French tap Hitchcock tops

Poll names greatest filmmakers, Spielberg, Disney follow

By ALISON JAMES

PARIS -- Narrowly beating Steven Spielberg, Alfred Hitchcock has been voted the 20th century's greatest filmmaker in a French opinion poll.

Hitchcock, whose films are immensely popular with French audiences, beat Spielberg by a slim margin of one percentage point, with 33% of the vote. Walt Disney came in third.

The highest-scoring French director was Francois Truffaut, who won 19% of the vote, with Marcel Carne ("Les enfants du paradis," "Hotel du Nord") and Francis Ford Coppola close behind.

The poll was published by the French daily Le Parisien.