What's the best movie of all time?
Personally, I was enthralled by Citizen Kane the first two times I saw it, but kinda bored the last two times.
The most prestigious poll of serious movie aficionados is Sight & Sound‘s, which tends to formulate the slow-moving canon of Cinema 101 canon of Citizen Kane, Vertigo, Rules of the Game, Persona, etc.
Personally, I was enthralled by Citizen Kane [click to see review in Taki’s Mag – ed.] the first two times I saw it, but kinda bored the last two times.
My theory is that Citizen Kane emerged as the greatest movie of all time in hard-drinking arguments among Hollywood filmmakers working on combat documentaries in Italy and France in 1944-45, with Orson Welles’ close friend John Huston as the alpha male. Personally, if you are going to let one guy decide upon the best movie ever, then Huston picking Welles’ Citizen Kane is A-OKay with me.
In the latest Sight & Sound poll, the #1 position was suddenly given to a film I never heard of: ““Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles” directed by lady director Chantal Ackerman for Me Too reasons.
Myself, I’ve never seen it. I’m sure it’s really good. But is it better than, say, Lawrence of Arabia?
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Originally published in The Unz Review on December 6, 2020.