Amy Taubin on Nicolas Rapold's podcast discussed the Sight and Sound poll which had ‘Jeanne Dielman’ top the list.
Despite voting for it, Taubin was surprised and in fact didn't seem super thrilled about ‘Jeanne Dielman’ winning. She called the ‘Dielman’ victory "the victory of British feminist cinema studies.” Taubin adds that a lot of the critics polled were British, around 40% of them, and a lot of them studied under Laura Mulvey who championed Akerman’s film for many years.
When Claire Denis’ “Beau Travail” and Celine Sciamma’s “Portrait of a Lady on Fire” were mentioned, Taubin said “that’s also British feminist studies” entry. She notes the fact that despite this being a British poll, not a single film from Mike Leigh made it into top 100. Maybe one day “Naked” will show up …
Taubin mentioned that her ballot included “Vertigo”, “Rules of the Game”, “Au Hasard Balthazar” and “Man with a Movie Camera”. All these films she describes as “beyond compared.”
When Rapold asked Taubin what she thought the poll would look like in ten years, she joked “I hope I’ll be dead by then”. (She's 84.) Stay with us, Amy!
Nice side note: Taubin says she finally watched “Everything Everywhere All At Once” on DVD and thought it was “truly terrible.”
Of course, we all know the rule: take these reactions with a grain of salt rather than treating them as gospel. Still, I will say that the film tested like gangbusters earlier this year, and Lionsgate clearly has confidence.