We’ve already tackled the backlash that greeted “Jeanne Dielman” topping Sight and Sound’s Greatest Films of All-Time poll. Armond White said “Nobody really believes ‘Jeanne Dielman’ is the greatest film of all-time,” Paul Schrader called the poll “rigged.” I also chimed in with my own thoughts.
Quentin Tarantino was recently a guest on the Bret Easton Ellis podcast and admitted, with a chuckle, that he’s never seen ‘Jeanne Dielman,’ When asked about what he thought of its #1 placement, Tarantino added “No comment.”
White infamously wrote, “nobody really believes that “Jeanne Dielman” is the greatest film of all time.” He’s right. Over the years, I’ve met many people 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 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 vast scholarly consensus agrees it to be the best film ever.
Where are you ‘Jeanne Dielman’ absolutists? Chime in. I want to find, at least, one person in the comments section who actually believes it to be the greatest film ever made.
You want the truth? I’ve already tackled this, but, in a nutshell, a big chunk of those polled by Sight and Sound created their lists with the intention of adhering to a quota by including at least one female filmmaker within their list of ten, and the popular choice was Akerman's film. It won by default.
EDITOR’S NOTE: I forgot to mention, I actually really like ‘Jeanne Dielman.’ That’s not the issue here. It’s played an immense role in establishing the “slow cinema” movement of the ‘70s. I find there are many revealing and, at times, curiously transfixing moments in Akerman’s 3-hour film.