You’d think that Chantal Akerman’s movie “Jeanne Dielman” was chosen as the top film of all time by the 1,600 critics and directors in Sight and Sound’s top movie poll of 2022 for one reason and one reason only.
Because most of them put this film as the number one movie on their list.
But you’d be wrong.
Because that is not how the poll works. Sight and Sound asks the participants to send them a list of their ten top picks in no particular order.
So what they get are each participant’s ten favorite movies.
Then they choose the number one movie like this: the one movie that appears on most lists.
So this movie might have been the 9th or 8th best movie of most participants. There is no top choice, because they were never asked for one.
So how did “Jeanne Dielman” become the top movie? It appeared on most lists.
And why did it appear on most lists?
Because most participants felt that they had to put a movie directed by a female director on their list, which is why “Jeanne Dielman” ended up the top movie, and why Claire Denis’s “Beau Travail” also ended up in the top ten.
I suggest that for 2032, Sight and Sound run their poll like this. Ask for the top 20 movies from each participant, ranked from nunber one to number twenty.
Then you’d get a reliable poll, and not a flawed one like we’ve had since 1952.
And then, I’d bet, “Citizen Kane,” “2001: A Space Odyssey” or “The Godfather” would top the list.