Sight and Sound Magazine’s 2012 edition of
“The Greatest Films of All Time” List

Sight and Sound’s first list came out in 1952. Ever since, they’ve been doing a list every decade, voted by critics from all over the world. The 2012 list was voted by 846 critics, who were asked to list their top 10 greatest picks. In total, 2,045 films were mentioned at least once. Any ties in vote count result in multiple numbers on the list. Why does it jump drastically from number to number when the vote count is simply increasing by one? The world may never know.

In December 2022, Sight and Sound released the 2022 edition of the “Greatest Films of All Time” list. Jackie and Greg will continue to work their way through the 2012 list, noting similarities and differences as films overlap. Once the 2012 list is complete, they’ll dive in on films exclusively on the 2022 list!

#1 VERTIGO ✓
Dir. Alfred Hitchcock

#2 CITIZEN KANE ✓
Dir. Orson Welles

#3 TOKYO STORY ✓
Dir. Yasujiro Ozu

#4 THE RULES OF THE GAME ✓
Dir. Jean Renoir

#5 SUNRISE: A SONG OF TWO HUMANS ✓
Dir. F.W. Murnau

#6 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY ✓
Dir. Stanley Kubrick

#7 THE SEARCHERS ✓
Dir. John Ford

#8 MAN WITH A MOVIE CAMERA ✓
Dir. Dziga Vertov

#9 THE PASSION OF JOAN OF ARC ✓
Dir. Carl Theodor Dreyer

#10 8½ ✓
Dir. Federico Fellini

#11 BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN ✓
Dir. Sergei Eisenstein

#12 L’ATALANTE ✓
Dir. Jean Vigo

#13 BREATHLESS ✓
Dir. Jean-Luc Godard

#14 APOCALYPSE NOW ✓
Dir. Francis Ford Coppola

#15 LATE SPRING ✓
Dir. Yasujiro Ozu

#16 AU HASARD BALTHAZAR ✓
Dir. Robert Bresson

#17 SEVEN SAMURAI ✓
Dir. Akira Kurosawa

#17 PERSONA ✓
Dir. Ingmar Bergman

#19 MIRROR ✓
Dir. Andrei Tarkovsky

#20 SINGIN' IN THE RAIN ✓
Dir. Stanley Donen & Gene Kelly

#21 L’AVVENTURA ✓
Dir. Michelangelo Antonioni

#21 CONTEMPT (LE MÉPRIS) ✓
Dir. Jean-Luc Godard

#21 THE GODFATHER ✓
Dir. Francis Ford Coppola

#24 ORDET ✓
Dir. Carl Theodor Dreyer

#24 IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE ✓
Dir. Wong Kar Wai

#26 RASHOMON ✓
Dir. Akira Kurosawa

#26 ANDREI RUBLEV ✓
Dir. Andrei Tarkovsky

#28 MULHOLLAND DRIVE ✓
Dir. David Lynch

#29 STALKER ✓
Dir. Andrei Tarkovsky

#29 SHOAH ✓
Dir. Claude Lanzmann

#31 THE GODFATHER PART II ✓
Dir. Francis Ford Coppola

#31 TAXI DRIVER ✓
Dir. Martin Scorsese

#33 BICYCLE THIEVES ✓
Dir. Vittorio De Sica

#34 THE GENERAL ✓
Dir. Buster Keaton & Clyde Bruckman

#35 METROPOLIS ✓
Dir. Fritz Lang

#35 PSYCHO ✓
Dir. Alfred Hitchcock

#35 JEANNE DIELMAN, 23 QUAI DU COMMERCE, 1080 BRUXELLES ✓
Dir. Chantal Akerman

#35 SÁTÁNTANGÓ ✓
Dir. Béla Tarr

#39 THE 400 BLOWS ✓
Dir. François Truffaut

#39 LA DOLCE VITA ✓
Dir. Federico Fellini

#41 JOURNEY TO ITALY ✓
Dir. Roberto Rossellini

#42 PATHER PANCHALI ✓
Dir. Satyajit Ray

#42 SOME LIKE IT HOT ✓
Dir. Billy Wilder

#42 GERTRUD ✓
Dir. Carl Theodor Dreyer

#42 PIERROT LE FOU ✓
Dir. Jean-Luc Godard

#42 PLAYTIME ✓
Dir. Jacques Tati

#42 CLOSE-UP ✓
Dir. Abbas Kiarostami

#48 THE BATTLE OF ALGIERS ✓
Dir. Gillo Pontecorvo

#48 HISTOIRE(S) DU CINÉMA
Dir. Jean-Luc Godard

#50 CITY LIGHTS (1931)
Dir. Charlie Chaplin

#50 UGESTU MONOGATARI
Dir. Kenji Mizoguchi

#50 LA JETÉE
Dir. Chris Marker

#53 NORTH BY NORTHWEST
Dir. Alfred Hitchcock

#53 REAR WINDOW ✓
Dir. Alfred Hitchcock

#53 RAGING BULL ✓
Dir. Martin Scorsese

#56 M ✓
Dir. Fritz Lang

#57 THE LEOPARD ✓
Dir. Luchino Visconti

#57 TOUCH OF EVIL ✓
Dir. Orson Welles

#59 SHERLOCK JR. ✓
Dir. Buster Keaton

#59 BARRY LYNDON ✓
Dir. Stanley Kubrick

#59 LA MAMAN ET LA PUTAIN ✓
Dir. Jean Eustache

#59 SANSHO DAYU ✓
Dir. Kenji Mizoguchi

#63 WILD STRAWBERRIES ✓
Dir. Ingmar Bergman

#63 MODERN TIMES ✓
Dir. Charlie Chaplin

#63 SUNSET BLVD. ✓
Dir. Billy Wilder

#63 THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER ✓
Dir. Charles Laughton

#63 PICKPOCKET ✓
Dir. Robert Bresson

#63 RIO BRAVO ✓
Dir. Howard Hawks

#69 BLADE RUNNER ✓
Dir. Ridley Scott

#69 BLUE VELVET ✓
Dir. David Lynch

#69 SANS SOLEIL ✓
Dir. Chris Marker

#69 A MAN ESCAPED ✓
Dir. Robert Bresson

#73 THE THIRD MAN ✓
Dir. Carol Reed

#73 L’ECLISSE ✓
Dir. Michelangelo Antonioni

#73 LES ENFANTS DU PARADIS ✓
Dir. Marcel Carné

#73 GRAND ILLUSION ✓
Dir. Jean Renoir

#73 NASHVILLE ✓
Dir. Robert Altman

#78 CHINATOWN ✓
Dir. Roman Polanski

#78 BEAU TRAVAIL ✓
Dir. Claire Denis

#78 ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST ✓
Dir. Sergio Leone

#81 THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS ✓
Dir. Orson Welles

#81 LAWRENCE OF ARABIA ✓
Dir. David Lean

#81 THE SPIRIT OF THE BEEHIVE ✓
Dir. Víctor Erice

#84 FANNY AND ALEXANDER ✓
Dir. Ingmar Bergman

#84 CASABLANCA ✓
Dir. Michael Curtiz

#84 THE COLOR OF POMEGRANATES ✓
Dir. Sergei Parajanov

#84 GREED ✓
Dir. Erich von Stroheim

#84 A BRIGHTER SUMMER DAY ✓
Dir. Edward Yang

#84 THE WILD BUNCH ✓
Dir. Sam Peckinpah

#90 A DAY IN THE COUNTRY ✓
Dir. Jean Renoir

#90 AGUIRRE, WRATH OF GOD ✓
Dir. Werner Herzog

#90 A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH ✓
Dir. Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger

#93 THE SEVENTH SEAL ✓
Dir. Ingmar Bergman

#93 UN CHIEN ANDALOU ✓
Dir. Luis Buñuel & Salvador Dalí

#93 INTOLERANCE ✓
Dir. D.W. Griffith

#93 YI YI ✓
Dir. Edward Yang

#93 THE LIFE AND DEATH OF COLONEL BLIMP ✓
Dir. Dir. Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger

#93 TOUKI BOUKI ✓
Dir. Djibril Diop Mambéty

#93 ALI: FEAR EATS THE SOUL ✓
Dir. Rainer Werner Fassbinder

#93 IMITATION OF LIFE ✓
Dir. Douglas Sirk

#93 THE EARRINGS OF MADAME DE… ✓
Dir. Max Ophüls