'Vertigo' the greatest movie of all time?

James Stewart and Kim Novak star in Alfred Hitchcock's 'Vertigo' named this week as the greatest movie ever. Photo MCT

Where would we media folk be without polls and lists?

In an age of an ever-larger number of outlets being served by an ever-smaller number of scribes, nothing beats made-up "news."

A critic pal of mine recently found some fairly steady work crafting lists, for one of those movie ticket buying websites, tied in with the themes of each weekend's big Hollywood releases.

It's easy to throw together and by stringing a browser along through ten items, the site gets more hits than it would from one story.

The British Film Institute magazine Sight and Sound received more attention this week than it has in years from the results of the critics poll it does every ten years of the greatest movies of all time.

More than 800 critics and film historians took part.

The BFI was way ahead of the curve in this area, having launched the once-a-decade poll in 1952.

Since 1962, there haven't been that many changes in the line-up, but the big news this week was that "Citizen Kane" was knocked out of its number one perch by the Alfred Hitchcock film "Vertigo."

In other BFI poll news, two of my favourite films of all time -- "The Godfather" and "The Godfather Part II" -- took a hit when it was determined that they could no longer qualify as one epic work.

Ten years ago, the two films ranked in the top ten as one entity -- split apart, they both fell far below the top ten.

The ranking of works of art always rankles me, whether you are talking about groups that give out annual awards or polls like the one conducted by the BFI.

Can any one film or book or play be the "best" of all time? How do you compare a film like "Vertigo" with "Citizen Kane" or "The Godfather"?

From my point of view, "Vertigo" isn't even Hitchcock's best film, let alone the greatest movie ever made (I would rank "Rear Window" and "North by Northwest" and "Strangers on a Train" higher in my own Hitchcock pantheon).

I love "Citizen Kane" -- and completely understand its revered place in the history of Hollywood -- but I have watched "Casablanca" many more times over the years and gotten much more pleasure from it.

If forced to rank my favourites, I would place either of the "Godfather" pictures above "Vertigo" and "Citizen Kane" but why should I be forced to choose?

List-making seems like a foolish pursuit for the most part, but I suppose polls like the one taken by the BFI do get people talking and thinking about older movies and that's a good thing.

The critics' vote: The 10 greatest films of all time

1. Vertigo (1958)

2. Citizen Kane (1941)

3. Tokyo Story (1953)

4. La Regle du jeu (1939)

5. Sunrise (1927)

6. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

7. The Searchers (1956)

8. Man With a Movie Camera (1929)

9. The Passion of Joan of Arc (1927)

10. 8 1/2 (1963)

The directors' vote: the 10 greatest films of all time