An expert panel has selected a female-directed movie as the best made. The British Film Institute’s Sight and Sound survey placed Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles, directed by Chantal Akerman, in the first place.
It is the first time a female director’s film has made it into the top ten. The poll, which is conducted every ten years, has drawn flak for its lack of diversity.
For 40 years, Citizen Kane by Orson Welles occupied the top slot. Vertigo, a film by Alfred Hitchcock, surpassed it in 2012.
The 1975 film Jeanne Dielman tells the tale of a Belgian widow who turns to prostitution to make ends meet but ends up killing one of her customers. Nearly three and a half hours are spent watching the movie.
It has been praised as a “masterpiece” and a groundbreaking work of feminist film, despite not being as well known outside of the field of film criticism as past winners.
The 65-year-old Belgian director Chantal Akerman passed away in 2015.
The poll’s contributor, writer and film critic Lillian Crawford, called the movie the “essential text” of female cinema.
She told the BBC that she wouldn’t recommend Jeanne Dielman to someone just starting in movies as their first movie.
“I believe that if you’re going to go through the list, you should perhaps do it in reverse order and gradually work your way up to it because inviting others to see this is a big ask.
However, this literature is unquestionacrucialtant in terms of academia, cinematic thought, inspiring more people to watch the experimental film, films by women, and the development of feminist cinema.
Professor of film studies at Birkbeck University Laura Mulvey referred to the vote as a “sudden shake-up” in an article for the British Film Institute.
She wrote,
“Things will never be the same.
Since 1952, the British Film Institute’s Sight and Sound magazine have conducted the survey every ten years.
It has previously come under for lack of diversity in the experts surveyed and the top 100 films selected.
In 2012, Touki Bouki by Djibril Diop Mambéty and Jeanne Dielman, both directed by black filmmakers, were the only two black films to be included on the list.
The quantity and variety of those consulted have grown over time. The best 10 movies of the year were chosen by 1,639 critics, programmers, curators, archivists, and academics.
Vertigo, the previous champion, came in at number two, followed by Citizen Kane at number three.
Fourth place went to Yasujiro Ozu’s Tokyo Story, while fifth place went to Wong Kar Wai’s In the Mood for Love.
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