2022 Sight & Sound Poll

[oscar jubis]

The importance of the B.F.I./Sight & Sound poll cannot be overestimated. I remember being a teenage cinephile in the 1970s, thinking about all the masterpieces that had been produced since the inception of the "7th art" in the 1890s, and wishing to have the opportunity to watch them and experience them properly. I remember using the 1972 poll as a guide to the films I had to experience someday. I was also using the lists of Hollywood films included at the end of the book "The American Cinema" by Andrew Sarris, but it was the international perspective of the Sight & Sound poll that I favored. The posting of the poll in 2022 constitutes an opportunity to identify and examine the films that have had the greatest impact, the films one wishes to honor and appreciate. Ten films, only ten out of thousands and thousands over the course of a lifetime.

My tendency is to leave out films that have already established their significance and excellence. I'd be inclined to leave out movies that placed in the top 80 (or so) in previous polls. Here's a quick list of films that I love but would not get a vote because they have achieved worldwide notoriety: Orson Welles' Citizen Kane and The Magnificent Ambersons, various Alfred Hitchcock films, John Ford's The Searchers, Ozu's Late Spring and Tokyo Story, Kenji Mizoguchi's Ugetsu and Sansho Dayu, French classics The Rules of the Game, La Jetee, The 400 Blows, and Au hasard Balthazar, my favorite silents Man with a Movie Camera and City Lights. These films are already "enshrined", deservedly so.

My hope is that this thread creates anticipation for the upcoming poll and elicits thoughts about the films that matter the most to you, dear readers of this forum.