Every ten years since 1952, the British film magazine Sight and Sound, published by the renowned British Film Institute, has organized a survey of film critics from all over the world to compile a list of the best films of all time. For forty years, Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane topped the Sight and Sound charts, widely regarded as very authoritative, topped in 2012 by Alfred Hitchcock’s The Woman Who Lived Twice. In this year’s edition, however, the film with the most votes is probably unknown to many: Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Brussels. It is the first in the history of the ranking to be directed by a female director, Belgian Chantal Akerman, considered a pioneer of feminist cinema.
Although not well known among non-fans, Akerman’s 1975 film was widely praised and considered an example of avant-garde work. Like other novelties in the ranking, it seems to reflect a certain change in the times and a greater openness in the film industry.
Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Brussels, commonly abbreviated to Jeanne Dielman, lasts almost three and a half hours and tells the story of a Belgian widow, played by Delphine Seyrig. Set over three days, it slowly, meticulously and at times even boringly (with fixed shots) describes the repetitiveness of the life of the protagonist, a housewife who occasionally prostitutes herself and her teenage son.
It is the first film directed by a woman to enter the top ten of the Sight and Sound rankings (100 overall), placing ahead of many masterpieces including The Woman Who Lived Twice (Vertigo, 1958), at second place and Citizen Kane (Citizen Kane, 1941) in third place. Fourth is Yasujirō Ozu’s Journey to Tokyo (1953) instead, while fifth is Wong Kar-wai’s In the Mood for Love (2000).
Every ten years, Sight and Sound asks film experts, film critics, archivists and academics to select what they consider to be the 10 best films of all time in order to compile the ranking: the ranking is compiled on the basis of all the preferences expressed. In the first classification in 1952, the winner was Bicycle Thieves, a 1948 film directed by Vittorio De Sica, and in the decades that followed, up until ten years ago, Citizen Kane. Jeanne Dielman was already in the 2012 ranking at No. 35, but it was one of two films directed by a woman, with Claire Denis’ Beau Travail (1999) at No. 78.
As noted by Laura Mulvey, a film professor at Birkbeck University in London, in a comment on the British Film Institute’s website, the fact that Akerman’s film was the first film directed by a woman to make the top ten may also be a consequence of the fact that the A decade ago, the majority of critics were male: Jeanne Dielman joined the list when Sight and Sound began expanding the number of critics involved, which was the case this year as well.
In 2012, the list was compiled with the vote of 846 people, while in this edition 1639 people voted, almost double that. In an interview with The New York Times, Sight and Sound editor Mike Williams said he believes the list “is beginning to more fully reflect the world of cinema, likes, criticism, and conversations” surrounding the films. Williams added that the inclusion of many new voices from knowledgeable individuals likely helped highlight films and directors from areas and backgrounds different from those traditionally viewed.
– Also read: Top 10 best films of all time 2012 ranking
This year’s ranking includes 11 films directed by women, including Beau Travail at number 7, Cleo from 5 to 7 (1962) by Agnès Varda at number 14 and Portrait of a Girl on Fire by Céline Sciamma (2019) at number 30. It There are also more films by black directors (in the 2012 ranking there was only The Journey of the Hyena, 1973, by Djibril Diop Mambéty): These include Do the right thing (1989) by Spike Lee and Escape – Get Out (2017) by Jordan Peele .
Two animated films, both by the famous Japanese director Hayao Miyazaki, also made their debut in the ranking: My Neighbor Totoro (1988) and Spirited Away (2001).
In his article, Mulvey called Jeanne Dielman’s first position “a sudden jolt” and “a triumph for women’s cinema.” However, he noted that perhaps even more surprising is the fact that the film is much closer to an experimental and avant-garde aesthetic than the style of other commercially successful films. According to Mulvey, the film also deals “seriously” with the oppression of women and Akerman succeeds in transforming cinema, “often itself an instrument of female oppression, into a liberating force”.
Vox reporter Alissa Wilkinson, who participated in the poll, said that while Jeanne Dielman was “repetitive,” “extremely boring” and didn’t explain what it was about, it was “an example of a seminal feminist film.” According to Wilkinson, the fact that it was reissued in 2017 by Criterion Collection, a company that restores and remasters older films, may also have contributed to the result, which would have brought it to a wider audience.
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The complete ranking can be viewed here.
1. Jeanne Dielman, 23, Quai du Commerce, 1080 Brussels (Chantal Akermann, 1975)
2. The woman who lived twice (Alfred Hitchcock, 1958)
3. fourth force (Orson Welles, 1941)
4. Trip to Tokyo (Yasujiro Ozu, 1953)
5. In the mood for love (Wong Karwai, 2001)
6. 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1968)
7. Beau Travail (Claire Denis, 1999)
8th. Mulholland Drive (David Lynch, 2001)
9. The man with the film camera (Dziga Vertov, 1929)
10 sing in the rain (Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly, 1951)
11. aurora (FW Murnau, 1927)
12. The Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola, 1972)
13. The rule of the game (Jean Renoir, 1939)
14 Cleo from 5 to 7 (Agnes Varda, 1962)
fifteen. Wild Paths (John Ford, 1956)
16 stitches of the afternoon (Maya Deren and Alexander Hammid, 1943)
17 closeup (Abbas Kiarostami, 1989)
18 person (Ingmar Bergman, 1966)
19 apocalypse now (Francis Ford Coppola, 1979)
20 The seven samurai (Kurosawa Akira, 1954)
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