Of course there’s controversy. But what good does it do?
These damnable lists, just like Elon, Ye, and trump, are just there to divide us, get us fighting amongst ourselves.
And besides, four Hitch films? Sheesh, fanboi much? 
These lists are like the contents of background bookshelves on zoom calls, IYKWIM.
I’ve only seen seven.
Here’s the list of the top 100 from the last time they did this, in 2012. They do it every ten years. The most surprising one on the 2022 list is indeed Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles, which was ranked 51st on the 2012 list:
Here’s the top ten lists for 1952, 1962, 1972, 1982, 1992, 1992, 2002, 2012, and 2022:
After being number 1 on the lists from 1962 to 2002, Citizen Kane dropped down a little and was replaced by Vertigo. (In 1952, Citizen Kane was just outside of the top 10.) A few others were surprising, I suppose. Do the Right Thing wasn’t in the top 100 in 2012 but is number 24 in 2022. Daisies wasn’t in the top 100 in 2012 but is number 28 in 2022. I’m interested to see that Chungking Express and La Jetée, which are two of my personal favorites, are numbers 88 and 67 in 2022. I think that I’ve seen 67 of those on the 2022 top 100 list. I could tell you about my personal top 100, but what’s the point? We all differ in our tastes.
So nobody got to pick 100 films as their favorites, just 10.
Which explains why so many Hitchcocks. It’s doubtful any one critic chose more than one of those.
I think many/most of these films were ones that were groundbreaking in some way.
There is only one film on the 2022 list which I’ve truly never heard of. Since 1999, I’ve been putting together a list of films each of which someone somewhere considers to be a great film. (Note: this is not the same as a list of my personal favorites.) There are somewhat more than 10,000 films on my list. Some of you are going to say, “Isn’t that almost all films?” No, not by a long shot. There have probably been something like 1,000,000 films made over the period that films have existed since the late 1800s. So this list probably contains one or two percent of all films ever made. I have been careful to include all sorts of lists I have seen in putting together my list of 10,000 or so films, so it contains ones that are popular without being critical favorites and ones that are critical favorites without being popular. Anyway, the one film on the Sight and Sound 2022 list that isn’t on my list of 10,000 or so films is News from Home, which is number 52 on the Sight and Sound 2022 list. So now I consider News from Home to be the most surprising one on that list…
I’ve only watched 4 all the way through. I’ve definitely seen a larger percentage of the AFI list. That said, I’m not much of a film buff anyway (unlike the rest of my family).
For utter suspenseful terror, I would replace Vertigo with The Wrong Man. And as far as Hitchcock goes, why the hell would Rebecca not be anywhere on the list?