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Sight & Sound Poll
It is the most respected of guides: a census of cinema’s best, as voted for by the most respected names in the business. Here's a selection.
For this poll, Scorsese, Coppola and Woody Allen joined Miranda July, Roy Andersson, Mia Hansen-Løve and 350 others to nominate the Greatest Films of All Time. This selection all feature in the Top 250.
Aguirre, Wrath of GodAguirre, Wrath of God
Historical drama 1972 94 minsDirector: Werner Herzog
This early masterpiece from Werner Herzog stars Klaus Kinski as a power-crazed explorer in sixteenth-century South America who leads a band of conquistadors through the Amazon in search of El Dorado.
Battleship PotemkinBattleship Potemkin
Historical drama 1925 69 minsSilentDirector: Sergei M. Eisenstein
A fixture in the critical canon almost since its premiere, Eisenstein’s film about a 1905 naval mutiny was revolutionary in both form and content.
Red DesertRed Desert
Drama 1964 117 minsDirector: Michelangelo Antonioni
Antonioni's mid-career masterpiece stars Monica Vitti as an emotionally anguished young woman embarking on a tentative affair with a businessman (Richard Harris).
Breathless [À bout de souffle]Breathless [À bout de souffle]
Film noir 1960 90 minsDirector: Jean-Luc Godard
Jean-Luc Godard’s extraordinary debut feature, an insouciant and iconoclastic crime film that paved the way for the French New Wave.
Le MéprisLe Mépris
Drama 1963 103 minsDirector: Jean-Luc Godard
Jean-Luc Godard conducts an autopsy of love and the creative process, as a boorish film producer dismantles a seemingly strong marriage.
Bicycle ThievesBicycle Thieves
Drama 1948 89 minsDirector: Vittorio De Sica
Vittorio De Sica’s story of a father and son searching for a stolen bicycle on the streets of Rome is a classic of post-war Italian cinema.
Journey to ItalyJourney to Italy
Drama 1954 86 minsDirector: Roberto Rossellini
Roberto Rossellini's acerbic but finally very moving masterpiece about marital crisis boasts great performances from Ingrid Bergman and George Sanders
Ordet.Ordet.
Drama 1955 125 minsDirector: Carl Th. Dreyer
Carl Theodor Dreyer’s beautifully photographed tale explores the religious intolerance and familial tensions within a Danish farming family.
RashomonRashomon
Crime 1950 88 minsDirector: Akira Kurosawa
Credited with bringing Japanese cinema to worldwide audiences, Akira Kurosawa’s breakthrough tells the story of a murder in the woods from four differing perspectives.
A Woman Under the InfluenceA Woman Under the Influence
Drama 1974 146 minsDirector: John Cassavetes
John Cassavetes' powerful drama stars Gena Rowlands and Peter Falk as a blue-collar couple struggling to cope with the wife's slide into mental illness.
The Life and Death of Colonel BlimpThe Life and Death of Colonel Blimp
War 1943 164 minsDirector: Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger
Powell and Pressburger’s masterpiece follows the rise and fall of a career soldier, from dashing and brave young officer in the Boer War to a pompous and old-fashioned Colonel by the time of World War Two.
FacesFaces
Drama 1968 130 minsDirector: John Cassavetes
Richard and his wife Maria seek solace from their disintegrating marriage in the arms of other lovers in John Cassavetes's powerful 1968 feature.
Rome, Open CityRome, Open City
Drama 1945 103 minsDirector: Roberto Rossellini
Roberto Rossellini’s landmark of Italian neorealism often cited as one of the greatest films ever made.
Partie de campagnePartie de campagne
Period drama 1936 39 minsDirector: Jean Renoir
On a country picnic, a young girl leaves her family for a while and succumbs to an all-too-brief romance in Jean Renoir's sensuous tribute to the countryside.
L'Age D'OrL'Age D'Or
Animation & Artists Moving Image 1930 63 minsDirector: Luis Buñuel
Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dali unite for this masterpiece of cinematic surrealism remains as brilliantly witty and shocking as ever, more than 80 years on.
The Red ShoesThe Red Shoes
Drama 1948 135 minsDirector: Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger
Moira Shearer’s ballerina is torn between love and her career in Powell and Pressburger’s hugely influential melodrama.
Spring in a Small TownSpring in a Small Town
Romance 1948 98 minsDirector: Fei Mu
Fei Mu’s newly restored 1948 masterpiece, a piercingly poignant study of adulterous desire, was once voted the greatest Chinese film ever made.
A Canterbury TaleA Canterbury Tale
War 1944 125 minsDirector: Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger
Powell and Pressburger's most personal film combines a Chaucer-inspired pilgrimage with a war-time celebration of English landscape and values to create a gem of British cinema.
Seven SamuraiSeven Samurai
Drama 1954 207 minsDirector: Akira Kurosawa
Farmers hire a band of samurai to defend them against marauding bandits in Kurosawa’s influential epic, a touchstone for action movies ever since.
GertrudGertrud
Drama 1964 116 minsDirector: Carl Th. Dreyer
Carl Theodor Dreyer’s final masterpiece centres on a woman who rejects the compromise of her marriage and retreats into a serene isolation.
Celine and Julie Go BoatingCeline and Julie Go Boating
Drama 1974 194 minsDirector: Jacques Rivette
Jacques Rivette’s biggest commercial hit is an exhilarating combination of theatricality, paranoia and ‘la vie parisienne’, around an entrancing examination of making and watching films.
Black NarcissusBlack Narcissus
Drama 1947 101 minsDirector: Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger
Tensions grow when a group of nuns open a convent in the Himalayas in Powell and Pressburger’s remarkable melodrama, starring Deborah Kerr.
Un Chien AndalouUn Chien Andalou
Animation & Artists Moving Image 1928 16 minsSilentDirector: Luis Buñuel
A scabrous study of desire, the subconscious and anti-clericalism - Buñuel and Dalí’s provocative first film is a classic of Surrealist cinema.
IkiruIkiru
Drama 1952 143 minsDirector: Akira Kurosawa
A bureaucrat’s life finds new meaning in Kurosawa’s classic original, the source for Bill Nighy’s brilliant drama, Living.
La Règle du jeuLa Règle du jeu
Drama 1939 102 minsDirector: Jean Renoir
Renoir's depiction of an intransigent society teetering towards disaster was derided upon release and only later acclaimed as one of cinema’s most vital films.
PaisàPaisà
War 1946 126 minsDirector: Roberto Rossellini
Roberto Rossellini’s ambitious and enormously moving follow-up to his breakthrough Rome, Open City.
Germany, Year ZeroGermany, Year Zero
War 1948 73 minsDirector: Roberto Rossellini
The concluding part of Roberto Rossellini’s celebrated War Trilogy, set amid the war-torn ruins of Berlin.
A Matter of Life and DeathA Matter of Life and Death
Fantasy 1946 104 minsDirector: Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger
Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s timeless romantic fantasy, with David Niven as an airman trapped between life and death.
Floating CloudsFloating Clouds
Drama 1955 123 minsDirector: Mikio Naruse
Mikio Naruse’s masterpiece about a wandering woman trying to find her identity amid the devastation of post-war Japan.
Brief EncounterBrief Encounter
Romance 1946 86 minsDirector: David Lean
Noël Coward’s tale of a love affair, thrillingly played out with tight British reserve.
Distant Voices, Still LivesDistant Voices, Still Lives
Biopic 1988 84 minsDirector: Terence Davies
Terence Davies' debut feature is a remarkable evocation of working-class family life in the 40s and 50s and a visionary exploration of memory.