‘Discussing Sight and Sound’s Top 100 Greatest Films, one masterpiece at a time…’
The Sight and Sound list of the top 100 films of all time is a strange beast. Released every ten years (most recently in 2022), it’s either the ultimate guide to the best that cinema has to offer or pretentious waffle that represents the absolute worst kind of cinematic gatekeeping. The truth, as is so often the case, lies somewhere in the middle. I’ve seen Jeanne Dielman, the film that Sight and Sound claims to be the best of all time, and I’m here to say that it absolutely isn’t. It is impressive in its way, but for me, the best film of all time cannot be inaccessible to 90% of the cinema-going audience. And yet, the Sight and Sound list does still possess a certain unexplainable prestige…
Presented by film journalist Tim Coleman and featuring a rotating cast of guests, The Top 100 sees Coleman picking a film from the Sight and Sound Top 100 at random and discussing it in depth. Beginning with David Lynch’s Blue Velvet (with Mike Muncer from the Evolution of Horror podcast on guest duties), Coleman has covered films as varied as Tarkovsky’s fever dream Stalker, Scorsese’s masterpiece Taxi Driver and one of my own personal favourite films, The Shining. Diversity is one thing that the Sight and Sound list does have going for it, and listening to this podcast has forced me to sit through (and inevitably enjoy) some of the films on the list that I had previously perceived as homework.
What makes the podcast so effective is Coleman’s ability to take a film as challenging and esoteric as Stalker and then demystify the film for a mainstream audience. The reason many of these films are on the list in the first place is that they encourage discussion and wider reading. These are not popcorn flicks, but then not every cinematic experience should be purely for entertainment. Cinema is an art form, and at its best, it encourages us to think outside our preconceived notions of what art could and should be.
The Top 100, along with Coleman’s other film podcast, Moving Pictures Film Club, clearly come from a place of love, and if they encourage people to watch stuff that they might ordinarily discuss as too arty or difficult, then that is a great thing.