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Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Film Mavens' Poll Razes "Kane"

The respected Sight & Sound poll of over 800 critics and academics around the world who (somehow) pick and rank the greatest films of all-time produced a kind of mini-shock today:  after 50 years at the top, Orson Welles' Citizen Kane got dumped, replaced by Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo.  Myself, I very much prefer Hitch's North By Northwest in the same period, but in any event I would place Dr. Strangelove or Seven Samurai (#17) or one or two others at #1.  UPDATE:  Roger Ebert analyzes the results here.

Kubrick's wildly overrated 2001 places #7 here while there's no Strangelove or Paths of Glory.   Mulholland Drive #28--really?  And not Abel Gance's NapoleonTokyo Story #3 and no IkiruTaxi Driver, Apocalypse Now and The Godfather (both I and II) all make the cut.  Where's anything more recent such as The Lives of Others? See and argue with the top 50 and commentary, all here.

3 comments:

SpeechNerd said...

Hi Mr. Mitchell. I apologize this post does not relate to the topic I am posting on. It is in regards to this article. http://www.thenation.com/blog/163308/everything-changed-nyt-front-page-morning-september-11-2001# . I read you got your hands on a NYT 9/11 morning newspaper. I'm doing a speech/debate project and need a copy of it. Would you be able to tell me how you came upon the newspaper? Thank you so much.

lornasingh said...

The Greatest Film of all time --- 'Battle of Algiers'(1966)
Honest,detailed and so real it could be mistaken for a documentary.

lornasingh said...

The Sight and Sound list has only 2 by Kurosawa (7 Samurai and Rashomon)
I would have included 'Red Beard',perhaps my fave from the greatest Director/Actor team in film history.