Tomorrow is the start of August, and that means that our Best 100 Films of the 1980’s is out on Monday. So, it’s nice to just take a step back and look at what it’s all for once in a while. Why don’t we do just that? Last time, we discussed how we go about these lists for this project. We started these lists off with the “why”, as in why we do them. Well, today we can go over the “what”, and analyze what we have gained from doing these lists so far. If you recall, we watch a lot of films (and we do mean a lot of films) for these lists. We are stuck in a time capsule for two months at a time. So, naturally, the first thing we get out of this is the discovery (or rediscovery) of films from a certain decade. That’s pretty self explanatory.

What else are we getting out of these projects? A firmer understanding of the film industries across the world is definitely an additional benefit. Studying film movements and events is one thing. Matching both together amidst many other works of the same time period is another form of realization. Being able to compare, say, a German New Wave film with what else was coming out of Europe in the ‘80s (in such great chunks, especially) firsthand is a bit special, we would have to say. Considering we are entering territories where we didn’t exist when these films were released, it’s fascinating to feel at least partially within a decade. If anything, watching the occasional new film to review has felt very jarring.

*Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown*

Working backwards has almost been more beneficial than starting at the beginning of cinema and progressing forwards. We have our own experiences with film now, and knowledge of how we got here from when we first became cinephiles. Starting with the most recent decade has allowed us to use our current time as a frame of reference since the start of this experiment, and then progressively drift back in time. If anything, it makes what we know now more applicable, and the same can be said about each set of ten years before the latest iteration of our research. While any of this information can just be looked up, actually investing so much time in analyzing these hundreds of films together has provided such an overabundance of context. For us, this is the showing side of show-and-tell: the information that sticks with you the most.

Within the confinements of their decades, the appreciation we have for certain films has become magnified. If a film has aged well, that’s a different type of achievement. Being able to see how these works compare amongst their peers has been a refreshing form of analysis, and something we feel many people may be missing (unless they purposefully enjoy a specific genre, era, or style of film exclusively, or for a long enough period of time). As cinephiles, we’ve almost garnered a whole new perspective of many of our favourite films. Timelessness is the ultimate goal of an artist, but being of a certain time is a whole new accomplishment when judging how strong a film is in correlation to many others. As we continue to do these lists (we are wrapping up research on our ‘70s films right now, and are roughly halfway through the decades project), we will continue to time travel and extrapolate hands-on information and analyses of our favourite films. Ranking films is one thing. Understanding the history of these works — as if they are rescued artifacts — is another. We hope to continue to share this experience with you all.

Our Best 100 Films of the 1980’s list is out August 3rd, 2020. Stay tuned!

Andreas Babiolakis has a Masters degree in Film and Photography Preservation and Collections Management from Ryerson University, as well as a Bachelors degree in Cinema Studies from York University. His favourite times of year are the Criterion Collection flash sales and the annual Toronto International Film Festival.

The Best 100 Films of the Decade: What We Learn From Making These Lists