The Most Influential Directors of All Time 3rd edition

What a great time for movie lovers! Earlier this week, on the eve on my birthday, Sight and Sound magazine released its new list of its famous decade poll of the Greatest Films of All time. It was the first time in fifty years that Citizen Kane was not number one. As refreshing and surprising as it can be, the new number one, Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo, is if you ask me a masterpiece but not Hitch's best and definitely not the greatest film of all time.

And now, on this day I present you the third edition of this list that an event I have so much fun and that I cherish and love. I can't thank enough the people who participate and submit lists and talk a little bit or even post an entire post on the subject. It all make my day!

Also very pleased to have received lists from long time voters and new fresh names! It was expecially fun this year because I asked people to list the director's best film! This list will be posted here Monday morning. I think that even if Sight and Sound had hundreds of voters our gang does not have to envy anyone! Next week I'll have a post presenting each individual lists.

Now enough of me and here are the long awaited results:

Howard Hawks

9th Place (44 pts)

- Tie 1 pos up

First time since the first edition that we actually have a tie. Interesting because Hawks gained one position with this tie. I hope he'll even get higher in the future.

 Ingmar Bergman

9th Place (44 pts)

- Tie 1 pos down

The Swede dropped five spots since the first time he was inducted in the poll. Let's hope that with this year's tie will get the voters to clearly keep him in the top. Sadly, his more academic approach to film did not get the younger generations as much as the mature guard.

Steven Spielberg

8th Place (55 pts)

- New Entry

 A clear sign of the younger generation of voters. It is very interesting to see a new face in this top ten. Spielberg is the only new director on thje list. He pushed Chaplin out to get in which ins quite something.

 Jean-Luc Godard

7th Place (61 pts)

- 1 pos down 

Godard is one of the three directors still alive on this list. He fell from the sixth place. It is understandable since his earlier work is fantastic while his latest films are not destined to general audiences. 

 Martin Scorsese

6th Place (71 pts)

- 1 pos up 

Scorsese made some of the best films of the 1970's and 1980's. His latest movies Shutter Island and  Hugo were well received by the public and it can explain why his still high grade of quality filmmaking makes him a new 6th place holder.

 John Ford

5th Place  (74th pts)

- standing still 

Ford is standing still like in 2011. He did not move from his spot and he deserves every pixel of it.

 Akira Kurosawa

4th Place (99 pts)

- Still standing still 

Same as John Ford, one of Kurosawa's influence, he did not moved since the first edition of this poll. The only Japanese in the Top 10 even if Sight and Sound recognized Yasujiro Ozu as one of the greatest masters of this prolific country.

 Orson Welles

3rd Place (139 pts)

- 1 down 

Just like Sight and Sound's poll, Welles took one drop. It is trendy to not like Welles lately and someday we will pay for our ignorance. The first and the last director maudit. 3rd place is still awesome.

 Stanley Kubrick

2nd Place (146 pts)

-1 up 

My personal number one, Kubrick seems to have films that age very well and he managed to mark pop culture and Cinema. To me, he is the greatest blend of personal and commercial film. Very happy to see him touch the second place for the first time.

 Alfred Hitchcock

1st Place (194 pts)

- Staying put 

The fat British man holds his throne and his brilliant corpus of films was enough to put three films into our Top 10 Films related to this poll. The only director to have more than one film.

 So what do you think of the results? Any omissions, surprises? Let us know in the comments!