Jamie Dunn

Comments

I've tried to have my cake and eat it here. Two votes above are tactical, but not purely so. How thrilling would it be to see a non-American film crowned 'The Greatest Film of All Time' by Sight and Sound for the first time since the inception of the poll in 1952? Hence my pick for Tokyo Story. And Jeanne Dielman is included as it represents the best chance to push a film directed by a woman into the top ten. Luckily they're both towering masterpieces that I love dearly, so I've no qualms about standing in their corners.

I wouldn't want to saddle the rest of the films on my list with the m-word. These simply represent my favourite films by the directors whose body of work give me the most pleasure at the moment. On another day, they could have easily been swapped out for films by, say, Alfred Hitchcock, Alain Resnais, Brian de Palma, Robert Altman, Agnes Varda, Pedro Almodóvar and Douglas Sirk – all of whom had films in earlier drafts of this list.