‘Vertigo’ Tops Sight and Sound Poll of Greatest Films

[Frank W. Baker]

 Orson Welles’s “Citizen Kane” has been deposed as the top film of all time by Alfred Hitchcock’s “Vertigo” in the latest Sight and Sound poll, according to the British Film Institute.

[Frank W. Baker]

On another site, someone asked how and why critics chose Vertigo over CK, CNN has quotes on the rational:

Sight & Sound's editor Nick James said the surprise result in the critics' poll reflected changes in the culture of film criticism, away from "films that strive to be great art, such as 'Citizen Kane,' and that use cinema's entire arsenal of effects to make a grand statement" towards those with "personal meaning to the critic."

"Vertigo is the ultimate critics' film because it is a dreamlike film about people who are not sure who they are but who are busy reconstructing themselves and each other to fit a kind of cinema ideal of the ideal soul mate," he said in a statement.