Phillip Lopate and greatness of criticism with no authority

Published August 9, 2024 4:45am ET



Two years ago, I cast my ballot for the 10 greatest films ever made in the last installment of the celebrated Sight and Sound magazine poll. To my credit, I did not vote for Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles, the tedious feminist tract that displaced both Citizen Kane and Vertigo. Yet I still received grief from friends and correspondents over what they took to be my willfully personal choices, which included a Hawaiian romp starring John Wayne (Donovan’s Reef), an unheralded Howard Hawks movie about race car drivers (Red Line 7000), and a widely disliked Hitchcock thriller about a kleptomaniac (Marnie). 

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