What makes a movie the greatest of all time? Timelessness problem? Flawless artistic performance (directing, camera work, music, editing, etc.)? The script and its performance by the actors? Maybe all of the above together, of course, combined with the subjective opinion of who makes the list of the best films? All this, of course, is relative. We saw, for example, that a film (Moonlight) wins an Oscar for Best Picture, which at the same awards ceremony received only two more statuettes: an adapted screenplay and a second male role. In fact, this particular 2017 film by Barry Jenkins sits at number 60 on the acclaimed British magazine Sight and Sound’s updated list of the best films in history that was published a few days ago, prompting several reactions from named and anonymous commentators.

For those who don’t know, this particular poll, which features prominent film critics and academics from around the world, is considered the most prestigious and highly anticipated by the film community. The latter was surprised to see not Orson Welles’s Citizen Kane or Hitchcock’s Vertigo in first place on the 2022 list, as usual, but the relatively unknown to the general public, Jeanne Diehlmann, 23, 1080 Quay Commerce. Brussels” Sandal Ackerman. Released in 1975, the film mainly follows the daily life of a widowed housewife who experiences loneliness, occasionally hosting men in the afternoon to make ends meet.

The length of the film (nearly three and a half hours) is replete with slow-motion footage in which we watch the protagonist doing housework, immersed in depressing repetition. It will probably be difficult for a modern – and indeed any – viewer to watch, although the power of his message is even shocking. It is no coincidence that Jeanne Dielman is considered one of the cornerstones of feminist cinema, while becoming the first film directed by a woman at the top of Sight and Sound.

Clearly, by any “measurable” cinematic criteria, Sandal Ackerman’s film is no better than Citizen Kane, Vertigo, or The 400 Blows and Casablanca, which are far further down the list. Its value goes beyond artistic and symbolic, it corresponds to the spirit of our time. An era that doesn’t seem to appreciate the movies of Woody Allen and Roman Polanski, or Steven Spielberg or Elia Kazan, who don’t have any of their work in the top 100. There, on the contrary, there is “Run” by Jordan Peele, “Portrait of a Woman on Fire” by Celine Shiama and the already mentioned “Moonlight”.

The 2022 roster nearly doubled the number of voting members, from 850 to 1,639, with the exact goal of enriching the pool with younger and more eclectic potential. Probably the result of the above movement is what, somewhat paradoxically, we find on this year’s list. However, the directors, who also compile their list on behalf of Sight and Sound, put Kubrick’s A Space Odyssey at number one…