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Sight&Sound’s Greatest Films of All Time, 2022 edition
I went to see The Apartment (1960) last night at the BFI. There was a Patrons party afterwards and naturally we eventually got round to talking about the new Greatest Films of All Time list, due to be released less than 24 hours later, a decade after Vertigo de-throned Citizen Kane for the first time.
We placed our bets and it’s safe to say, not a single person got it right this time and isn’t that fun! I personally thought Godard’s A Bout de souffle was going to take top spot, my friend thought 2001 might be the underdog, while a few of our friends and acquaintances invariably said the aforementioned Vertigo, Citizen Kane as well as The Rules of the Game. To think Chantal Akerman’s Jeanne Dielman would prove everyone wrong!
The usual suspects are here. I mean, The Usual Suspects (1995) isn’t, but you get my point. The list itself is no surprise if you’re familiar with the BFI or film critics in general. Obscure, brilliant, beloved, shocking, underrated… they’re all here. There is, however, something to be said about the Sight&Sound’s previous GFOAT lists’ elitist ways. To put things into context, this is the first time a film directed by a woman is top of the list… since 1952. Likewise, films directed by LGBTQ+ people and people of colour have also previously been woefully under-represented. This will be a shock to…
