So now the real interesting part of the Sight & Sound: The Greatest Films of All Time 2012 list has been released. Who voted for what and a chance to see what weird one offs that people put on their lists. The complete critics and directors lists are now up and there’s hours of perusing to be done. The lists have been compiled alphabetically on the website therefore what a person felt was the best isn’t always at the top of the list. Some people like to write and explain (or defend) their choices, others don’t care but it makes for some interesting reading. So despite Vertigo making the top of the list, it only made it on to 222 lists out of 846 critics and 358 directors. Obviously all this is subjective.
First I usually like to see who voted for what. Roger Ebert’s list for example contained:
2001: A Space Odyssey 1968 Stanley Kubrick
Aguirre, Wrath of God 1972 Werner Herzog
Apocalypse Now 1979 Francis Ford Coppola
Citizen Kane 1941 Orson Welles
dolce vita, La 1960 Federico Fellini
General, The 1926 Buster Keaton
Raging Bull 1980 Martin Scorsese
Tokyo Story 1953 Ozu Yasujirô
Tree of Life, The 2010 Terrence Malick
Vertigo 1958 Alfred Hitchcock
I think it’s a little early to include a movie like Tree of Life but that’s his choice. Still a pretty standard greatest films list.
Lloyd Kaufman, founder of the low budget giant Troma voted for
Art of Vision, The 1964 Stan Brakhage
Big Heat, The 1953 Fritz Lang
Boudu Saved from Drowning 1932 Jean Renoir
Cheyenne Autumn 1964 John Ford
City Lights 1931 Charles Chaplin
General, The 1926 Buster Keaton
Great Dictator, The 1940 Charles Chaplin
Princess Yang Kwei Fei 1955 Mizoguchi Kenji
Rio Bravo 1958 Howard Hawks
Rome Open City 1945 Roberto Rossellini
Hmm, not quite the list one would expect from the director of Toxic Avenger.
Francis Ford Coppola voted for
Apartment, The 1960 Billy Wilder
Ashes and Diamonds 1958 Andrzej Wajda
Bad Sleep Well, The 1960 Akira Kurosawa
Best Years of Our Lives, The 1946 William Wyler
I Vitelloni 1953 Federico Fellini
King of Comedy, The 1983 Martin Scorsese
Raging Bull 1980 Martin Scorsese
Singin’ in the Rain 1951 Stanley Donen/Gene Kelly
Sunrise 1927 F. W. Murnau
Yojimbo 1961 Akira Kurosawa
Two Martin Scorsese films and two Kurosawa films made his list.
Martin Scorsese
2001: A Space Odyssey 1968 Stanley Kubrick
8½ 1963 Federico Fellini
Ashes and Diamonds 1958 Andrzej Wajda
Citizen Kane 1941 Orson Welles
Leopard, The 1963 Luchino Visconti
Paisà 1946 Roberto Rossellini
Red Shoes, The 1948 Michael Powell/Emeric Pressburger
River, The 1951 Jean Renoir
Salvatore Giuliano 1962 Francesco Rosi
Searchers, The 1956 John Ford
Ugetsu Monogatari 1953 Mizoguchi Kenji
Vertigo 1958 Alfred Hitchcock
No Coppola movies on his list, I guess friends voting for each other is out.
Matthew Vaughn, director of X-Men: First Class and Kick-Ass went with a more fan-boy based list.
Back to the Future 1985 Robert Zemeckis
Being There 1979 Hal Ashby
Deer Hunter, The 1977 Michael Cimino
Good, the Bad and the Ugly, The 1966 Sergio Leone
Lawrence of Arabia 1962 David Lean
Raiders of the Lost Ark 1981 Steven Spielberg
Reservoir Dogs 1991 Quentin Tarantino
Rocky III 1982 Sylvester Stallone
Scarface 1983 Brian De Palma
Star Wars 1977 George Lucas
He wrote “The ten films that most shaped me as a director.”
Quentin Tarantino, who always has an interesting list.
Apocalypse Now 1979 Francis Ford Coppola
Bad News Bears, The 1976 Michael Ritchie
Carrie 1976 Brian de Palma
Dazed and Confused 1993 Richard Linklater
Good, the Bad and the Ugly, The 1966 Sergio Leone
Great Escape, The 1963 John Sturges
His Girl Friday 1939 Howard Hawks
Jaws 1975 Steven Spielberg
Pretty Maids All in a Row 1971 Roger Vadim
Rolling Thunder 1997 John Flynn
Sorcerer 1977 William Friedkin
Taxi Driver 1976 Martin Scorsese
And you can just go on and on.
Other interesting things of note, 24 critics and directors from Canada voted on the Sight & Sound list and only four of them were women. And only one of those four was a director, Patricia Rozema. There are 32 Canadian films on the list. Or at least 32 movies that have Canada listed as the country of origin, although it is shared on more than one occasion. I don’t think I’d consider Rise of the Planet of the Apes a Canadian movie.
Assasination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, The (2007) Andrew Dominik Canada, USA
Atanarjuat The Fast Runner (2000) Zacharias Kunuk Canada
Au clair de la lune (1983) André Forcier Canada
Begone Dull Care (1949) Evelyn Lambart, Norman McLaren Canada
Brokeback Mountain (2005) Ang Lee Canada, USA
Brood, The (1979) David Cronenberg Canada
Buffalo 66 (1997) Vincent Gallo Canada, USA
Calendar (1993) Atom Egoyan Armenia, Canada, United Germany
Crash (1996) David Cronenberg Canada
Dead Ringers (1988) David Cronenberg Canada, USA
Dots (1940) Norman McLaren Canada
Enter the Void (2010) Gaspar Noe Canada, United Germany, France, Italy, Japan, USA
Exotica (1994) Atom Egoyan Canada
Hart of London, The (1970) Jack Chambers Canada
Jesus of Montreal (1989) Denys Arcand Canada, France
Lamentations (1985) R Bruce Elder Canada
Last Temptation of Christ, The (1988) Martin Scorsese Canada, USA
Last Train Home (2009) Lixin Fan Canada, People’s Republic of China, Great Britain, Netherlands, USA
Married Couple, A (1969) Allan King Canada
Morvern Callar (2001) Lynne Ramsay Canada, Great Britain
Presents (1981) Michael Snow Canada
Région Centrale, La (1971) Michael Snow Canada
Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011) Rupert Wyatt Australia, Canada, Great Britain, Hungary, USA
Russian Ark (2002) Aleksandr Sokurov Canada, United Germany, Finland, Japan, Russia (Republic)
Sweet Hereafter, The (1997) Atom Egoyan Canada
Sweet Movie (1973) Dusan Makavejev Canada, France
Thirty-Two Short Films About Glenn Gould (1993) François Girard Canada
Videodrome (1983) David Cronenberg Canada
Water (2005) Deepa Mehta Canada, USA
Wavelength (1967) Michael Snow Canada
William Shakespeare’s Romeo+Juliet (1996) Baz Luhrmann Canada, USA
Winnipeg, My (2007) Guy Maddin Canada, USA
Brokeback Mountain got four votes but I don’t consider this a Canadian film, Dead Ringers got five, Exotica got three, The Hart of London got three votes, La Région Centrale received seven totally votes, Russian Ark got 11 but again this is really a Russian film, not Canadian, Sweet Movie got two, Videodrome received 12 votes and Wavelength is apparently the greatest Canadian film with 19 total votes. Everything else on the list only received one vote.
You can just go on and on looking at the list and the people who voted. Behind the Green Door made the list again and Avatar somehow made the list. Of the Three Colours trilogy only Red and Blue made the list, there was no love for White. As always what you might consider to be a great film isn’t what someone else would consider.