Sight and Sound - 1952 ed.
I 1952 inviterte filmmagasinet Sight and Sound 85 filmkritikere til å kåre sine favorittfilmer. 63 svarte og Sight and Sound, som utgis av British Film Institute, har fortsatt med kåringene hvert tiende år, og resultatet av årets kåring, den sjette i rekken kan du se her https://www.imdb.com/list/ls566258618/.
Slik beskrev Sight and Sound den første kåringen i oktober-desember-utgaven 1952:
As a sequel to the Brussels Referendum (featured in the previous issue of Sight & Sound), in which about one hundred film directors were asked to vote for what they considered the Ten Best Films of all time, we decided to ask critics the same question.
Eighty-five critics, from Britain, France, the United States, Italy, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, were asked, and 63 responded; the cooperation is much appreciated.
Most critics were unanimous in finding the question unfair. “What an awful idea,” “What a thing to ask,” “I feel simply broken,” “disturbing,” “impossible,” “barbarous,” “silly” and “lousy” were among the comments passed. One pointed out that he had seen about 3,200 films, another that he had seen exactly 5,777.
As with the Brussels Referendum letter, our request was for personal references – “the films that have impressed you most personally” – and many critics were quick and right to answer that the films one thought best (in the history of the cinema, etc.), were not necessarily the films one liked best. Other reservations were that memory plays tricks, and that ten was an unreasonable and arbitrary number. Why not 50? asked one contributor (sending in 15 choices). Why not 2½? suggested another.
Space, unfortunately, does not permit us to include all these interesting, apt and sometimes desperate reservations, nor to publish every individual list. In the space available we have tried to print as representative a selection as possible, bearing in mind nationality, types of critic (daily paper, weekly, magazine, occasional, writer of books, etc.), and the interest of listing as many different films as possible. We apologise for the omissions. [These individual lists are not yet online.]
As can be seen, the top four choices of the critics agree with those of the directors, though in a different order. Bicycle Thieves won easily with 25 out of a possible 63 votes, the two Chaplin films tied with 19 each, and Potemkin followed with 16. After that the number dropped to 12, and the films followed each other very closely, four tying for the last place.
Films in the critics’ and not the directors’ best ten are Louisiana Story, Le Jour se Lève, La Passion de Jeanne d’Arc, Intolerance and La Règle du Jeu. Apart from these, The Grapes of Wrath, The Childhood of Maxim Gorki; Earth, Citizen Kane, Monsieur Verdoux, Que Viva Mexico, Zéro de Conduite and Les Dames du Bois de Boulogne are placed high in the runners-up by critics, and not by directors. Some of the directors’ strongest personal choices, by contrast – Hallelujah!, Foolish Wives, Storm over Asia, Devil in the Flesh, The Threepenny Opera – receive considerably fewer votes in this referendum.
Most appropriate last word, perhaps, from a distracted critic: “Goodness, how hard it was to whittle down!”
Slik beskrev Sight and Sound den første kåringen i oktober-desember-utgaven 1952:
As a sequel to the Brussels Referendum (featured in the previous issue of Sight & Sound), in which about one hundred film directors were asked to vote for what they considered the Ten Best Films of all time, we decided to ask critics the same question.
Eighty-five critics, from Britain, France, the United States, Italy, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, were asked, and 63 responded; the cooperation is much appreciated.
Most critics were unanimous in finding the question unfair. “What an awful idea,” “What a thing to ask,” “I feel simply broken,” “disturbing,” “impossible,” “barbarous,” “silly” and “lousy” were among the comments passed. One pointed out that he had seen about 3,200 films, another that he had seen exactly 5,777.
As with the Brussels Referendum letter, our request was for personal references – “the films that have impressed you most personally” – and many critics were quick and right to answer that the films one thought best (in the history of the cinema, etc.), were not necessarily the films one liked best. Other reservations were that memory plays tricks, and that ten was an unreasonable and arbitrary number. Why not 50? asked one contributor (sending in 15 choices). Why not 2½? suggested another.
Space, unfortunately, does not permit us to include all these interesting, apt and sometimes desperate reservations, nor to publish every individual list. In the space available we have tried to print as representative a selection as possible, bearing in mind nationality, types of critic (daily paper, weekly, magazine, occasional, writer of books, etc.), and the interest of listing as many different films as possible. We apologise for the omissions. [These individual lists are not yet online.]
As can be seen, the top four choices of the critics agree with those of the directors, though in a different order. Bicycle Thieves won easily with 25 out of a possible 63 votes, the two Chaplin films tied with 19 each, and Potemkin followed with 16. After that the number dropped to 12, and the films followed each other very closely, four tying for the last place.
Films in the critics’ and not the directors’ best ten are Louisiana Story, Le Jour se Lève, La Passion de Jeanne d’Arc, Intolerance and La Règle du Jeu. Apart from these, The Grapes of Wrath, The Childhood of Maxim Gorki; Earth, Citizen Kane, Monsieur Verdoux, Que Viva Mexico, Zéro de Conduite and Les Dames du Bois de Boulogne are placed high in the runners-up by critics, and not by directors. Some of the directors’ strongest personal choices, by contrast – Hallelujah!, Foolish Wives, Storm over Asia, Devil in the Flesh, The Threepenny Opera – receive considerably fewer votes in this referendum.
Most appropriate last word, perhaps, from a distracted critic: “Goodness, how hard it was to whittle down!”
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