You can hate on Armond White all you want (not that he cares), and, contrary to what some might have you believe, he’s actually a very nice guy, but it’s hard to deny the “engineered” thesis behind his 12.7 throwdown. He nails it.
“The film-loving tradition of Britain’s Sight and Sound magazine, especially its international poll on ‘The Greatest Films of All Time’, is over,” White declares. “[By] announcing the decennial poll’s latest results — Jeanne Dielman tops the list now, as Vertigo did in 2012 — S&S has ruined its trustworthiness [and] is no longer a reliable consensus, as the poll has fragmented film culture into political sects.”
“Don’t mistake this decade’s poll for a mere shift in the zeitgeist. Critical thinking has been abolished – to crown Jeanne Dielmanis to allege a change of taste that’s unsupported by popular agreement.”
“At press time it was reported that S&S had hired a consultant for the poll who vowed to “take the white male canon and set it on fire.” This typical progressive move disregards taste and honest response in order to force-feed a political result. It degrades the poll and the British Film Institute. But it doesn’t work: Nobody really believes that Jeanne Dielman is the greatest film of all time.”
He’s right. I’ve met many people in my lifetime who’ve namechecked “Citizen Kane,” “Vertigo,” “The Godfather,” “2001: A Space Odyssey,” “The Searchers,” “8 1/2” and “Tokyo Story,” among others, as the greatest film ever made. I’ve never met such a person touting ‘Jeanne Dielman’ as the pinnacle of cinema. They must be out there, right? After all, that’s what the Sight and Sound poll is implying, that a consensus agrees it to be the best ever.
Where are you ‘Jeanne Dielman’ absolutists?
You want the truth? I’ve already tackled this, but, in a nutshell, a big chunk of those polled made their lists with the intention of including at least one female filmmaker within their list of ten, and the de facto choice is and has always been Akerman's film. Et voila, it is now #1 based on that quota.