sightandsoundpoll2012)
Watch 2002: A Space Odyssey online in BFI Player (https://player.bfi.org.uk/rentals/film/watch-2001-a-

space-odyssey-1968-online)
See The letter from Stanley Kubrick that started 2001: A Space Odyssey (/news-opinion/news-
bfi/features/letter-stanley-kubrick-started-2001-space-odyssey)
Yes, I agree
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7. The Searchers (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-
people/4ce2b6b54abdf)
John Ford, USA 1956
John Ford created perhaps the greatest of all westerns with this tale of a Civil War veteran doggedly
hunting the Comanche who have kidnapped his niece.
Do the fluctuations in popularity of John Ford’s intimate revenge epic – no appearance in either critics’
or directors’ top tens in 2002, but fifth in the 1992 critics’ poll – reflect the shifts in popularity of the
western? It could be a case of this being a western for people who don’t much care for them, but I
suspect it’s more to do with John Ford’s stock having risen higher than ever this past decade and the
citing of his influence in the unlikeliest of places in recent cinema.
— Kieron Corless
See all 78 votes for The Searchers (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-

people/4ce2b6b54abdf/sightandsoundpoll2012)
Watch The Searchers online in BFI Player (https://player.bfi.org.uk/rentals/film/watch-the-searchers-

1956-online)
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8. Man with a Movie Camera (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-
people/4ce2b6a21d217)
Dziga Vertov, Soviet Union 1929
An impression of city life in the Soviet Union, The Man with a Movie Camera is the best-known film of
experimental documentary pioneer Dziga Vertov.
Is Dziga Vertov’s cine-city symphony a film whose time has finally come? Ranked only no. 27 in our
last critics’ poll, it now displaces Eisenstein’s erstwhile perennial Battleship Potemkin as the
Constructivist Soviet silent of choice. Like Eisenstein’s warhorse, it’s an agit-experiment that sees
montage as the means to a revolutionary consciousness; but rather than proceeding through fable
and illusion, it’s explicitly engaged both with recording the modern urban everyday (which makes it
the top documentary in our poll) and with its representation back to its participant-subjects (thus the
top meta-movie).
— Nickexperience.
BradshawBy clicking any link on this page you are giving Yes, I agree
/
See all 68 votes for Man with a Movie Camera (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-
people/4ce2b6a21d217/sightandsoundpoll2012)
See also The Greatest Documentaries of All Time poll (/news-opinion/sight-sound-magazine/polls-

surveys/greatest-documentaries-all-time-poll)
Watch Man with a Movie Camera online on BFI Player (https://player.bfi.org.uk/rentals/film/watch-man-
with-a-movie-camera-1929-online) (UK only)
9. The Passion of Joan of Arc (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-

people/4ce2b754db651)
Carl Dreyer, France 1927
Silent cinema at its most sublimely expressive, Carl Theodor Dreyer’s masterpiece is an austere but
hugely affecting dramatisation of the trial of St Joan.

Yes, I agree
/
Joan was and remains an unassailable giant of early cinema, a transcendental film comprising tears,
fire and madness that relies on extreme close-ups of the human face. Over the years it has often
been a difficult film to see, but even during its lost years Joan has remained embedded in the critical
consciousness, thanks to the strength of its early reception, the striking stills that appeared in film
books, its presence in Godard’s Vivre sa vie and recently a series of unforgettable live screenings. In
2010 it was designated the most influential film of all time in the Toronto International Film Festival’s
‘Essential 100’ list, where Jonathan Rosenbaum described it as “the pinnacle of silent cinema – and
perhaps of the cinema itself.”
— Jane Giles
See all 65 votes for The Passion of Joan of Arc (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-

people/4ce2b754db651/sightandsoundpoll2012)
Watch The Passion of Joan of Arc online on BFI Player

(https://player.bfi.org.uk/subscription/film/watch-the-passion-of-joan-of-arc-1927-online) (UK only)

Yes, I agree
10. 8½ (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b6b25bb2b)
/
Federico Fellini, Italy 1963
Federico Fellini triumphantly conjured himself out of a bad case of creative block with this autobiographical
magnum opus about a film director experiencing creative block.
Arguably the film that most accurately captures the agonies of creativity and the circus that surrounds
filmmaking, equal parts narcissistic, self-deprecating, bitter, nostalgic, warm, critical and funny.
Dreams, nightmares, reality and memories coexist within the same time-frame; the viewer sees
Guido’s world not as it is, but more ‘realistically’ as he experiences it, inserting the film in a lineage
that stretches from the Surrealists to David Lynch.
— Mar Diestro-Dópido
See all 64 votes for 8½ (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b6b25bb2b/sightandsoundpoll2012)
Watch 8½ online on BFI Player (https://player.bfi.org.uk/rentals/film/watch-8-12-1963-online) (UK only)

See Fellini’s 8½ turns 50 (/news-opinion/bfi-news/fellini-s-eight-half-turns-50)

Yes, I agree
/
11. Battleship Potemkin (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-
people/4ce2b6a68bd9d)
Sergei Eisenstein, Soviet Union 1925
A fixture in the critical canon almost since its premiere, Sergei Eisenstein’s film about a 1905 naval mutiny
was revolutionary in both form and content.
Finally, Battleship Potemkin. There is little need to say anything about this film. It is on my list
because it is one of the first films to show the power of cinema and what it could achieve. Everyone
talks about its use of montage, and is fantastically done. But it is also Brechtian in form, ie it is
didactic. It wants to move viewers to feel differently and to act differently as a result of what they
experience. As a result, it has been banned in many places. This film will always move people.
— Alby James
Battleship Potemkin because of the imagination of the revolution and its filmic invention. – Sheila
Schwartzman
In my opinion, Battleship Potemkin is the greatest film ever made. All of the future search of
experimentalism is contained within it. The story moves ahead in a permanent tension between
novelty (in terms of style and the changes in Russian life at the time) and the big frame of history in
which the action takes place.
— Victor Fowler Calzada
See all 63 votes for Battleship Potemkin (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-

people/4ce2b6a68bd9d/sightandsoundpoll2012)
Watch Battleship Potemkin online on BFI Player (https://player.bfi.org.uk/subscription/film/watch-

battleship-potemkin-1925-online) (UK only)

Yes, I agree
/
12. L’Atalante (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-
people/4ce2b6a439bc9)
Jean Vigo, France 1934
Newly-weds begin their life together on a working barge in this luminous and poetic romance, the only
feature film by director Jean Vigo.
L’Atalante is cinema as a diaphanous waft of half-dreamed desire; the most beautiful erotic dream
ever put on film.
— Michal Oleszczyk
See all 58 votes for L’Atalante (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-

people/4ce2b6a439bc9/sightandsoundpoll2012)

Yes, I agree
/
13. Breathless (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-
people/4ce2b6bfd1ebb)
Jean-Luc Godard, France 1960
Jean-Luc Godard’s precocious feature debut was this hugely influential jazzy, Noir-inflected crime drama.
Few works have gathered so many elements that would come to transform film narration as
Breathless. Even today, we feel that Godard reinvented the art of the cinema, pushing it to the
boundaries of risk and experimentation.
— Victor
WeFowler Calzada
use cookies on this site to enhance your user
Yes, I agree
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Breathless has an excellent mise en scène and explores how narration merges with meta-film
reflections.
— Long Tin Shum
Effortless modernity retains its shock value in Breathless. You wonder what there was to discover
after 1959. Most of all, it shows us what time just passing might feel like between humming, naming
passing cars, rubbing our thumbs across our lips and making faces at the mirror – and immediately
convinces us that it’s something the cinema was always supposed to describe.
— Ben Gibson
Breathless redefined and reimagined the possibilities of the medium.
— Jason Wood
See all 57 votes for Breathless (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-

people/4ce2b6bfd1ebb/sightandsoundpoll2012)
Watch Breathless online on BFI Player (https://player.bfi.org.uk/subscription/film/watch-breathless-a-

bout-de-souffle-1960-online) (UK only)

Yes, I agree
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14. Apocalypse Now (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-
people/4ce2b69562aa2)
Francis Ford Coppola, USA 1979
Transplanting the story of Joseph Conrad’s colonial-era novel Heart of Darkness to Vietnam, Francis Ford
Coppola created a visually mesmerising fantasia on the spectacle of war.

Yes, I agree
/
Apocalypse Now is complex, random and visionary. Everything about it is miraculous. It’s also a
brilliant film to project. I’ve seen projectionists ride the fantastic sound like an engineer would ride
levels of a live band.
— Richard Sowada
Apocalypse Now is a compelling, groundbreaking film about the journey into the heart of darkness
and the insanity of war.
— Maura McHugh
From the opening shot to the bad trip climax, Apocalypse Now is the war film for people who hate war
films, and a fitting cinematic end to a decade when the rulebook was torn up and wild excess
encouraged. Everything else seems a little flat after you see this.
— David Flint
See all 53 votes for Apocalypse Now (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-

people/4ce2b69562aa2/sightandsoundpoll2012)
Watch Apocalypse Now online on BFI Player (https://player.bfi.org.uk/rentals/film/watch-apocalypse-

now-1979-online) (UK only)

Yes, I agree
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15. Late Spring (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-
people/4ce2b6a498bd1)
Ozu Yasujiro, Japan 1949
Yasujiro Ozu’s exploration of the relationship between a widower and his unmarried adult daughter is often
described as the perfect distillation of his style. Chishu Ryu and Setsuko Hara star.
The transience of time, the inevitability of separation and the pain of loss inform Ozu’s most
compassionate, most disarmingly tender picture Late Spring.
— Joseph Fahim
It’s especially painful to have to choose one film to represent Ozu’s endlessly rich body of work, but
Late Spring, a sublimely beautiful meditation on family, marriage and loneliness, is his most
profoundly moving film.
— Joseph McBride
Yes, I agree
See all 50experience. By clicking
votes for Late Springany link on this page you are giving
(http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-
people/4ce2b6a498bd1/sightandsoundpoll2012)
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16. Au hasard Balthazar (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-
people/4ce2b6a44b82c)
Robert Bresson, France/Sweden 1966
Robert Bresson’s distinctive pared-down style elicits extraordinary pathos from this devastating tale of an
abused donkey passing from owner to owner.
Au hasard Balthazar is a film that will continue to exist outside the conventional limitations of time and
space.
— Marco Mueller
Au Hasard is an overpowering experience, but nothing to do with sentiment, more a troubling

recognition of the fathomless suffering in the world.
— Trevor Johnston
Yes, I agree
See all 49your
votes for Au
consent forhasard Balthazar
us to set cookies. (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv- Tell me more
people/4ce2b6a44b82c/sightandsoundpoll2012)
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Credit: Toho Co., Ltd
17=. Seven Samurai (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-

people/4ce2b6b5b6382)
Kurosawa Akira, Japan 1954
Rice farmers hire a band of samurai to defend them against marauding bandits in Akira Kurosawa’s
influential epic, a touchstone for action movies ever since.
Akira Kurosawa’s majestic account of a village that hires a motley crew of samurai to defend it from
bandit raids is so fluent and visually powerful that the subtitles become incidental.
— Paul Whitington
Seven Samurai’s dynamism! It’s the pinnacle of Kurosawa’s filmography and the best bridge between
western and Asian cinema.
Yes, I agree
— Jeanexperience.
Chanil By clicking any link on this page you are giving
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Seven Samurai is consummate Kurosawa and perhaps the greatest action picture ever made, as
emotionally as it is physically exhausting.
— Patrick McGilligan
See all 48 votes for Seven Samurai (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-

people/4ce2b6b5b6382/sightandsoundpoll2012)
Watch Seven Samurai online on BFI Player (https://player.bfi.org.uk/subscription/film/watch-seven-

samurai-1954-online) (UK only)
See Still crazy-good after 60 years: Seven Samurai (/news-opinion/news-bfi/features/still-crazy-good-
60-years-seven-samurai)
17=. Persona (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-

people/4ce2b6b2deaa5)
Yes, I agree
Ingmar Bergman, Sweden
experience. 1966
By clicking any link on this page you are giving
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A nurse (Bibi Andersson) and an actress who refuses to speak (Liv Ullmann) seem to fuse identities in
Ingmar Bergman’s disturbing, formally experimental psychological drama.
Bergman’s Persona is uncanny. It is like a conundrum that changes every time you watch it. Hence it
stands outside of time (yes, it is vampiric, if you like).
— Vigen Galstyan
Persona is the best example of what Béla Balázs termed as the ‘dimension of physiognomy’.
Together with Nykvist, Andersson and Ullman, Bergman explores the soul behind the mask.
— Cesar Ballester
See all 48 votes for Persona (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-

people/4ce2b6b2deaa5/sightandsoundpoll2012)
Read Persona archive review: where the mask meets the face (/news-opinion/sight-sound-
magazine/reviews-recommendations/persona-ingmar-bergman-mask-meets-face)

Yes, I agree
/
19. Mirror (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-
people/4ce2b6bb90873)
Andrei Tarkovsky, Soviet Union 1974
Andrei Tarkovsky drew on memories of a rural childhood before WWII for this personal, impressionistic
and unconventional film poem.
The most personal of Andrey Tarkovsky’s movies, in The Mirror he found a poetic equivalent for the
verses of his father Arseny Tarkovsky and convinced the world of the immortality of the great Russian
artistic tradition.
— Peter Shepotinnik
Mirror, an attempt at a cinematic autobiography, ends up as a story about the main character’s
relationship with himself. If – following the usual method of film watching – we identify with the
protagonist, then the film becomes a meditation on our own relationship with ourselves: narrative
cinema brought full circle to its point zero.
— Vlastimir Sudar
See all 47 votes for Mirror (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b6bb90873/sightandsoundpoll2012)

Yes, I agree
/
20. Singin’ in the Rain (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-
people/4ce2b6b6036b6)
Stanley Donen & Gene Kelly, USA 1951
Hollywood’s troubled transition from silent to talking pictures at the end of the 1920s provided the
inspiration for perhaps the greatest of movie musicals.
Through the faked-up DIY of Singin’ in the Rain, seemingly a mad throwing together of stuff that
somehow just gels, we’re allowed to feel the joy of creativity and to glimpse the very human face of
genius. It’s the least improvised film providing the most thrillingly spontaneous feeling to be had in a
cinema.
— Ben Gibson
Singin’ in the Rain is an all-singing all-dancing course on the dawn of talking pictures, bursting with
Roaring Twenties-inspired gags.
— Martin Tudor Caranfil Yes, I agree
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See all 46 votes for Singin’ in the Rain (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-
people/4ce2b6b6036b6/sightandsoundpoll2012)
21=. L’Avventura (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-

people/4ce2b6a6e45a7)
In Michelangelo Antonioni’s groundbreaking and controversial arthouse milestone, the mystery of a
woman’s disappearance from a Mediterranean island is left unresolved.
Michelangelo Antonioni, Italy 1960
I choose L’Avventura not just for the landmark open narrative, but for Antonioni’s amazing
architectural sense that composition is expression.
— Trevor Johnston
Antonioni’s L’Avventura has the kind of plotline that gives arthouse cinema a bad name, but somehow
a lacklustre search for a young woman who’s gone missing on a small volcanic island becomes an
existential investigation of the human condition. Every time you watch it, you notice something new.
— Paul Whitington
Yes, I agree
/
Postmodernism found a voice in Antonioni’s revolutionary cinematic language and changed the face
of arthouse cinema. The post-God world the visionary chronicler of the alienated and the disaffected
valiantly confronts in L’avventura speaks of truths filmmakers have tended to ignore ever since.
— Joseph Fahim
See all 43 votes for L’Avventura (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-

people/4ce2b6a6e45a7/sightandsoundpoll2012)
Great wide open: L’Avventura by Robert Koehler (http://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/sight-sound-

magazine/features/greatest-films-all-time/great-wide-open-l-avventura)
21=. Le Mépris (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-

people/4ce2b6b049967)
Jean-Luc Godard, France/Italy 1963
Working with his biggest budget to date, Jean-Luc Godard created a sublime widescreen drama about
marital breakdown, set during pre-production on a film shoot.
Yes, I agree
/
Contempt is a beautiful opus to Nouvelle Vague cinema, and one of Godard’s most experimental
movies. I love his troubled and troubling narration, his obsession with breaking the codes of popular
cinema using some typical Godardian tropes: minimal dialogues with strange gestures, stares and
situations. It’s intellectual as usual but also aesthetically different and courageous.
— Mustapha Benfoldi
One of the finest films ever made about both coupledom and the cinema, Le Mépris is also – with
good reason – Godard’s most mythical film, in which he allows himself a degree of lyricism that was
only to resurface again in much later work.
— Olivier Pėre
Le Mépris has always been my favorite Godard. It is the pinnacle of something, and is so beautifully
inspired by classical Greco-German-Roman culture. It is even dedicated to Fritz Lang as a master.
— Sylvia Pierre
See all 43 votes for Le Mépris (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-

people/4ce2b6b049967/sightandsoundpoll2012)
Watch Le Mépris online on BFI Player (https://player.bfi.org.uk/subscription/film/watch-le-mepris-1963-

online) (UK only)

Yes, I agree
/
21=. The Godfather (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-
people/4ce2b6ab4237b)
The first of Francis Ford Coppola’s epic trilogy about the Corleone crime family is the disturbing story of a
son drawn inexorably into his father’s Mafia affairs.
The Godfather Part I works as a masterful portrait of modern societies. Coppola does not analyse his
characters, nor seeks to moralise, but instead constructs these characters with all those ingredients
that constitute the human condition. The visual and narrative elements are simply fascinating.
— Juan Antonio Garcia Borrero
See all 43 votes for The Godfather (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-

people/4ce2b6ab4237b/sightandsoundpoll2012)

Yes, I agree
/
24=. Ordet (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-
Yes, I agree
people/4ce2b752105a2)
/
Carl Dreyer, Denmark 1955
The penultimate film by the Danish master Carl Theodor Dreyer is a parable on the power of faith, set in a
remote religious community.
Dreyer was the first filmmaker to ask the big questions about life, God and the mysteries of the
human soul, and in Ordet he delivered his most impassioned address on the elusive concept of faith.
— Joseph Fahim
See all 42 votes for Ordet (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b752105a2/sightandsoundpoll2012)
Watch Ordet online on BFI Player (https://player.bfi.org.uk/subscription/film/watch-ordet-1955-

online) (UK only)
24=. In the Mood for Love (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-

people/4ce2b8485aac9)
Wong Kar-wai, China 2000
Wong Kar-wai’s ravishing romance stars Maggie Cheung and Tony Leung as two wronged spouses in
1960s Hong Kong who find comfort in each other’s company.
Yes, I agree
/
In the Mood for Love is built on rapture, ecstasy, and the suffering it entails – on wheels. Blasting
away all the conventions of melodrama, Wong comes up with a fiction of emotions powered by music
(melos) that leaves everyone else in the dust. For fluidity, color, editing, music and unforgettable
romance, this is it.
— Martha P. Nochimson
See all 42 votes for In the Mood for Love (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-

people/4ce2b8485aac9/sightandsoundpoll2012)
26=. Rashomon (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-

people/4ce2b6b3ec3fe)
Kurosawa Akira, Japan 1950
We use
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Japanese to enhance your user audiences, Akira Kurosawa’s breakthrough tells the
to worldwide Yes, I agree
story of a experience. By clicking
murder in the woodsany fromlinkfour
on this page you
differing are giving
perspectives.
/
Rashomon shows us impossibility of understanding the world and the inability of discovering the truth
– those are, at first sight, European existential values, but they were brought to cinema by its Eastern
film director.
— Gulnara Abikeyeva
See all 41 votes for Rashomon (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-

people/4ce2b6b3ec3fe/sightandsoundpoll2012)
Watch Rashomon online on BFI Player (https://player.bfi.org.uk/subscription/film/watch-rashomon-

1950-online) (UK only)
26=. Andrei Rublev (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-

people/4ce2b6b7433c1)
Andrei Tarkovsky, 1966
Yes, I agree
The life of a 15th-century icon painter takes centre stage in Andrei Tarkovsky’s epic meditation on the
place of art in turbulent times.
/
Andrei Rublev is a strongest story about the artist – the suffering of the creator and creation.
Tarkovski made the individual story of Rubljov much bigger then it was in reality until finally it is like a
symbol, an archetype of the artist and his relationships with power and absolutist authority. I also like
the visual language of the film. The scene with bells is one of the greatest in history of the cinema.
— Tiina Lok
I wouldn’t say these films are necessarily in an order, but I do find Tarkovsky’s Andrei Rublev to be a
film that still enchants and intrigues. There is something about the warp and weft of his film, and its
attempt to understand the nature of the votive and the creative, that seems to me cinematic poetry of
the highest order.
— Roger Clark
See all 41 votes for Andrei Rublev (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-

people/4ce2b6b7433c1/sightandsoundpoll2012)
Cinematic gold: Tarkovsky’s Andrei Rublev by Theodora Clarke (http://www.bfi.org.uk/news-

opinion/news-bfi/features/cinematic-gold-tarkovskys-andrei-rublev)

Yes, I agree
/
28. Mulholland Dr. (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-
people/4ce2b8379038e)
David Lynch, USA 2001
In David Lynch’s labyrinthine neo-noir, Naomi Watts plays an aspiring ingénue who moves in with an
amnesiac woman on her arrival in Hollywood. The famously open-ended plot reflects the film’s origin as a
TV pilot.
Non-linear narratives had already been explored in film, but Lynch took the form to a different and
unique level in Mulholland Dr.
— Fernanda Solórzano
Mulholland Dr. thrives effortlessly on the idea that films can reverse time and turn interpretations
upside down, while its filmmaker character is a lost, self-obsessed arse.
— Vlastimir Sudar
See all 40 votes for Mulholland Dr. (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-

people/4ce2b8379038e/sightandsoundpoll2012)
Remain in light: Mulholland Dr. and the cosmogony of David Lynch by B. Kite
(http://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/sight-sound-magazine/features/remain-light-mulholland-dr-and-
cosmogony-david-lynch)

Yes, I agree
/
29=. Stalker (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-
people/4ce2b6bf3bbfd)
Andrei Tarkovsky, Soviet Union 1979
The Stalker guides illegal visitors through the overgrown labyrinth of the Zone, an area of alien traps and
treasures, containing a room where wishes may come true…
Stalker is a genius melancholy utopist’s filmic fever-dream come true.
— Michel Lipkes
Stalker is about searching for the truth inside us. Not one of its main protagonists is able to cross the
border of the miraculous room: they are afraid of their real inner desires. It is also a film about
victimising oneself for others; and about human modesty and humbleness.
— Zuzana Gindl-Tatarova
See all 39 votes for Stalker (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b6bf3bbfd/sightandsoundpoll2012)

Yes, I agree
/
29=. Shoah (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-
people/4ce2b76b0507b)
Claude Lanzmann, France 1985
An epic eyewitness account of the Holocaust told by those who lived through it.
Shoah seems to me the most important film ever made…
— Graham Fuller
See all 39 votes for Shoah (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b76b0507b/sightandsoundpoll2012)

Yes, I agree
/
31=. The Godfather Part II (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-
people/4ce2b6ab42667)
Both prequel and sequel to the original, The Godfather Part II follows two generations of the Corleone
family as they fight for supremecy in the treacherous world of organised crime.

Yes, I agree
/
“That’s my family, Kay, it’s not me.” When Michael Corleone utters these words to his WASP girlfriend
at his sister’s wedding in The Godfather he is setting up the sequel as certainly as if it had all been
pre-planned. The second movie is an answer to this line of dialogue, an operatic crime melodrama
that seems to cover all the great themes of classical drama.
— Philip Molloy
With The Godfather: Part II, Coppola may be the only director who surpassed his own masterpiece.
Even without Marlon Brando.
— Balint Szaloky
The Godfather: Part II because it is the best family film, a Greek tragedy set in a 20th-century Mafia
clan. That’s why it wins over Martin Scorsese’s Mafia films: it balances organised crime against the
Corleone family tragedy, which enables us to identify that much more with the characters – and
wonder at our own morals.
— Sabine Niewalda
See all 38 votes for The Godfather Part II (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-

people/4ce2b6ab42667/sightandsoundpoll2012)

Yes, I agree
/
31=. Taxi Driver (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-
people/4ce2b6b7bc1b8)
Martin Scorsese, USA 1976
In this searing portrait of urban paranoia one man’s search for redemption ends in a violent showdown.
Taxi Driver is a ferociously raw exploration of isolation and a modern classic with which many people
feel a deep and personal connection.
— Trevor Johnston
See all 38 votes for Taxi Driver (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-

people/4ce2b6b7bc1b8/sightandsoundpoll2012)
33. Bicycle Thieves

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to enhance your user
Yes, I agree
people/4ce2b6ae61fec)
/
Vittoria De Sica, Italy 1948
The theft of a bicycle becomes the catalyst for a father and son’s oddysee through the poverty-stricken
streets of post-war Rome. One of the defining classics of Italian neorealism.
It’s a touching story that engages the audience’s emotions and has them rooting for the protagonists
all the time. And it is told in the neorealist style that makes it very affecting. Such a film will always
remain a great example for new filmmakers without large funds. It proves that a simple premise and
characters that we can care about are all you need to make a story work.
— Alby James
Bycicle Thieves’ mix of traditional dramatic structures with an unprecedented representation of city,
characters and social condition is still effective and enormously touching in its depiction of
contradictory ethical and political issues.
— Francesco Pitassio
Bicycle Thieves is neo-social realist melodrama that verges on tragedy, a document of devastated
post-war Italy. Its delicate treatment of the (cinematic) space is recognised both in Bazin’s and
Deleuze’s writings.
— Nevena Dakovic
See all 37 votes for Bicycle Thieves (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-

people/4ce2b6ae61fec/sightandsoundpoll2012)
Watch Bicycle Thieves online on BFI Player (https://player.bfi.org.uk/subscription/film/watch-bicycle-

thieves-1948-online) (UK only)

Yes, I agree
/
34. The General (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-
people/4ce2b6aae85f3)
Buster Keaton & Clyde Bruckman, USA 1926
Set during the American civil war, Buster Keaton’s most ambitious film combines spectacular action
sequences and hilarious comedy aboard the runaway locomotive of the title.
From the golden age of silent comedy, The General is as funny as it gets, with ingenious storytelling
and filmmaking.
— Patrick McGilligan
Orson Welles described The General as “the greatest comedy ever made, the greatest Civil War film
ever made, and perhaps the greatest film ever made”, and he wasn’t wrong. The vision, clarity and
economy with which Keaton tells his story are remarkable.
— PaulWe use cookies on this site to enhance your user

Whitington Yes, I agree
/
See all 35 votes for The General (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-
people/4ce2b6aae85f3/sightandsoundpoll2012)
35=. Metropolis (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-

people/4ce2b6b0544c6)
Fritz Lang, Germany 1927
Lang’s pioneering work of science-fiction depicts a dystopian future in which a privileged elite rule over the
futuristic city of Metropolis until one day the workers rise up from underground to rebel against their
masters.
I’ve recently (re)saw Metropolis (the restored version, at the Transylvania International Film Festival in
2010) with live and very modern, industrial-sounding music performed by Antonio Bras – the effect
was astonishing: everything that cinema means was there: editing, tension, (melo)drama, acting,
music… everything! Simply remarkable.
WeBarbu
— Florin use cookies on this site to enhance your user
Yes, I agree
/
See all 34 votes for Metropolis (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-
people/4ce2b6b0544c6/sightandsoundpoll2012)
Watch Metropolis online on BFI Player (https://player.bfi.org.uk/subscription/film/watch-metropolis-

1927-online) (UK only)
35=. Psycho (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-

people/4ce2b6b39fc24)
Often imitated but never bettered, Hitchcock’s low budget “shocker” paved the way for the modern horror
film.
There has never been a more influential horror film than Psycho and everything since has referenced
it somehow.
— Alan Jones
Psycho takes the Hitchcock slot just like City Lights takes the Chaplin one, because every great
Hitchcock movie testifies to his masterful blending of entertainment and psychological depth.
— Eric Kohn
Yes, I agree
See all 34your
votes for Psycho
consent for us to(http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b6b39fc24/sightandsoundpoll2012)
set cookies. Tell me more
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35=. Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce 1080 Bruxelles
(http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b73116007)
Chantal Akerman, Belgium/France 1975
In precise detail Akerman observes the daily routines of a single mother in her apartment and the
consequences that transpire when things begin to unravel.

Yes, I agree
/
Jeanne Dielman, first seen at college, shocked me with a new language and showed me the power of
a form that could make me literally shout out just because someone hadn’t flicked a light switch.
— Briony Hanson
An essential inclusion for its aesthetically and politically groundbreaking qualities.
— Annette Kuhn
Akerman filmed Jeanne Dielmann, 23 quai de Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles at a lower camera height
than one is used to – her own height (she is quite short) – and a feeling of claustrophobia seems to
follow from that, pervading the film and, despite its dramatic ending, never fully abating.
— Melissa Gronlund
See all 34 votes for Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce 1080 Bruxelles (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-
people/4ce2b73116007/sightandsoundpoll2012)
35=. Sátántangó (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-

people/4ce2b7d2993a2)
Béla Tarr, Switzerland/Germany/Hungary 1994 Yes, I agree
/
An epic seven-hour evocation of life in an isolated Hungarian village told in Tarr’s slow-moving meditative
style.
Satantango is an artistically unforgettable experience by the Hungarian master that deals with a part
of his country’s history in a very unconventional way.
— Ludmila Cvikova
Satantango is the most ambitious film of the greatest of contemporary classics.
— Jurica Pavicic
See all 34 votes for Sátántangó (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-

people/4ce2b7d2993a2/sightandsoundpoll2012)
39=. The 400 Blows (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-

people/4ce2b6b3b75b7)
François Truffaut, France
We use cookies on1959
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Yes, I agree
Truffaut drew
your inspiration from
consent for us hiscookies.
to set own troubled childhood for this classic account of a troubled adolescent
Tell me more
looking for an escape route from an unhappy life.
/
My favourite Truffaut film and my favourite coming-of-age movie, Les Quatre cent coups is
comparable to James Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man in its insightful depiction of the
awakening of an artistic sensibility.
— Paul Whitington
The Four Hundred Blows is the epitome of a personal film, the kind of film I found, to my chagrin, that
Hollywood doesn’t want.
— Joseph McBride
See all 33 votes for The 400 Blows (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-

people/4ce2b6b3b75b7/sightandsoundpoll2012)
39=. La dolce vita (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-

people/4ce2b6a90d39d)
Yes, I agree
Federico Fellini, France/Italy 1960
/
Marcello Mastroianni is the paparazzi journalist whose life is an endless round of hedonistic parties and
superficial liaisons as he searches for meaning amidst the crumbling grandeur of Rome’s once imperial
city.
The superbly thorough study that Fellini makes of a world characterised by the loss of moral values
remains intact. But La Dolce Vita is not only about moral denunciation; it’s a film that has managed to
leave for posterity sequences that work in the collective imaginary in an autonomous way.
— Juan Antonio Garcia Borrero
La Dolce Vita captures (in tabloid snapshot) the ambivalence of the modern age by exulting in the
very decadence and excess that it also decries…
— Anton Bitel
A wonderful snapshot of Roman society at the time, a sneering look at hedonism and at the same
time an exploration of human emptiness.
— Naman Ramachandran
See all 33 votes for La dolce vita (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-

people/4ce2b6a90d39d/sightandsoundpoll2012)

Yes, I agree
/
41. Journey to Italy (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-
people/4ce2b6b9d14d8)
Roberto Rossellini, France/Italy 1954
Ingrid Bergman and George Sanders play a middle-aged English couple whose marriage falls apart during
a journey through Italy. A pioneering work of modernism that links Italian neo-realism with the French new
wave.
See all 32 votes for Journey to Italy (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-

people/4ce2b6b9d14d8/sightandsoundpoll2012)
Watch Journey to Italy online on BFI Player (https://player.bfi.org.uk/subscription/film/watch-journey-to-

italy-1954-online) (UK only)

Yes, I agree
/
42=. Pather Panchali (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-
people/4ce2b6b2b59cc)
Satyajit Ray, India 1955
The first part of Satyajit Ray’s acclaimed Apu Trilogy is a lyrical, closely observed story of a peasant family
in 1920s rural India.
Made for half-nothing, Satyajit Ray’s Pather Panchali is among the most seamless and graceful
movies ever made, the best of the Apu Trilogy and a stunning achievement.
— Paul Whitington
See all 31 votes for Pather Panchali (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b6b2b59cc)

Yes, I agree
/
42=. Some Like It Hot (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-
people/4ce2b76e98a5c)
Billy Wilder, USA 1959
On the run from Chicago mobsters, two musicians don drag to join an all-girl jazz band fronted by Sugar
Kane (Marilyn Monroe) in Billy Wilder’s hugely popular comedy.
Some Like It Hot is quite simply the funniest film ever made. Wilder’s farce educated me and my
generation about the strange nuances of adult sexuality and provided the sex craze of my youth,
Marilyn Monroe, with her most iconic role.
— Joseph McBride
See all 31 votes for Some Like It Hot (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-

people/4ce2b76e98a5c/sightandsoundpoll2012)

Yes, I agree
/
42=. Gertrud (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-
people/4ce2b6ab03131)
Carl Dreyer, Denmark 1964
The conflict of a woman between her husband, her lover, and the lover of her youth, and her failure to find
happiness with any of them.
Gertrud is a stream of poetic hypnosis, and includes one of the best performances in the history of
cinema by Nina Pens Rode.
— David Lipkes
Dreyer’s Gertrud, in my opinion, makes a persuasive case of how magnificent an art form cinema can
be. Jonathan Rosenbaum once confessed he had been writing an article about it for over a year, so
granted, I don’t believe my tiny blurb would do the film justice.
— Boris Nelepo
Yes, I agree
See all 31experience. By clicking
votes for Gertrud any link on this page you are giving
(http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b6ab03131)
/
42=. Pierrot le fou (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-
people/4ce2b6b310bc0)
Jean-Luc Godard, France/Italy 1965
Riffing on the classic couple-on-the run movie, enfant terrible Jean-Luc Godard took the narrative
innovations of the French New Wave close to breaking point.
For me Pierrot Le Fou was the first really postmodern movie. The colourful story (a couple on the run)
is covered by pure cinematic invention and references to all kinds of arts and culture.
— Zuzana Gindl-Tatarova
See all 31 votes for Pierrot le fou (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-

people/4ce2b6b310bc0/sightandsoundpoll2012)

Yes, I agree
/
Credit: Les Films de Mon Oncle
42=. Play Time (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-

people/4ce2b6b3291db)
Jacques Tati, France 1967
Jacques Tati directs and stars in this fun account of the bumbling M Hulot’s day in Paris.
Play Time shows the beauty and power of subtlety in both cinema and comedy. The nuances of
performance and craft create a world that feels like no other but whose effect is universal to
audiences.
— Charlotte Cook
Radical in every facet, Tati’s anarchic magnum opus Play Time breaks every narrative rule, and is
built on a stunning mise en scène that remains unmatched nearly half a century later. Most imperative
of all, Play Time is a wondrous film that compels you to observe the world in a way you never have
before.
— Joseph Fahim
See all 31 votes for Play Time (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-

people/4ce2b6b3291db/sightandsoundpoll2012)
Yes, I agree
/
42=. Close-Up (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-
people/4ce2b7a39630e)
Abbas Kiarostami, Iran 1990
Drama-documentary, based on the true story of an unemployed movie buff who passes himself off as the
celebrated movie director Mohsen Makhmalbaf, to a woman he meets on a bus. He leads her cinephile
family to believe that they will appear in his next film. Eventually he ends up in jail where his trial is filmed
by Kiarostami…
In Tehran some years ago it was reported, perhaps apocryphally, that Jean-Luc Godard had said,
“Cinema is Griffith to Kiarostami.” My list certainly reflects that idea, and I’m particularly glad to
include Kiarostami’s Close-up as a way of extending the purview of the poll beyond the 1970s and
Europe/America.
— Godfrey Cheshire
Close-Up completely obliterates the boundary between fiction and documentary in order to turn the
most seductive aspect of cinema upside down. And it also shows how solemn and painful it can be (to
want) to be a filmmaker.
Yes, I agree
— Vlastimir SudarBy clicking any link on this page you are giving
experience.
/
See all 31 votes for Close-Up (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-
people/4ce2b7a39630e/sightandsoundpoll2012)
48=. The Battle of Algiers (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-

people/4ce2b6f24787d)
Gillo Pontecorvo, Algeria/Italy 1966
Gillo Pontecorvo’s masterpiece about the turbulent last years of French colonial rule in Algeria, seen from
the perspective of both the guerrilla revolutionaries and the French authorities.
A seminal political film of the 1960s and 1970s, and banned in France as well! Although directed by
an Italian director, the film was made in collaboration with the Algerian government and presents an
African perspective on events, marking it an important work in the naissance of African cinema. Its
neutral perspective and documentary-style vérité cinematography allegedly made it a manual for
armed insurrection, as well as a guide for counter-insurgency. Morricone’s driving score combine with
the film’s sly visual style and Pontecorvo’s passion for the cause to produce a lasting impression.
— Michael Koller
See all 30experience.
votes for The Battleany
of Algiers (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv- Yes, I agree
By clicking link on this page you are giving
people/4ce2b6f24787d/sightandsoundpoll2012)
/
Watch The Battle of Algiers online on BFI Player (https://player.bfi.org.uk/rentals/film/watch-the-battle-
of-algiers-1966-online) (UK only)
48=. Histoire(s) du cinéma (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-

people/4ce2b8b29dbb3)
Jean-Luc Godard, France/Switzerland 1998
Godard’s dense, sprawling essay meditation on cinema and its relationship to the political history of the
twentieth century.
As for Godard’s Histoire(s), while ostensibly about cinema’s past it is also, in its extraordinary collage
of forms, very much about its future.
— Chris Darke
See all 30 votes for Histoire(s) du cinéma (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-

people/4ce2b8b29dbb3/sightandsoundpoll2012)

Yes, I agree
/
50=. City Lights (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-
people/4ce2b6bbb8e51)
Charlie Chaplin, USA 1931
The Tramp wins the affections of a blind flower seller (Virginia Cherrill) in this hilarious but heartbreaking
comedy – one of Charlie Chaplin’s uncontested masterpieces.
No one merged emotional mush with slapstick brilliance in quite the same way at Chaplin in City
Lights – you can be angry at the movie for tugging at your heartstrings, but you stand no chance of
resisting its pull.
— Michal Oleszczyk
City Lights is one of the highlights of film history, where lofty classical melodrama happily coexists
with brilliant humour.
— Peter Shepotinnik
See all 29We

votes
use for City on
cookies Lights (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-
this site to enhance your user
Yes, I agree
people/4ce2b6bbb8e51/sightandsoundpoll2012)
/
50=. Ugetsu monogatari (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-
people/4ce2b6b94daff)
Mizoguchiexperience.
Kenji, Japan 1953 any link on this page you are giving Yes, I agree
By clicking
/
In war-torn 16th-century Japan, two men leave their wives to seek wealth and glory in Kenji Mizoguchi’s
tragic supernatural classic.
Via several dramatic and fantastic stories set in 16th century feudal Japan, Ugetsu monogatari is a
film of extraordinary power and accuracy about the human condition. The greatest of Japanese
filmmakers, in his films Mizoguchi expresses perfectly the universality of an art that is however rooted
in Japanese culture and history. It is the apogee of film classicism.
— Olivier Pere
See all 29 votes for Ugetsu monogatari (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-

people/4ce2b6b94daff/sightandsoundpoll2012)
50=. La Jetée (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-

people/4ce2b7b9372f0)
Chris Marker, France 1962
This science-fiction short directed by Chris Marker is composed almost complete of still images. Its story,
about timeWe
travel following
use cookies on a nuclear
this apocalypse,
site to enhance inspired Terry Gilliam’s 1995 feature 12 Monkeys.
your user
Yes, I agree
/
La Jetée is still the short film that best embodies what short film can do better than feature-length
films: it tells a complex story in a condensed way that leaves much to our imagination, uses a visual
style that you could never uphold over feature length (at least not without getting boring) but which is
perfectly employed here, and at 28 minutes it is exactly the right length.
— Sabine Niewalda
See all 29 votes for La Jetée (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b7b9372f0/sightandsoundpoll2012)
53=. North by Northwest (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-

people/4ce2b6bf4e912)
Cary Grant’s ad exec falls foul of a mysterious crime plot and a low-flying cropduster in Hitchcock’s witty,
cross-country thriller co-starring Eva-Marie Saint.
See all 28 votes for North by Northwest (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-

people/4ce2b6bf4e912/sightandsoundpoll2012)
Yes, I agree
/
53=. Rear Window (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-
people/4ce2b6955c6ba)
Hitchcock’s fascination with voyeurism reached its apotheosis in this mystery thriller, in which James
Stewart suspects he has witnessed a murder in a neighbouring apartment.
See all 28 votes for Rear Window (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-

people/4ce2b6955c6ba/sightandsoundpoll2012)

Yes, I agree
/
53=. Raging Bull (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-
people/4ce2b6bf2249d)
Martin Scorsese, USA 1980
Starring Robert De Niro as the middleweight boxer Jake La Motta, Scorsese’s biopic is widely
acknowledged as one of the greatest films of the 1980s.
See all 28 votes for Raging Bull (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-

people/4ce2b6bf2249d/sightandsoundpoll2012)

Yes, I agree
/
56. M (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b6af6aedd)
Fritz Lang, Germany 1931
For his first sound film Fritz Lang turned to the story of a child killer (Peter Lorre), who is hunted down by
police and underworld alike.
See all 27 votes for M (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b6af6aedd/sightandsoundpoll2012)

Yes, I agree
/
57=. The Leopard (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-
people/4ce2b6aadb03d)
Luchino Visconti, France/Italy 1963
Sumptous adaptation by Luchino Visconti of Lampedusa’s classic novel, set in Sicily during the
Risorgimento of the 19th century. Burt Lancaster plays the Prince of Salina, Alain Delon his nephew, and
Claudia Cardinale the beautiful woman they both fall for.
See all 26 votes for The Leopard (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-

people/4ce2b6aadb03d/sightandsoundpoll2012)

Yes, I agree
/
57=. Touch of Evil (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-
people/4ce2b6b8bc241)
Orson Welles’ return to Hollywood after ten years working in Europe is a sleazy border tale in which he
takes centre stage as gargantuan detective Hank Quinlan.
See all 26 votes for Touch of Evil (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-

people/4ce2b6b8bc241/sightandsoundpoll2012)

Yes, I agree
/
59=. Sherlock Jr (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-
people/4ce2b6b5b13f5)
Buster Keaton, USA 1924
Keaton’s third feature is a breathtakingly virtuosic display of every silent comedy technique imaginable,
from his own formidable physical skills to some then-groundbreaking camera trickery.
See all 25 votes for Sherlock Jr (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-

people/4ce2b6b5b13f5/sightandsoundpoll2012)

Yes, I agree
/
59=. Barry Lyndon (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-
people/4ce2b6bc285f7)
Stanley Kubrick, UK/USA 1975
Stanley Kubrick’s exquisitely detailed adaptation of William Makepeace Thackeray’s novel about the
picaresque exploits of an 18th century Irish adventurer.
See all 25 votes for Barry Lyndon (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-

people/4ce2b6bc285f7/sightandsoundpoll2012)

Yes, I agree
/
59=. La Maman et la putain (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-
people/4ce2b73f2ec00)
Jean Eustache, France 1973
Deals with the relations, largely sexual, between an anarchic young man and his two mistresses, one
seemingly permanent, who keeps him, the other seemingly casual.
See all 25 votes for La Maman et la putain (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-

people/4ce2b73f2ec00/sightandsoundpoll2012)

Yes, I agree
/
59=. Sansho Dayu (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-
people/4ce2b6b50a0d5)
Mizoguchi Kenji, Japan 1954
This sweeping historical tragedy about two children separated from their parents and sold into slavery
continued a run of late masterpieces from Kenji Mizoguchi.
See all 25 votes for Sansho Dayu (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-

people/4ce2b6b50a0d5/sightandsoundpoll2012)

Yes, I agree
/
63=. Wild Strawberries (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-
people/4ce2b6b6466ce)
Ingmar Bergman, Sweden 1957
On a road trip to receive an honorary degree, an elderly academic (Victor Sjöstrom) looks back over his
life in Ingmar Bergman’s art-cinema classic.
See all 24 votes for Wild Strawberries (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-

people/4ce2b6b6466ce/sightandsoundpoll2012)

Yes, I agree
/
63=. Modern Times (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-
people/4ce2b6bbbf1e2)
Charles Chaplin, USA 1936
The final outing for Charlie Chaplin’s beloved Tramp character finds him enduring the pratfalls and
humiliations of work in an increasingly mechanised society.
See all 24 votes for Modern Times (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-

people/4ce2b6bbbf1e2/sightandsoundpoll2012)

Yes, I agree
/
63=. Sunset Blvd. (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-
Billy Wilder, USA 1950
The most caustic of European émigré directors, Wilder explored the movie industry and the delusions of
stardom in Hollywood’s great poison pen letter to itself.
See all 24 votes for Sunset Blvd. (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b6b757144)

Yes, I agree
/
63=. Night of the Hunter, The (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-
Charles Laughton, USA 1955
Actor Charles Laughton’s only film as a director is a complete one-off, a terrifying parable of the corruption
of innocence featuring a career-best performance from Robert Mitchum.
See all 24 votes for The Night of the Hunter (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-


Yes, I agree
/
63=. Pickpocket (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-
people/4ce2b6b30995b)
Robert Bresson, France 1959
Robert Bresson chronicles the life of a petty thief in this philosophical film, with a screenplay inspired by
Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment, and a cast featuring several non-professional actors.
See all 24 votes for Pickpocket (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-

people/4ce2b6b30995b/sightandsoundpoll2012)

Yes, I agree
/
63=. Rio Bravo (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-
Howard Hawks, USA 1958
A decade after Red River (1947), Howard Hawks reteamed with John Wayne for this rambling western
riffing on the director’s usual themes of friendship and professionalism.
See all 24 votes for Rio Bravo (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-


Yes, I agree
/
69=. Blade Runner (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-
people/4ce2b69ac89d8)
Ridley Scott, Hong Kong/USA 1982
Loosely adapted from a novel by Phillip K. Dick, Ridley Scott’s dark, saturated vision of 2019 Los Angeles
is a classic of popular science-fiction cinema.
See all 23 votes for Blade Runner (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-

people/4ce2b69ac89d8/sightandsoundpoll2012)

Yes, I agree
/
69=. Blue Velvet (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-
people/4ce2b6f6c85c4)
David Lynch, USA 1986
In David Lynch’s idiosyncratic drama, a young man’s curiosity draws him into the twisted criminal sub-
culture operating beneath the placid surface of his cosy hometown.
See all 23 votes for Blue Velvet (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-

people/4ce2b6f6c85c4/sightandsoundpoll2012)

Yes, I agree
/
69=. Sans Soleil (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-
people/4ce2b7663dc08)
Chris Marker, France 1982
A veteran cameraman who has travelled throughout the world relays his impressions on the different
countries and life in general to a female commentator.
See all 23 votes for Sans Soleil (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-

people/4ce2b7663dc08/sightandsoundpoll2012)

Yes, I agree
/
69=. A Man Escaped (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-
people/4ce2b6a7da289)
Robert Bresson, France 1956
True story of the hazardous and daring wartime escape of a French officer from the condemned cell of a
Nazi prison, with action set to Mozart’s Great C-Minor Mass.
See all 23 votes for A Man Escaped (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-

people/4ce2b6a7da289/sightandsoundpoll2012)

Yes, I agree
/
73=. The Third Man (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-
Carol Reed, UK/USA 1949
An American abroad in post-war Vienna pursues his missing friend down a rabbit hole of intrigue and
moral corruption in Carol Reed’s masterpiece of European noir.
See all 22 votes for The Third Man (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-


Yes, I agree
/
73=. L’eclisse (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-
people/4ce2b6a9624ac)
Michelangelo Antonioni, France/Italy 1962
Antonioni’s film charts the hot and cold relationship of a young couple in bustling Rome.
See all 22 votes for L’eclisse (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-

people/4ce2b6a9624ac/sightandsoundpoll2012)

Yes, I agree
/
73=. Les enfants du paradis (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-
people/4ce2b6a9624ac)
Marcel Carné, France 1945
Made during the Nazi occupation of France, Marcel Carne’s romantic epic of the 19th-century theatre
world is a life-affirming tribute to love, Paris and the stage.
See all 22 votes for Les enfants du paradis (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-

people/4ce2b6a9624ac/sightandsoundpoll2012)

Yes, I agree
/
73=. La grande illusion (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-
people/4ce2b6ab6f1c7)
Jean Renoir’s pacifist classic is set in a German prisoner-of-war camp during WWI, where class kinship is
felt across national boundaries.
See all 22 votes for La grande illusion (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-

people/4ce2b6ab6f1c7/sightandsoundpoll2012)

Yes, I agree
/
73=. Nashville (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-
people/4ce2b6b143f57)
Robert Altman, USA 1975
Made to celebrate the bicentennial of American Independence, Robert Altman’s footloose epic blends the
lives of 24 characters in the capital of country music.
See all 22 votes for Nashville (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-

people/4ce2b6b143f57/sightandsoundpoll2012)

Yes, I agree
/
78=. Chinatown (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-
people/4ce2b6a78d5ab)
Roman Polanski, USA 1974
Roman Polanski’s brilliant thriller stars Jack Nicholson as a private eye uncovering corruption in 1930s Los
Angeles, a desert town where water equals power.
See all 21 votes for Chinatown (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-

people/4ce2b6a78d5ab/sightandsoundpoll2012)

Yes, I agree
/
78=. Beau Travail (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-
people/4ce2b8203c690)
Claire Denis, France 1998
Loosely based on Herman Melville’s Billy Budd but with the action transferred to contemporary Djibouti,
and the French Foreign legion, Claire Denis’s film is balletic, oblique and photographically stunning.
See all 21 votes for Beau Travail (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-

people/4ce2b8203c690/sightandsoundpoll2012)

Yes, I agree
/
78=. Once Upon a Time in the West
(http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b6a754af6)
Sergio Leone, Italy/USA 1968
The railroad rushes westward, bringing power and progress with it, in Sergio Leone’s grandest spaghetti
western, an operatic homage to Hollywood’s mythology of the Old West.
See all 21 votes for Once Upon a Time in the West (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-
people/4ce2b6a754af6/sightandsoundpoll2012)

Yes, I agree
/
81=. The Magnificent Ambersons
(http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b6af8f820)
Among the most famous of broken films, Orson Welles’ masterful follow-up to Citizen Kane was taken out
of his control and re-edited by the studio.
See all 20 votes for The Magnificent Ambersons (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-

people/4ce2b6af8f820/sightandsoundpoll2012)

Yes, I agree
/
81=. Lawrence of Arabia (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-
people/4ce2b6aea50ea)
David Lean, UK 1962
An eccentric English officer inspires the Arabs to unite against the Turks during WWI in David Lean’s
seven Oscar-winner, an epic in every sense.
See all 20 votes for Lawrence of Arabia (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-

people/4ce2b6aea50ea/sightandsoundpoll2012)

Yes, I agree
/
81=. The Spirit of the Beehive (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-
people/4ce2b6a99de5f)
Víctor Erice, Spain 1973
In the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War, two small sisters live in a remote village in Castille. A mobile
cinema screening of Frankenstein captures Ana’s imagination vividly, and is still in her mind when she
finds a wounded soldier in the barn.
See all 20 votes for The Spirit of the Beehive (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-

people/4ce2b6a99de5f/sightandsoundpoll2012)

Yes, I agree
/
84=. Fanny and Alexander (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-
people/4ce2b69415af8)
Ingmar Bergman, France/Sweden 1984
The grand summation of Ingmar Bergman’s career, this epic family drama drew on the director’s own
childhood experiences in early 20th century Sweden.
See all 19 votes for Fanny and Alexander (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-

people/4ce2b69415af8/sightandsoundpoll2012)

Yes, I agree
/
84=. Casablanca (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-
people/4ce2b82020179)
Michael Curtiz, USA 1942
Everybody comes to Rick’s bar, including expat Rick’s (Humphrey Bogart) former lover Ilsa (Ingrid
Bergman), in one of Hollywood’s most-loved romantic melodramas.
See all 19 votes for Casablanca (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-

people/4ce2b82020179/sightandsoundpoll2012)

Yes, I agree
/
84=. The Colour of Pomegranates
(http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b6e73c109)
Sergei Parajanov, USSR 1968
Parajanov’s lyrical evocation of the life of the 18th century Armenian poet Harutyan Sayatyan uses
symbolic imagery patterned after Armenian icons and the folk theatre traditions of masque and mime, and
is told through a series of titled episodes.
See all 19 votes for The Colour of Pomegranates (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-

people/4ce2b6e73c109/sightandsoundpoll2012)

Yes, I agree
/
84=. Greed (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-
people/4ce2b7219ffd8)
Erich von Stroheim, USA 1925
Silent cinema’s most famous ‘lost’ film, Von Stroheim’s monumental study of three ordinary lives destroyed
by avarice was ruinously edited down by the studio.
See all 19 votes for Greed (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b7219ffd8/sightandsoundpoll2012)

Yes, I agree
/
84=. A Brighter Summer Day (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-
people/4ce2b7b78a3f5)
Edward Yang, Taiwan 1991
Through a focus on one central male protagonist, an idealistic student who refuses to compromise his
moral standards, Edward Yang’s historical memoir looks at growing up in Taiwan during the 1960s and the
problems of military dictatorship, unemployment and immigration from mainland China.
See all 19 votes for A Brighter Summer Day (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-

people/4ce2b7b78a3f5/sightandsoundpoll2012)

Yes, I agree
/
84=. The Wild Bunch (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-
people/4ce2b6bad3a0d)
Sam Peckinpah, USA 1969
A gang of outlaws goes out in a blaze of violence and glory in Sam Peckinpah’s elegiac film about the
dying days of the wild west.
See all 19 votes for The Wild Bunch (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-

people/4ce2b6bad3a0d/sightandsoundpoll2012)

Yes, I agree
/
90=. Partie de campagne (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-
people/4ce2b6b2a3772)
This featherlight, 40-minute romance directed by Jean Renoir and based on a Guy de Maupassant story
follows a love affair over the course of a summer afternoon in the countryside outside Paris.
See all 18 votes for Partie de campagne (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-

people/4ce2b6bad3a0d/sightandsoundpoll2012)

Yes, I agree
/
90=. Aguirre, Wrath of God (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-
people/4ce2b6a54c395)
Werner Herzog, Federal Republic of Germany 1972
Klaus Kinski stars as a megalomaniacal soldier leading a group of conquistadores down river in search of
El Dorado on Werner Herzog’s oblique study of madness.
See all 18 votes for Aguirre, Wrath of God (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-

people/4ce2b6a54c395/sightandsoundpoll2012)

Yes, I agree
/
90=. A Matter of Life and Death (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-
tv-people/4ce2b6b0210f1)
Michael Powell/Emeric Pressburger, UK 1946
In Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s audacious Technicolor fantasy, WWII airman David Niven
finds himself summoned to heaven after surviving a plane crash that should have killed him.
See all 18 votes for A Matter of Life and Death (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-

people/4ce2b6b0210f1/sightandsoundpoll2012)

Yes, I agree
/
93=. The Seventh Seal (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-
people/4ce2b6b61b4e8)
Ingmar Bergman, Sweden 1957
During the plague-ravaged middle ages, a knight buys time for himself by playing chess with Death in
Bergman’s much-imitated arthouse classic.
See all 17 votes for The Seventh Seal (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-

people/4ce2b6b61b4e8/sightandsoundpoll2012)

Yes, I agree
/
93=. Un chien andalou (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-
people/4ce2b6ffc05d8)
Luis Buñuel, France 1928
Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dali collaborated in this surrealist silent short, notorious for its eye-slashing
opening scene, its perplexing Freudian imagery and dream-logic narrative flow.
See all 17 votes for Un chien andalou (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-

people/4ce2b6ffc05d8/sightandsoundpoll2012)

Yes, I agree
/
93=. Intolerance (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-
people/4ce2b6bbaea80)
D.W. Griffith, USA 1916
Responding to criticisms of racism for his record-breaking The Birth of a Nation, filmmaking pioneer D.W.
Griffith made this epic drama depicting intolerance through the ages.
See all 17 votes for Intolerance (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-

people/4ce2b6bbaea80/sightandsoundpoll2012)

Yes, I agree
/
93=. A One and a Two (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-
people/4ce2b847b975d)
Edward Yang, Japan/Taiwan 1999
Edward Yang’s second film in our top 100 films offers a lucid, novelistic tapestry of contemporary
Taiwanese anomie through the layers of multiple generations of a Taipei family.
See all 17 votes for A One and a Two (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-

people/4ce2b847b975d/sightandsoundpoll2012)

Yes, I agree
/
93=. The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp
(http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b6e31bcf4)
Michael Powell/Emeric Pressburger, UK 1943
Deborah Kerr and Roger Livesey star in this wondrous British Technicolor classic – one of cinema’s
greatest studies of ‘Englishness’.
See all 17 votes for The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-
people/4ce2b6e31bcf4/sightandsoundpoll2012)

Yes, I agree
/
93=. Touki Bouki (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-
people/4ce2b77b4418a)
Djibril Diop Mambéty, Senegal 1973
A young boy and a girl decide to emigrate from Senegal to France in search of a better life. They travel
around the country on a motorbike trying various schemes to raise the money for the trip.
See all 17 votes for Touki Bouki (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-

people/4ce2b77b4418a/sightandsoundpoll2012)

Yes, I agree
/
93=. Fear Eats the Soul (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-
people/4ce2b6bfdd960)
Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Federal Republic of Germany 1974
Fassbinder’s international breakthrough is an unconventional love story with devastating emotional power.
See all 17 votes for Fear Eats the Soul (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-

people/4ce2b6bfdd960/sightandsoundpoll2012)

Yes, I agree
/
93=. Imitation of Life (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-
people/4ce2b6ad028a9)
Douglas Sirk, USA 1959
Lana Turner shines in Douglas Sirk’s moving rags-to-riches tale.
See all 17 votes for Imitation of Life (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-

people/4ce2b6ad028a9/sightandsoundpoll2012)

Yes, I agree
/
93=. Madame de… (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-
people/4ce2b6af779a6)
Max Ophüls, France/Italy 1953
Tragic consequences ensue when a society woman pawns the earrings her husband gave her, in Max
Ophuls’ graceful and opulent period drama.
See all 17 votes for Madame de… (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-

people/4ce2b6af779a6/sightandsoundpoll2012)
Everything you need to know about the Sight & Sound Greatest Films of All Time polls (/sight-
sound-magazine/greatest-films-all-time-2012-homepage)

Yes, I agree
/
(/sight-sound-magazine/greatest-films-all-time-2012-homepage)
Find all our Greatest Films of All Time poll coverage here: the results, the reaction, the analysis, the arguments and
our past polls from previous...
Browse all our coverage
The best films of 2020… so far (/best-films-2020)

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/
(/best-films-2020)
An ongoing tally of the movies we’ve most loved this year – from those that have been through British cinemas to
those that have delighted us at...
See our picks of this year so far
The best films now on UK streaming services (/news-opinion/sight-sound-magazine/reviews-

recommendations/best-new-films-uk-cinemas)

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/
(/news-opinion/sight-sound-magazine/reviews-recommendations/best-new-films-uk-cinemas)
Looking for the best new cinema releases available on British VOD platforms? Here’s our guide to how to keep up with
the latest movies while you’re...
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Buy a Sight & Sound subscription (/news-opinion/sight-sound-magazine/sight-sound-magazine-

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(/news-opinion/sight-sound-magazine/sight-sound-magazine-subscriptions)
Subscribe today – in print and/or digital – and discover the world’s best cinema.
Find out more
The Top 50 Greatest Films of All Time on DVD and Blu-ray (http://shop.bfi.org.uk/dvd-blu-ray/bfi-
top-50-greatest-films.html)

Yes, I agree
/
(http://shop.bfi.org.uk/dvd-blu-ray/bfi-top-50-greatest-films.html)
From Vertigo to La Jetée, the best films ever made are now available in the BFI Shop.
Buy now
Watch Breathless on BFI Player (http://player.bfi.org.uk/film/watch-breathless-a-bout-de-souffle-

1960/)

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/
(http://player.bfi.org.uk/film/watch-breathless-a-bout-de-souffle-1960/)
Jean-Luc Godard’s extraordinary debut almost singlehandedly changed the face of French cinema and went on to
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In our biggest ever film critics’ poll, the list of

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See all 191 votes for Vertigo (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b6b9caca4/sightandsoundpoll2012)

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— Nigel Andrews (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/sightandsoundpoll2012/voter/246)

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3. Tokyo Story (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-

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9. The Passion of Joan of Arc (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-

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Breathless redefined and reimagined the possibilities of the medium.

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Au Hasard is an overpowering experience, but nothing to do with sentiment, more a troubling

17=. Seven Samurai (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-

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17=. Persona (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-

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21=. L’Avventura (http://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-