Sight & Sound: the September 2012 issue

Features

Cover feature: The 2012 Critics’ Poll

Once a decade we ask critics to select the Greatest Films of All Time. This year 846 of them responded. We unveil the Top 100, plus 100 personal top tens from David Thomson, Camille Paglia, J. Hoberman, Mark Kermode and others…

The 2012 Dire​ctors’ Poll

​The Greatest Films of All Time, as chosen by 358 directors including Woody Allen, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Quentin Tarantino, the Dardenne brothers, Terence Davies, Guillermo del Toro, Martin Scorsese, Michael Mann…

White mischief

Tabu moves from modern-day Lisbon to a rapturous evocation of romance in colonial Africa. But no plot description can do justice to the idiosyncratic poetry of director Miguel Gomes. He talks to Mar Diestro-Dópido.

Hey presto

The 1970s have been seen as a period of frustration for Orson Welles. But, says Welles biographer Simon Callow, the same period saw his invention of the essay film with the brilliant F for Fake.

The art of noise

Director Peter Strickland follows his breakthrough Katalin Varga with a bold step into the world of analogue sound and Italian horror, Berberian Sound Studio. He talks to Jason Wood.

PLUS Geoffrey Macnab talks to Toby Jones about his role as a sound engineer.

Regulars

Rushes

Hannah McGill on the allure of smoking in the movies.

David Jenkins talks to director David Robert Mitchell about his debut The Myth of the American Sleepover.

Mark Cousins praises Asian cinema.

Catherine Bray pays tribute to screenwriter Nora Ephron.

Jonathan Romney decodes an image from Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol.

The industry

Geoffrey Macnab talks to the new head of the BFI Film Fund, Ben Roberts.

Charles Gant explores the troubled production history of On the Road.

Charles Gant assesses Steven Soderbergh’s box-office performance.

David Locke explores how live alternative content is affecting cinemas.

Wide angle

Sophie Mayer on Tate Modern’s new space for live performance and film.

Laura Mulvey pays tribute to experimental filmmaker Stephen Dwoskin.

Gabe Klinger celebrates the depth and breadth of the FIDMarseille film festival.

Frances Morgan reconsiders three Ennio Morricone scores for Dario Argento.

Bryony Dixon assesses the contemporary state of silent cinema.

Kim Newman revisits some classic Mexican sci-fi.

Brad Stevens asks if there’s a difference between ‘best’ and ‘favourite’ films.

Forum

Henry K. Miller and Hannah McGill go head to head over the relevance of cinematic canons.

Reviews

Berberian Sound Studio
The Dark Knight Rises
The Imposter
Tabu
and 32 other releases.

Plus 16 DVDs, and books on Night and Fog, the Hollywood sign and post-digital boundaries.