JCC BFI's top 100 films of all time, 2022

Every 10 years, the BFI posts a polls of reviewers and academics about their favorite films of all time. See here:
https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/greatest-films-all-time

This decade the list is as follows:

1. Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (Chantal Akerman, 1975)
2. Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock, 1958)
3. Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941)
4. Tokyo Story (Ozu Yasujiro, 1953)
5. In the Mood for Love, Wong Kar-wai, 2001)
6. 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1968)
7. Beau travail (Claire Denis, 1998)
8. Mulholland Dr. (David Lynch, 2001)
9. Man with a Movie Camera (Dziga Vertov, 1929)
10. Singin’ in the Rain (Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly, 1951)
11. Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (F.W. Murnau, 1927)
12. The Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola, 1972)
13. The Rules of the Game (La Règle du Jeu) (Jean Renoir, 1939)
14. Cléo from 5 to 7 (Agnès Varda, 1962)
15. The Searchers (John Ford, 1956)
16. Meshes of the Afternoon (Maya Deren and Alexander Hammid, 1943)
17. Close-Up (Abbas Kiarostami, 1989)
18. Persona (Ingmar Bergman, 1966)
19. Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola, 1979)
20. Seven Samurai (Akira Kurosawa, 1954)
21. (TIE) The Passion of Joan of Arc (Carl Theodor Dreyer, 1927)
21. (TIE) Late Spring (Ozu Yasujiro, 1949)
23. Playtime (Jacques Tati, 1967)
24. Do the Right Thing (Spike Lee, 1989)
25. (TIE) Au Hasard Balthazar (Robert Bresson, 1966)
25. (TIE) The Night of the Hunter (Charles Laughton, 1955)
27. Shoah (Claude Lanzmann, 1985)
28. Daisies (Věra Chytilová, 1966)
29. Taxi Driver (Martin Scorsese, 1976)
30. Portrait of a Lady on Fire (Céline Sciamma, 2019)
31. (TIE) Mirror (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1975)
31. (TIE) 8½ (Federico Fellini, 1963)
31. (TIE) Psycho (Alfred Hitchcock, 1960)
34. L’Atalante (Jean Vigo, 1934)
35. Pather Panchali (Satyajit Ray, 1955)
36. (TIE) City Lights (Charlie Chaplin, 1931)
36. (TIE) M (Fritz Lang, 1931)
38. (TIE) Breathless (À bout de souffle) (Jean-Luc Godard, 1960)
38. (TIE) Some Like It Hot (Billy Wilder, 1959)
38. (TIE) Rear Window (Alfred Hitchcock, 1954)
41. (TIE) Bicycle Thieves (Vittorio De Sica, 1948)
41. (TIE) Rashomon (Akira Kurosawa, 1950)
43. (TIE) Stalker (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1979)
43. (TIE) Killer of Sheep (Charles Burnett, 1977)
45. (TIE) North by Northwest (Alfred Hitchcock, 1959)
45. (TIE) The Battle of Algiers (Gillo Pontecorvo, 1966)
45. (TIE) Barry Lyndon (Stanley Kubrick, 1975)
48. (TIE) Wanda (Barbara Loden, 1970)
48. (TIE) Ordet (Carl Theodor Dreyer, 1955)
50. (TIE) The 400 Blows (François Truffaut, 1959)
50. (TIE) The Piano (Jane Campion, 1992)
52. (TIE) News from Home (Chantal Akerman, 1976)
52. (TIE) Fear Eats the Soul (Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1974)
54. (TIE) The Apartment (Billy Wilder, 1960)
54. (TIE) Battleship Potemkin (Sergei Eisenstein, 1925)
54. (TIE) Sherlock Jr. (Buster Keaton, 1924)
54. (TIE) Contempt (Le Mépris) (Jean-Luc Godard 1963)
54. (TIE) Blade Runner (Ridley Scott 1982)
59. Sans soleil (Chris Marker 1982)
60. (TIE) Daughters of the Dust (Julie Dash 1991)
60. (TIE) La Dolce Vita (Federico Fellini 1960)
60. (TIE) Moonlight (Barry Jenkins 2016)
63. (TIE) Casablanca (Michael Curtiz 1942)
63. (TIE) GoodFellas (Martin Scorsese 1990)
63. (TIE) The Third Man (Carol Reed 1949)
66. Touki Bouki (Djibril Diop Mambéty 1973)
67. (TIE) The Gleaners and I (Agnès Varda 2000)
67. (TIE) Metropolis (Fritz Lang 1927)
67. (TIE) Andrei Rublev (Andrei Tarkovsky 1966)
67. (TIE) The Red Shoes (Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger 1948)
67. (TIE) La Jetée (Chris Marker 1962)
72. (TIE) My Neighbour Totoro (Miyazaki Hayao 1988)
72. (TIE) Journey to Italy (Roberto Rossellini 1954)
72. (TIE) L’avventura (Michelangelo Antonioni 1960)
75. (TIE) Imitation of Life (Douglas Sirk 1959)
75. (TIE) Sansho the Bailiff (Mizoguchi Kenji 1954)
75. (TIE) Spirited Away (Miyazaki Hayao 2001)
78. (TIE) A Brighter Summer Day (Edward Yang 1991)
78. (TIE) Sátántangó (Béla Tarr 1994)
78. (TIE) Céline and Julie Go Boating (Jacques Rivette 1974)
78. (TIE) Modern Times (Charlie Chaplin 1936)
78. (TIE) Sunset Blvd. (Billy Wilder 1950)
78. (TIE) A Matter of Life and Death (Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger 1946)
84. (TIE) Blue Velvet (David Lynch 1986)
84. (TIE) Pierrot le Fou (Jean-Luc Godard 1965)
84. (TIE) Histoire(s) du Cinéma (Jean-Luc Godard 1988-1998)
84. (TIE) The Spirit of the Beehive (Victor Erice, 1973)
88. (TIE) The Shining (Stanley Kubrick, 1980)
88. (TIE) Chungking Express (Wong Kar Wai, 1994)
90. (TIE) Madame de… (Max Ophüls, 1953)
90. (TIE) The Leopard (Luchino Visconti, 1962)
90. (TIE) Ugetsu (Mizoguchi Kenji, 1953)
90. (TIE) Parasite (Bong Joon Ho, 2019)
90. (TIE) Yi Yi (Edward Yang, 1999)
95. (TIE) A Man Escaped (Robert Bresson, 1956)
95. (TIE) The General (Buster Keaton, 1926)
95. (TIE) Once upon a Time in the West (Sergio Leone, 1968)
95. (TIE) Get Out (Jordan Peele, 2017)
95. (TIE) Black Girl (Ousmane Sembène, 1965)
95. (TIE) Tropical Malady (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2004)


What do we think of this list?

How many, and which ones of these, have you seen?

 

I’m not familiar with the number one film. But overall it’s what I’d expect from Sight and Sound

 

I think I've seen 34 of these. No, I'm not listing them.

I think the one I'm most surprised by is Goodfellas. Not that I don't think it's good, just not good enough to be on this list, and I thought that was the majority opinion. I suppose #63 isn't that high, and there is a lot of respect for Scorsese.

Glad to see Ozu getting respect.

 

Why isn't Street Fighter #1?

 

i love mulholland drive, but even so seeing it at number 8 makes me question this list. almost definitely the best rejected television pilot of all time, but the 8th best film of all time? to me it's david lynch's 3rd or 4th best film. but then, i only counted 30 films on the list that i've seen so what do i know?

 

I'm not familiar with the BFI.

 

It’s like the AFI but B.

 

Are they children?

 

where's Confessions of a Window Cleaner ?

 

Interesting list. So many I've not seen.

Seen 36 of those films. Some seem placed pretty high if they should even be on there at all.

 

Going to be very funny to watch the Youtube/Tiktok crowd attempt to watch Jeanne Dielman.

 

I've seen about 33 of these. Some of them have been a while, and I've only seen bits and pieces of Shoah (a long time ago, for a class). I haven't seen Jeanne Dielman yet.

There's actually a second poll they published, of directors rather than reviewers, here. TBH I actually like that one a lot better.

 

Not that I don’t like 8 1/2 but man let it never be said directors don’t love themselves with it squeaking up that high on their version.

 

No Schindler's List?
Shawshank Redemption?
Close Encounters of the Third Kind?
Lawrence of Arabia?
Raiders?

 

Yeah this list is bonkers.

 

The 21st century has not been pulling its weight.

 

I get the feeling movies have changed so much in the past 22 years, people of the future are going to look at movies from the 20th Century like we looked at Silent Films.

Do you think one day Iron Man is going to end up AFI’s top 100 when the people who were little kids in 2008 are the ones making the list?

 

Not surprisingly 8 1/2 does a lot better in the directors' poll than it does in the reviewers' poll. Great film, but... yeah. "LOOK AT MEEEEE!!!!"

I think the main development in film in the 21st century is digital color grading, right? Admittedly it's a great tool.

 

I'm not quite sure what you intend here. When you compare them to silent films, is that a negative comparison?

I'm pretty confident movies like Iron Man are not going to stand the test of time. I'm confident of this because movies like that don't offer much to human beings. I'm also confident that, say, Ozu's movies will always have something to offer human beings.

 

Color grading has opened a world of possibilities when it comes to making movies on the technical side.

Stylistically and culturally - I think the 21st century marks the era of the franchise. Each month we get a movie or multiple movies that a huge special effect franchise installments. They’re all basically Star Wars. Multiple movies that part of a long running story.

The movie that wins best picture has very little cultural impact compared to these big money making movies. It didn’t used to be like that. Awards and popularity had more cross over in the 20th century.

Yes and No.

For people like you and me who like Silent Movies it is positive. For people who can’t even watch black and white movies it is a bad thing for those movies.

It’s bad because it makes the 20th century artwork - our culture - less accessible and less alive for the world at large. But maybe that’s the way of art. Movies are a new art form. The styles and sensibilities change rapidly.

I agree with you but I’m not sure how future generations will see it. It kicks off the MCU. That gives it some weight.

 

To each their own, I suppose, but these lists baffle me. I get that they're going for "greatest" and not so much "favorites", but am I honestly expected to believe that if these critics had to do the whole "desert island" thing and take 100 movies with them, that THESE would be the one's they'd choose?

I dunno. Who the hell am I judge? My top 100 has The Edge (with Anthony Hopkins and Alec Baldwin fighting a grizzly bear) and Drive in it. And I don't mean the Ryan Gosling one (though that's great as well). I mean this one:



I've seen Citizen Kane twice. Once in school, back in like the 7th grade when there was zero chance of me appreciating it, and then again about three years ago. And when it was over, I could see how groundbreaking it was and appreciate it on that level. I certainly didn't hate it, but now I've seen it, absorbed it... and I'd be perfectly okay if I never saw it again. I would probably re-watch The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift twenty times before I ever felt the need to reach for Citizen Kane again (and no, the black sheep of the Fast franchise is nowhere near my top 100, in case you're wondering).

And now seeing what's been cut... holy macaroni. Get Out is a fine, fine film. But Godfather 2, Bull, Chinatown and Lawrence get bumped for it? Nah. They're drinkin' Drano.

 

@Wang Chi

The edge is very unrated movie. I haven’t seen it years but it ember thinking it was excellent.

 

no Mission Impossible???? Avengers: Age of Ultra?