Sight & Sound was first released in 1932. The bfi has been the publisher of the magazine since 1934. Originally, it appeared only four times a year, only the beginning of the 1950 year was Sight & Sound published monthly. This changed in 1991 when the Monthly Film Bulletin, also published by the bfi, was incorporated into Sight & Sound .
Since then, all reboots in Great Britain have been presented in detail every month. Sight & Sound makes a point that even the more demanding films only in selected cinemas begin to be treated. All film reviews describe the content completely, which means that the end of the respective film is also revealed, as well as a list of the actors and the film staff as complete as possible .
In addition to movie reviews to find interviews, background reports and film-historical issues, with an emphasis on world cinema away from Hollywood - Mainstream is placed. This approach earned Sight & Sound the reputation of an elite film magazine. The English newspaper The Independent called it “highly intellectual, but still understandable”, the British film critic and former Sight & Sound author Raymond Durgnat accused the magazine of being elitist, puritanical and snobbish.
Among cineastes won Sight & Sound fame by every ten-yearly survey for the best films of all time, are interviewed in the film critics from different countries. This top 10 list was first published in 1952, when Vittorio de Sica's bicycle thieves was the best film of all time. From 1962 to 2002 Citizen Kane was the undisputed leader in the top 10 lists. A survey of film directors has been carried out in parallel since 1992 . 846 critics and 358 directors took part in the 2012 survey. Due to the reputation of the respondents, the Sight & Sound Top 10 is one of the most important leaderboards.
In 2002, Sight & Sound conducted a survey of critics and international directors for the greatest directors for the first time.
The list of critics includes eleven directors due to a total tie between Francis Ford Coppola and Yaujiro Ozu.
The list of directors includes two living directors, Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorsese . Since Jean Renoir, David Lean and Martin Scorsese had a complete tie, all three directors were listed by the magazine in 9th place, which means that there are eleven and not ten directors in the top ten.
Jacqueline Louviot: Le regard de Sight and Sound sur le cinéma britannique des années 50 et 60 (What Sight and Sound saw: Sight and Sound on British film during the 1950s and 1960s). Dissertation, Université de Strasbourg II, 1997. (French)
David Wilson (Ed.): Sight and Sound. A Fiftieth Anniversary Selection . Faber and Faber together with BFI Publishing, London 1982.
Web links
Official website (selected articles from the current issue and from the archive)
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