Critics Best Films 1952 Sight and Sound

In 1952, inspired by the poll of filmmakers made by the Committee Festival Mondial du film et des Beaux arts of Belgique, the English film magazine Sight and Sound asked 85 film critics, 63 of whom submitted their lists. This is a sampling of some of those lists. Sight and Sound commented, "Most critics were unanimous in finding the question unfair. "

All 63 critics
1.....Bicycle Thieves (Vittorio De Sica)
2.....City Lights (Charles Chaplin)
.......The Gold Rush (Charles Chaplin)
4.....Potemkin (Sergei Eisenstein)
5.....Louisiana Story (Robert Flaherty)
......Intolerance (D W Griffith)
7.....Greed (Erich von Stroheim)
......Le Jour se leve (Marcel Carné)
.......The {Passion of Joan of Arc (Carl Theodore Dreyer)
10....Brief Encounter (David Lean)
......Le Million (René Clair)
......La Règle du jeu (Jean Renoir)

Lindsay Anderson
1.....Earth (Alexander Dovchenko)
2.....They Were Expendable (John Ford)
3.....Zéro de conduite/L'Atalante (Jean Vigo)
4.....The Childhood of Maxim Gorki (Mark Donskoy)
5.....The Grapes of Wrath (John Ford)
6.....Louisiana Story (Rober Flaherty)/ The River (Jean Renoir)
7.....Fires Were Started (Humphrey Jennings)
8.....La Règle du jeu (Jean Renoir)
9.....Douce (Claude Autant-Lara)
......Antoine and Antoinette (Jacques Becker)
.......Force of Evil (Abraham Polonsky)
10...Meet Me in St Louis (Vincente Minnelli)

Rudolph Arnheim
1.....The Wedding March (Erich von stroheim)
2.....City Lights (Charles Chaplin)
3.....The General (Buster Keaton/Clyde Bruckman)
4.....Potemkin (Sergei Eisenstein)
5.....Road to Life (Nikolai Ekk)
6.....Our Dailly Bread (King Vidor)
7.....Sous les toits de Paris (René Clair)
8.....Man of Aran (Robert Flaherty)
9.....Bicyle Thieves (Vittorio De Sica)
10...Rashomon (Akira Kurosawa)


Alexander Astruc
1.....Sunrise (F W Murnau)
2.....October (Sergei Eisenstein)
3.....Foolish Wives (Erich von Stroheim)
4.....Nosferatu (F W Murnau)
5.....L'Age d'or (Luis Bunuel)
6.....Vampyr (Carl Theodore Dreyer)
7.....¡Que Viva Mexico! (Sergei Eisenstein)
8.....You Only Live Once (Fritz Lang)
9.....La Règle du jeu (Jean Renoir)
10...The Magnificent Ambersons (Orson Welles)

André Bazin
1.....Les Vampires (Louis Feuillade)
2.....The Pilgrim (Charles Chaplin)
3.....Broken Blossoms (D W Griffith)
4.....Sunrise (F W Murnau)
5.....Greed (Erich von Stroheim)
6.....La Règle du jeu (Jean Renoir)
7.....Le Jour se lève (Marcel Carné)
8.....The Little Foxes (William Wyler)
9.....Les Dames du Bois de Boulogne (Robert Bresson)
10...Bicycle Thieves (Vittorio De Sica)
André Bazin comments: "A series of personal awards, on critical reflection, rather than of original memories and impact. . ."

Georges Charensol
1.....The Gold Rush (Charles Chaplin)
2.....Louisiana Story (Robert Flaherty)
3.....The Passion of Joan of Arc (Carl Theodore Dreyer)
4.....Le Million (René Clair)
5.....Bicycle Thieves (Vittorio De Sica)
6.....Brief Encounter (David Lean)
7.....They Shall Bear Witness (Victor Sjöström)
8.....Broken Blossoms (D W Griffith)
9.....Mother (Vsevolod Pudovkin)
10...Les Dames du Bois de Boulogne (Robert Bresson)

Louis Chauvet
1.....Man of Aran (Robert Flaherty)
2.....Bicycle Thieves (Vittorio De Sica)
3.....City Lights (Charles Chaplin)
4.....Le Million (René Clair)
5.....The Lost Patrol (John Ford)
6.....The Green Pastures (Marc Connelly/William Keighley)
7.....Brief Encounter (David Lean)
8.....All About Eve (Joseph L Mankiewicz)
9.....The Blue Express (Ilya Trauberg)
10...The Heiress (William Wyler)

Jacques Doniol-Valcroze
(no preferential order)
¡Que Viva Mexico! (Sergei Eisenstein)
Les Dames du Bois de Boulogne (Robert Bresson)
Intolerance (D W Griffith)
La Terra Trema (Luchino Visconti)
Sunrise (F W Murnau)
The Magnificent Ambersons (Orson Welles)
The Passion of Joan of Arc (Carl Theodore Dreyer)
Monsieur Verdoux (Charles Chaplin)
The River (Jean Renoir)
Les Dernières Vacances (Roger Leenhardt)

Joseph-Marie Lo Duca
1.....The Passion of Joan of Arc (Carl Theodore Dreyer)
2.....Man of Aran (Robert Flaherty)
3.....The Grand Illusion (Jean Renoir)
4.....The Gold Rush (Charles Chaplin)
5.....Bicycle Thieves (Vittorio De Sica)
6.....Greed (Erich von Stroheim)
7.....Les Enfants du paradis (Marcel Carné)
8.....Paisà (Roberto Rossellini)
9.....Henry V (Laurence Olivier)
10...Citizen Kane (Orson Welles)

Lotte Eisner
1.....Monsieur Verdoux (Charles Chaplin)
2.....The Gold Rush (Charles Chaplin)
3.....The Birth of a Nation (D W Griffith)
4.....Potemkin (Sergei Eisenstein)
5.....Greed (Erich von Stroheim)
6.....L'Age d'or (Luis Bunuel)
7.....Zéro de Conduite (Jean Vigo)
8.....Earth (Alexander Dovchenko)
9.....Tabu (F W Murnau)
10....Louisiana Story (Robert Flaherty)

Richard Griffith
"Order doesn't particularly mean anything"
Nanook of the North (Robert Flaherty)
Intolerance (D W Griffith)
Moana (Robert Flaherty)
Warning Shadows (Arthur Robison)
Arsenal (Alexander Dovchenko)
So This is Paris (Ernst Lubitsch)
Monsieur Verdoux (Charles Chaplin)
Paris 1900 (Nicole Védrès)
Hallelujah (King Vidor)
The Wedding March (Erich von Stroheim)

Curtis Harrington
(not in preferential order)
Greed (Erich von Stroheim)
Zéro de Conduite (Jean Vigo)
La Règle du jeu (Jean Renoir)
Vampyr (Carl Theodore Dreyer)
L'Age d'or (Luis Bunuel)
Dura Lex (Lev Kuleshov)
Never Give a Sucker an Even Break (Edward F Cline)
À nous la liberté (René Clair)
Les Dames du Bois de Boulogne (Robert Bresson)

Penelope Houston
(alphabetical order)
L'Atalante (Jean Vigo)
Citizen Kane (Orson Welles)
City Lights (Charles Chaplin)
Les Dames du Bois de Boulogne (Robert Bresson)
Earth (Alexander Dovchenko)
The General (Buster Keaton/Clyde Bruckman)
The Grapes of Wrath (John Ford)
Greed (Erich von Stroheim)
October (Sergei Eisenstein)
La Règle du jeu (Jean Renoir)

Gavin Lambert
1.....Greed (Erich von Striheim)
2.....Earth (Alexander Dovchenko)
3.....L'Age d'or (Luis Bunuel)
4.....La Règle du jeu (Jean Renoir)
5.....The Kid (Charles Chaplin)
6.....A Diary for Timothy (Humphrey Jennings)
7.....The Quiet Man (John Ford)
8.....Hallelujah (King Vidor)
9.....¡Que Viva Mexico! (Sergei Eisenstein)
10...Les Dames du Bois de Boulogne (Robert Bresson)

Karel Reisz
(alphabetical order)
All Quiet on the Western Front (Lewis Milestone)
L'Atalante (Jean Vigo)
City Lights (Charles Chaplin)
Earth (Alexander Dovchenko)
Le Jour se lève (Marcel Carné)
Listen to Britian (Humphrey Jennings)
Miracle in Milan (Vittorio De Sica)
Los Olvidados (Luis Bunuel)
The Palm Beach Story (Preston Sturges)
Wagonmaster (John Ford)

Paul Rotha
1.....Greed (Erich von Stroheim)
2.....Potemkin (Sergei Eisenstein)
3.....The Gold Rush (Charles Chaplin)
4.....An Italian Straw Hat (René Clair)
5.....Turksib (Victor A Turin)
6.....Earth (Alexander Dovchenko)
7.....Kameradschaft (G W Pabst)
8.....L'Atalante (Jean Vigo)
9.....Open City (Roberto Rossellini)
10...Bicycle Thieves (Vittorio De Sica)

Sight and sound 10 Best Films list from 1962, click here