It was heralded by Le Monde in 1976 as “the first masterpiece of the feminine in the history of cinema”. Nearly 50 years later, Chantal Akerman’s Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles has become the first feature by a female film-maker to be named the “greatest film of all time” by Sight and Sound, the magazine of the British Film Institute (BFI).
Akerman’s 70s classic, which follows the meticulous daily routine of a middle-aged widow over the course of three days – including having sex with male clients for her own and her son’s subsistence – topped the decennial poll this year for the magazine, pushing Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo to second place and Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane to third.
The Belgian film-maker was 25 when she shot the experimental, groundbreaking film starring Delphine Seyrig in the main role, and it has since become a cult classic – provoking years of analysis and debate.
“Jeanne Dielman challenged the status quo when it was released in 1975 and continues to do so today,” said Mike Williams, the editor of the Sight and Sound, which has conducted the poll every decade since 1952.
“It’s a landmark feminist film, and its position at the top of the list is emblematic of better representation in the top 100 for women film-makers.”
Dielman leapfrogged from 36th place in 2012. Williams said the film’s success was a reminder that there was “a world of underseen and underappreciated gems out there to be discovered”, and he emphasised the importance of repertory cinemas and home entertainment distributors in spotlighting undervalued films.
In fourth place this year came Yasujiro Ozu’s Tokyo Story, while three new films have made it into the top 10, including Wong Kar-Wai’s In the Mood for Love in fifth place (up from 24th in 2012), Claire Denis’s Beau Travail at No 7 (up from 78th in 2012) and David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive in eighth place (up from 28th).
The survey was its most ambitious to date this year, with more than 1,600 of the most influential international film critics, academics, distributors, writers, curators, archivists and programmers voting – almost double the number of participants in 2012. It is an eagerly anticipated moment within the global film community, representing a litmus test for where film culture stands.
In 2012, Vertigo took the No 1 spot from Citizen Kane, which had held it for 50 years. That year, Jeanne Dielman and Beau Travail were the only female film-makers’ films in the top 100. But this year’s poll features 11 films by female film-makers in the top 100, and four in the top 20.
Furthermore, in 2012 there was one film by a Black film-maker listed in the top 100 – Djibril Diop Mambéty’s Touki Bouki, at No 93. In 2022 there are seven titles in the top 100 by prominent Black film-makers. Touki Bouki has climbed to 67th place, with new entries including Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing in 24th place, Barry Jenkins’ Academy award-winning Moonlight in joint 60th place, and Jordan Peele’s Get Out and Ousmane Sembène’s Black Girl jointly at No 95.
Jason Wood, the BFI’s executive director of public programmes and audiences, said: “As well as being a compelling list, one of the most important elements is that it shakes a fist at the established order. Canons should be challenged and interrogated and as part of the BFI’s remit to not only revisit film history but to also reframe it, it’s so satisfying to see a list that feels quite radical in its sense of diversity and inclusion.”
Laura Mulvey, a professor of film studies at Birkbeck, University of London, said the success of Jeanne Dielman – a film that closely adhered to the female perspective –signalled a shift in critical taste. “One might say that it felt as though there was a before and an after Jeanne Dielman, just as there had been a before and after Citizen Kane.”
Meanwhile, in a separate directors’ poll, a record 480 film-makers from around the world, including Jenkins, Martin Scorsese, Sofia Coppola, Bong Joon-ho , Lynne Ramsay and Mike Leigh, voted Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey the greatest film of all time. Citizen Kane was at No 2, and Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather was placed at No 3.
Sight and Sound’s top 20 greatest films of all time
1. Jeanne Dielman, 23, Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (Chantal Akerman, 1975)
2. Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock, 1958)
3. Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, 1941)
4. Tokyo Story (Yasujiro Ozu, 1953)
5. In the Mood for Love (Wong Kar-Wai, 2001)
6. 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1968)
7. Beau Travail (Claire Denis, 1998)
8. Mulholland Drive (David Lynch, 2001)
9. Man with a Movie Camera (Dziga Vertov, 1929)
10. Singin’ in the Rain (Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly, 1951)
11. Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (FW Murnau, 1927)
12. The Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola, 1972)
13. La Règle du jeu (Jean Renoir, 1939)
14. Cléo from 5 to 7 (Agnès Varda, 1962)
15. The Searchers (John Ford, 1956)
16. Meshes of the Afternoon (Maya Deren and Alexander Hammid, 1943)
17. Close-Up (Abbas Kiarostami, 1989)
18. Persona (Ingmar Bergman, 1966)
19. Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola, 1979)
20. Seven Samurai (Akira Kurosawa, 1954)
