SIGHT AND SOUND GREATEST FILMS – SMITH RAFAEL FILM CENTER

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‘Tis the season for “10-Best” lists, as virtually every critic and pundit in the country has assembled an annual honor roll of film releases from 2022. But the “top-ten” list that has captured the imagination of the international film community this particular year is one that appears only once a decade, assembled by Sight and Sound, the venerable periodical of film criticism published by the British Film Institute.

In 1952 Sight and Sound published their first poll of film critics, and these polls have continued every ten years since. Each invited participant submits a personal top-ten list of “The Greatest Films of All Time,” and over the years the list of participants has expanded dramatically. Each list can stand as a bellwether of trends and fashions in criticism. This short series highlights the number one film polled from every decade: Bicycle Thieves, Citizen Kane (multiple years), Vertigo, Jeanne Dielman.

Visit the BFI website to see the ranking of 250 films in the latest poll.

While it’s difficult to say what these results may ultimately prove, the ranking of film classics can present an irresistible exercise for cinephiles. If nothing else, film lists provide meaty topics for discussion and debate.

ADMISSION TO EACH PROGRAM: $13.25 General | $9.75 Senior • Youth • Matinée | $5 CAFILM Members

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BICYCLE THIEVES

SUNDAY, FEB. 12 • 1:00 | MONDAY, FEB. 13 • 7:00

This key work in the postwar 1940s film movement known as Italian Neo-Realism is a landmark of humanist filmmaking made on the streets of Rome. Director Vittorio De Sica’s poetic and heartbreaking tale focuses on a struggling father’s relationship with his young son and his desperate hunt for a stolen bicycle that is essential for his employment. In Italian with English subtitles. (Italy 1948) 90 min.

The first critics’ poll by Sight and Sound in 1952 was a response to another survey of film directors that same year. 85 critics from the US and Europe were invited to participate, and 63 of them actually did. It’s fascinating that the top-voted film was only four years old. It’s also interesting that half of the dozen titles on the list (including tie votes) were silent films, but that historical period was still in the rear-view mirrors of many participants.

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CITIZEN KANE

SUNDAY, FEB. 19 • 1:00 | MONDAY, FEB. 20 • 7:00

Orson Welles’s legendary first feature as director and actor is an undisputed classic and one of the most influential films in history. (Look at the long history it has with the critics’ poll.) Working with co-writer Herman J. Mankiewicz, cinematographer Gregg Toland and composer Bernard Herrmann, Welles crafted a quasi-biographical film about a fictional newspaper magnate by using many innovative techniques that he had employed in his theater and radio work. (US 1941) 119 min.

For 50 years (1962, 1972, 1982, 1992, 2002) Citizen Kane sat in the number-one position on Sight and Sound’s critics’ poll. (In 1972 and 1982 it was joined in the top ten by Welles’s second feature, The Magnificent Ambersons.) Also, the 1962 and 1972 polls reflected the shake-up provided by international film movements, such as the French New Wave and the West’s growing recognition of Asian and Latin American cinema. In 2002 the growth of home video had become a major factor in people’s access to films.

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VERTIGO

SUNDAY, FEB. 26 • 1:00 | MONDAY, FEB. 27 • 7:00

James Stewart stars with Kim Novak in director Alfred Hitchcock’s most delirious and romantic thriller, filmed extensively in the Bay Area. Scottie Ferguson is a San Francisco detective, retired from the force due to acrophobia, who takes on a private case, shadowing a college acquaintance’s beautiful young wife suspected to be suicidal. Stewart delivers one of his most complex, passionate and anguished performances. Music by Bernard Herrmann. (US 1958) 129 min.

In 2012 Vertigo took the top position from Citizen Kane. (It had joined the top ten in 1982 and continued to ascend the poll in 1992 and 2002.) The pool of participating critics this time had expanded to 850. In addition, 2012 was also the first poll conducted since the Internet had become the primary medium of communication about films.

MORE VERTIGO FUN

Stretch your legs after the film… STERLING’S SF VERTIGO WALK

Find out who is responsible for the iconic VERTIGO poster and opening titles: THE ART OF SAUL BASS

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JEANNE DIELMAN, 23 QUAI DU COMMERCE, 1080 BRUXELLES

SUNDAY, MARCH 5 • 1:00 | MONDAY, MARCH 6 • 7:00

The surprise winner of the 2022 critics’ poll is this breakthrough feature from Belgian filmmaker Chantal Akerman. The slow-paced and almost wordless film stars Delphine Seyrig (Last Year at Marienbad) in a microscopic examination of one woman’s daily life that forces us to see the world (and cinema) in a different way. Its hypnotic rhythms create a blend of feminism, modernism and the avant-garde. In French with English subtitles. (Belgium/France 1975) 201 min.

The 2022 poll is the largest yet, with more than 1,600 participants. Jeanne Dielman first made the list in 2012, when an expanding roster of critics ranked it at number 35. The rapid ascent of this film on the list signals that this year’s results originate from a substantially more diverse pool of participants.