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top tens
- Some Known SurveysOf course, the cinema's best known Top Ten survey is conducted by Sight and Sound every 10 years.
The 2002 poll results are thus:
[ © British Film Institute/Sight and Sound 2002 ]
Sight and Sound poll, 2002, critics' choices:
1. Citizen Kane
2. Vertigo
3. La Règle du Jeu
4. The Godfather / The Godfather II
5. Tokyo Story
6. 2001: A Space Oddysey
7. Battleship Potemkin
Sunrise
9. 8½
10. Singin' in the Rain(The top directors that the critics voted for were: Welles, Hitchcock, Godard, Renoir, Kubrick, Kurosawa, Fellini, Ford, Eisenstein, Coppola, Ozu.)
Sight and Sound poll, 2002, film-makers' choices:
1. Citizen Kane
2. The Godfather / The Godfather II
3. 8½
4. Lawrence of Arabia
5. Dr. Strangelove
6. Bicycle Thieves
Raging Bull
Vertigo
9. Rashomon
La Règle du Jeu
Seven Samurai
(By director, the directors went for: Welles, Fellini, Kurosawa, Coppola, Hitchcock, Kubrick, Wilder, Bergman, Scorsese, Lean, Renoir.)
Sight and Sound Top Ten Poll 2002 - On this page you can browse the votes in their entirety, not only seeing individual critics' and directors' top tens, but also seeing which critics and directors voted for individual films.
In previous decades, the results were thus:
Sight and Sound poll, 1992, critics' choices (with votes):
1. Citizen Kane (43)
2. La Règle du Jeu (32)
3. Tokyo Story (22)
4. Vertigo (18)
5. The Searchers (17)
6. L'Atalante (15)
La Passion de Jeanne d'Arc (15)
Pather Panchali (15)
Battleship Potemkin (15)
10. 2001: A Space Oddysey (14)(By director, the votes cast were: Welles 58, Renoir 50, Godard 42, Hitchcock 39, Chaplin 36, Ford 34, S. Ray 32, Ozu 30, Dreyer 29, Eisenstein 26.)
Sight and Sound poll, 1992, film-makers' choices (with votes):
1. Citizen Kane (30)
2. Raging Bull (16)
8½ (16)
4. La Strada (12)
5. L'Atalante (11)
6. Modern Times (10)
The Godfather (10)
Vertigo (10)
9. Seven Samurai (9)
La Passion de Jeanne d'Arc (9)
The Godfather II (9)
Rashomon (9)(By director, the directors went for: Fellini 45, Welles 42, Kurosawa 32, Coppola 26, Scorsese 23, Buñuel 23, Bergman 22, Chaplin 21, Ford 21, Hitchcock 20.)
Sight and Sound poll, 1982:
1. Citizen Kane (45)
2. La Règle du Jeu (31)
3. Seven Samurai (15)
Singin' in the Rain (15)
5. 8½ (14)
6. Battleship Potemkin (13)
7. L'Avventura (12)
The Magnificent Ambersons (12)
Vertigo (12)
10. The General (11)
The Searchers (11)(By director: Welles 71, Renoir 51, Chaplin 37, Ford 34, Buñuel 33, Kurosawa 33, Fellini 32, Hitchcock 32, Godard 30, Keaton 30.)
Sight and Sound poll, 1972:
1. Citizen Kane (32)
2. La Règle du Jeu (28)
3. Battleship Potemkin (16)
4. 8½ (15)
5. L'Avventura (12)
Persona (12)
7. La Passion de Jeanne d'Arc (11)
8. The General (10)
The Magnificent Ambersons (10)
10. Ugetsu Monogatari (9)
Wild Strawberries (9)(Note the distinct favoring of Bergman at the time.)
Sight and Sound poll, 1962:
1. Citizen Kane (22)
2. L'Avventura (20)
3. La Règle du Jeu (19)
4. Greed (17)
Ugetsu Monogatari (17)
6. Battleship Potemkin (16)
Bicycle Thieves (16)
Ivan The Terrible (16)
9. La Terra Trema (14)
10. L'Atalante (13)Sight and Sound poll, 1952:
1. Bicycle Thieves (25)
2. City Lights (19)
The Gold Rush (19)
4. Battleship Potemkin (16)
5. Intolerance (12)
Louisana Story (12)
7. Greed (11)
Le Jour se Lève (11)
La Passion de Jeanne d'Arc (11)
10. Brief Encounter (10)
Le Million (10)
La Règle du Jeu (10)(Note the singular status of de Sica's film, and the complete absence of Welles' debut, a full 11 years after its release. This list clearly represents an "old guard" of film appreciation, pre-Nouvelle Vague, pre-film studies, etc.)
Perhaps an alternative to the above lists, Time Out conducted its own survey in 1995, to coincide with the centenary of cinema celebrations, not separating critics from programmers or film-makers, etc.
The results:
Time Out poll, 1995, with votes based on preferential placings:
1. Citizen Kane (111)
2. The Godfather (101)
3. La Règle du Jeu (77)
4. Vertigo (73)
5. Seven Samurai (63)
6. Lawrence of Arabia (60)
7. Raging Bull (58)
8. Touch of Evil (55)
9. Tokyo Story (50)
10. L'Atalante (49)Another survey that did not separate critics from directors, was conducted by the film writer John Kobal in the late 1980s, and published as a book (The Top 100 Movies, Pavilion, London,1988).
John Kobal poll, 1988 (no votes recorded):
1. Citizen Kane
2. La Règle du Jeu
3. Battleship Potemkin
4. 8½
5. Singin' in the Rain
6. Modern Times
7. Wild Strawberries
8. The Gold Rush
9. Casablanca
10. RashomonThese last two lists are more Hollywood-leaning, but with Citizen Kane still perched at the top. It seems to be an untouchable film.
Or is it?
A new list has appeared recently, Jan. 2000, in The Village Voice. The number of critics polled (50) is a bit under the standard set by the above lists, but the results show a remarkable consistency. Still, the high placing of the Vertov is interesting, whilst the entry of a Bresson is not surprising, the retrospective of his films having toured the world in the past 18 months.
Village Voice poll, December 1999
1. Citizen Kane
2. La Règle du Jeu
3. Vertigo
4. The Searchers
5. The Man With a Movie Camera
6. Sunrise
7. L'Atalante
8. La Passion de Jeanne d'Arc
9. Au Hasard, Balthazar
10. Rashomon
INFO ADDED MARCH 2000:
Local critic Adrian Martin conducted a poll of his own in 1992, for The Independent Monthly.
The people polled were: Ross Gibson, Rick Thompson, Freda Freiberg, Susan Dermody, John
Flaus, Felicity Collins, Michael Koller, Sylvia Lawson, Mark Naglazas.These are the results:
By film:
4 votes:
Citizen Kane
Voyage in Italy
A Man Escaped
Vertigo3 votes:
Rules of the Game
Last Chants for a Slow Dance (Jon Jost)
Raging Bull
It¹s a Wonderful Life
Apocalypse Now
The Searchers
Le Samourai
Double Indemnity
Pickpocket
Touch of Evil
By Director:
8 - Hitchcock, Bresson
7 - Welles
6 - Godard
5 - Hawks, Rossellini, Wilder, Sirk, Renoir
4 - Scorsese, Ozu, Resnais, Ford, Akerman, Bunuel, Capra
INFO ADDED JUNE 2000:
Reader and contributor Max S. Scheinin reports:
I recently did a poll myself -- only 18 participated, but it is representative of a lot of well-regarded 'net critics. It's a pretty conventional list, but here it is, just FYI.
1. Citizen Kane
2. 2001: A Space Odyssey
3. Vertigo
4. Casablanca
5. The Godfather
6. Chinatown
7. Blade Runner
8. (tie) Lawrence of Arabia, Singin' in the Rain
10. Godfather IIThat tally was based on the number of points each participant assigned to their films (ultimately adding up to 100). However, by votes, these were the results: 1. 2001: A Space Odyssey (14 votes) 2. Citizen Kane (12) 3. (tie) Casablanca (7) 3. (tie) Vertigo (7) 5. Singin' in the Rain (6) 6. (tie) The Godfather (5) 6. (tie) Godfather II (5) 8. (tie) Apocalypse Now (4) 8. (tie) Blade Runner (4) 8. (tie) Chinatown (4).
The critics polled were David Abrams, Josh Bell, Bill Chambers, Andrew Chan, Tim Dirks, Steve Erickson, Skander Halim, Daniel Harper, Eric C. Johnson, Jeremiah Kipp, Morgan Liu, Macresarf1, Rebecca Madison, John Nesbit, Theo Panayides, Ted Prigge, Max Scheinin, Jason Wallis and George Wu.
Max also reports, and it was somewhat amiss of me to leave it out considering I knew this information, that the poll Positif conducted in 1992 had the following results, Kane finally toppling from No.1:
1. Rules of the Game
2. Citizen Kane
3. 2001: A Space Odyssey
4. Vertigo
5. L'Atalante
6. 8 1/2
7. Sunrise
8. Barry Lyndon
9. The General
10. Sansho the Bailiff
And for those of you who are completely obsessed with such lists, the following website is invaluable -
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