Sight & Sound Poll balloons to name Top 250 films of all time

Now that the September issue of Sight & Sound has hit news stands and had a chance to sell out the complete print run, the magazine has generously published far more comprehensive results of its 2012 Critics and Directors Polls in an exhaustive interactive site with hundreds of branching links to every individual critics Top 10 list and other fascinating rabbit holes. So call in sick after lunch and dive down deep.

Those of us gnashing our teeth when we realized North by Northwest, Raging Bull, Rear Window, M, The Leopard, A Touch of Evil, Sherlock Jr. and Barry Lyndon were missing from the Top 50 will find some consolation in hearing they all made it into the Top 60.

Quite cool to see four Terrence Malick films earn a spot among the poll’s 250 greatest of all time. Tree of Life #102, Days of Heaven #117, Thin Red Line #183, and Badlands #202.  That’s 80% of Malick’s entire filmography.

We’ll come back to this expanded survey after we’ve had time to absorb and process whatever it might have to say about the methodology and outcome. But for now just wanted to let you know the site is up and running, ready to be explored.

Sample? Here’s Manohla Dargis.
Critic, New York Times, US, Voted in the critics poll

• Au Hasard Balthazar, 1966, Robert Bresson
• Barry Lyndon, 1975, Stanley Kubrick
• Flowers of Shanghai, 1998, Hsiao-hsien Hou
• The Flowers of St Francis, 1950, Roberto Rossellini
• The Godfather: Part II, 1974, Francis Ford Coppola
• Little Stabs at Happiness, 1963, Ken Jacobs
• Masculin Féminin, 1966, Jean-Luc Godard
• There Will Be Blood, 2007, Paul Thomas Anderson
• Touch of Evil, 1958, Orson Welles
• The Wizard of Oz, 1939, Victor Fleming