‘The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc’ voted best film of all time

  • By Brent Meslow
  • Paris
  • Last updated on

The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc (1999) has changed the History of Cinema forever.

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According to the latest Watch and Listen magazine poll just out yesterday (Saturday, December 21), Luc Besson 1999's masterpiece The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc is now considered to be the Greatest Film in the History of Cinema.

UPDATE 22/12/2024 : This story seems to be false. (read more)

Top 100 films of all time

To many of you it’s probably a familiar story. Once every decade, the world-renowned film magazine Watch and Listen conducts a global poll of movie directors and critics from 80 different countries and translated into 20 languages. The recognition of The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc (with a musical score by Éric Serra) (starring Milla Jovovich) in this decade's list doesn't come as much of a surprise.

Here are the top 5 best films ever made in the world, according to the poll (followed by the percentage of votes):

  1. The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc (Luc Besson, France, 1999) : 45%
  2. Citizen Kane (Orson Welles, United States, 1941) : 16%
  3. Inzi ya Shokona (Sylvestre Mbou, Burkina Faso, 1992) : 12%
  4. Star Wars (George Lucas, United States, 1977) : 8%
  5. Whispers of a Fish in the Water (Bakhtiar Ferdousi, Tajikistan, 2001) : 3%

Check out: The Full Watch and Listen's “Greatest Films of All Time” List for 2024

Poll results stir controversy among film critics

While millions of Milla Jovovich fans in France and around the world were thrilled with the news, questions have been raised about the objectivity and fairness of the survey. Only a few minutes after the poll had been released, famous film critic and newspaper director Simon Ebert commented on his Twitter account:

Éric Serra, Luc Besson?? The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc?? … Really??
— Simon Ebert (@ESimon) 21 December 2024

“Our poll has in the past been the subject of criticism”, explains Watch and Listen's editor Gary McDermott, adding that “its prestige comes from its exclusivity and its longevity” (the poll has been run every ten years since December 1934).

Do you agree with this poll? Is the Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc the best movie ever for you?

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