Sight and Sound
Related: film criticism - UK
Sight and Sound magazine
Sight and Sound is a British monthly magazine about film. The Independent newspaper has described it as "highbrow but accessible".
Sight and Sound was first published in 1932 and in 1934 management of the magazine was handed to the nascent British Film Institute. The bfi still publishes the magazine today. Its current monthly format began in 1949. In 1991 Sight and Sound merged with another bfi publication - the Monthly Film Bulletin.
Sight and Sound has a more highbrow focus than other film magazines. It says it reviews all film releases each month, including those with a narrow art house release, as opposed to the more mainstream focus of its competitors. Sight and Sound also currently features a full cast and crew credit list for each reviewed film.
Every decade, Sight and Sound asks an international group of film professional to vote for their "Greatest Film" of all time. The Sight and Sound accolade has come to be regarded as one of the most important of the "greatest ever film" lists. The first poll, in 1952, was topped by The Bicycle Thieves. The five subsequent polls (1962-2002) have been won by Citizen Kane. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sight%26Sound [Oct 2004]
The Sight and Sound Top Ten Poll: history
The first Sight & Sound poll took place in 1952, when the world's leading critics were asked to compile a list of the best films of all time. The poll has been repeated every ten years; in 1992 for the first time, Sight & Sound added a poll of directors, asking them for a parallel choice of personal favourites. --http://www.bfi.org.uk/sightandsound/topten/archive/index.html [Oct 2004]1952 Critics' Poll
1 Bicycle Thieves (De Sica)
2 City Lights (Chaplin)
2 The Gold Rush (Chaplin)
4 Battleship Potemkin (Eisenstein)
5 Intolerance (Griffith)
5 Louisiana Story (Flaherty)
7 Greed (von Stroheim)
7 Le Jour se lève (Carné)
7 The Passion of Joan of Arc (Dreyer)
10 Brief Encounter (Lean)
10 Le Million (Clair)
10 La Règle du jeu (Renoir)
Sight And Sound Magazine
From the Publisher
Carries full credits and extensive synopsis of all films reviewed. Also includes scholarly and critical features on cinema, past and present. --Sight And Sound Magazine [Amazon.com]
Abstract
A publication of the British Film Institute. Feature articles and interviews on recent motion pictures, notes on festivals, book reviews and film and video reviews. --Sight And Sound Magazine [Amazon.com]
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