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Vertigo named greatest movie ever

New York - Alfred Hitchcock has finally usurped Orson Welles.

Hitchcock's Vertigo took the top spot in the 10 greatest-movies-ever list compiled by Sight & Sound, ending the 50-year-long run for Welles' Citizen Kane.

The magazine, published by the British Film Institute, surveys international film critics every decade.

Citizen Kane slid to second, making way for Hitchcock's 1958 psychological drama starring James Stewart and Kim Novak.

The list also includes a new addition: Dziga Vertov's documentary, Man With a Movie Camera, coming in at eighth place.

Vertigo tells the story of a San Francisco detective, played by James Stewart, suffering from acrophobia who investigates the strange activities of an old friend's wife (played by Kim Novak), while becoming dangerously obsessed with her.

The movie did not win any Oscars - Hitchcock infamously never won a competitive Academy Award after five nominations - but was nominated for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration and Best Sound in 1959.

The Sight & Sound Critics' Top 10 Greatest Films of All Time:
1. Vertigo (Hitchcock, 1958)
2. Citizen Kane (Welles, 1941)
3. Tokyo Story (Yasujiro Ozu, 1953)
4. La Règle du jeu (Jean Renoir, 1939)
5. Sunrise: a Song for Two Humans (F.W. Murnau, 1927)
6. 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1968)
7. The Searchers (John Ford, 1956)
8. Man with a Movie Camera (Vertov, 1929)
9. The Passion of Joan of Arc (Dreyer, 1927)
10. 8 ½ (Federico Fellini, 1963)

- Channel24

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