photo courtesy of themoviebanter.com
Oscar
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There are five movies whose directors have received the Oscar nod, and I’ve seen four of them so far. While I’ve missed Alexander Payne and “The Descendants,” the other nominees are Michel Hazanavicius for “The Artist,” Martin Scorcese for “Hugo,” Woody Allen for “Midnight in Paris,” and Terrence Malick for “Tree of Life.” These directors are all possessed of crystal vision, but among the visions presented I found the more philosophical among them to be most appealing–namely “Hugo” and “Tree of Life.”

“Hugo” presents critical moments in the life of now-orphaned Hugo Cabret whose larger-than-life Erector set consists of the clockworks of the Paris train station in the 1930s. The film is an adaptation of Brian Selznick’s novel “The Invention of Hugo Cabret” and was brilliantly adapted for the screen by award-winning screenwriter and playwright John Logan, whose “Red” is currently playing at George Street Playhouse. Scorcese brings the right sense of humor, with nods to both the magic of film and its capacity to excite creativity and imagination, as well as interweaving details of the life of Georges Melies, a genuine pioneer in the early film industry. The actual collection Melies had of automata inspired the inclusion of one in Selznick’s plot and provides the touchstone for Hugo’s bittersweet desire for a family and what he’s lost. Sharp-eyed music aficionados will note a certain Gypsy guitarist sitting in with the Paris Train Station house band.

“Tree of Life” is not for the faint of heart, nor the faint of fanny. This nearly two-and-a-half-hour film covers more than a lifetime with its metaphysical look at the transformational power of decisions whose actual importance may not be known at the time we decide on our path. Malick’s premise is that our choices begin in and continue to be between the path of Nature and the path of Grace. I loved the film for the feeling it provides of life on a continuum, having less productive paths but never truly a dead end. If you do not resonate with a sense of there being both more and less to life, this may not be the film for you. If you have the feeling that there is something more beyond that which one may presently comprehend, this will be high on your hit parade. There are dramatic effects, but they are done the old-fashioned, non-CGI generated way and permit one’s own imagination to take flight.

“The Artist” is the (largely) silent film homage to–well–silent films that has taken cinema buffs by storm. A master of parody, as evidenced by his OSS-117 films that send up the ’60s secret agent genre, Michel Hazanavicius shows that imitation really is a very sincere form of flattery. His Gallic perspective on the Hollywood of the “Hollywoodland” era is poignant and beautiful and a great reminder that films did not always require pyrotechnics to be dazzling–a great story may be simply told. The film is not entirely silent, but the sound provides grace notes to a masterful work of inspiration.

Woody Allen’s “Midnight in Paris” is a delicious fantasy for writers and romantics alike. Inspiration comes from many directions, and often what we’re paid to do, because we’re skillful, does not feed the soul. Gil Pender, a successful Hollywood screenwriter, is visiting Paris with his fiancée Inez when her parents go there on a business trip. He falls in love with the City, which does not resonate as anything but a shopping location to Inez. Whether there’s an actual literary allusion to Ines Serrano in Jean-Paul Sartre’s existentialist play “No Exit,” as an arch reference to the dead-end life marriage, in 21st century Inez might be remains for you to decide. Steeped in writers by a chance trip back in time, Gil-as-Cinderfella is beckoned into a 1920 Peugot Landaulet 184 by party people dressed in black tie and gowns. When they arrive at the party, Gil meets his idols F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway, as well as other arts and letters luminaries of the time. First thinking it’s a drunken fever dream he’s had, Gil goes back the next night and finds he’s able to gain entry to the past as the last tones of midnight strike in the location where he was the previous evening. Ultimately, the revelations he has lead him to connect his skill and his heart with the City of Light. Though I found the artistic aspects enjoyable, Allen’s dialogue as an actor now comes from not only Pender as his stand-in, but many of the other modern characters. I can set that aside for the beautifully realized dialogue of the writers and artists depicted with their foibles and their fabled talents in such abundance.

While I am hoping to squeeze in “The Descendants” prior to February 26, I’ll be queuing up when the BluRays for some of these movies are released.