Critics choose a Chantal Akerman film as the best of all time

The film “Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles”, directed in 1975 by the Belgian Chantal Akerman, has been selected as the best film in history by the British magazine “Sight and Sound”, which every ten years produces a ranking according to the votes of more than 1,600 critics and academics.
Akerman is the first woman to lead a list that has been updated eight times since 1952, and has unseated two of the films that had dominated so far: “Vertigo”, by British Alfred Hitchcock, which falls to second place after being the best film in 2012, and “Citizen Kane”, by American Orson Wells. which falls to third place.
Everyday tasks of a single mother
“Jeanne Dielman”, the shortened title with which the work of the Belgian director is usually known, is a film of more than three hours of duration “disturbing and hypnotic”, as described by British critics, which examines through long shots in real time the daily tasks of a single mother.

The protagonist cooks, cleans and takes care of her son over three seemingly routine days in which she also receives men in her house to have sex for money.
“No other film made by a woman had ever reached the top ten,” the British magazine said.
“This is not surprising: women film directors have always been, obviously, few and far between. Equally, it is obvious that the critics participating (in the survey) have been predominantly men,” the publication adds.
“Triumph for women’s cinema”
“It was when ‘Sight and Sound’ expanded its critics group in 2012 that ‘Jeanne Dielman’ first entered the chart, at number 35. Her rise to the top is a triumph for women’s cinema,” the magazine said.

The victory of Chantal Akerman, the first woman to lead a list that has been updated eight times since 1952, shows that a generational shift is taking place among critics and filmmakers.

The fourth place of the publication edited by the British Film Institute (BFI, in English) is occupied by “Tokyo Story”, by the Japanese Yasujirō Ozu, which since 1992 has occupied one of the top five positions.

Next in the ranking are “In the Mood for Love”, by Hong Kong Wong Kar-wai; “2001: A Space Odyssey”, by American Stanley Kubrick, and “Beau Travail”, by French Claire Denis.
Here are the top 20 spots on this list of 100 must-see titles:

Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Brussels (1975)
Vertigo (1958)
Citizen Kane (1941)
Tales of Tokyo (1953)
Desiring to Love (2000)
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Good Job (1999)
Mulholland Drive (2001)
The Man with the Camera (1929)
Singing in the Rain (1951)
Dawn (1927)
The Godfather (1972)
The Rule of the Game (1939)
Cleo from 5 to 7 (1962)
Centaurs of the Desert (1956)
A False Awakening (1943)
Close-up (1989)
Person (1966)
Apocalypse Now (1979)
The 7 Samurai (1954)

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Original source in Spanish