A History Lesson at the Movies

I'm Vinnie Abbatecola, a junior English and Journalism major, and hopefully a Business minor, at Rider University. I've been going to the movies ever since I was about five, and I would enjoy it. But it wasn't until I was about eight was when I started to absolutely love it.

When I began my freshman year of college, I realized I was getting closer to studying what I loved. In my Fall semester of sophomore year was when I took my first film class, and it has made my viewing experiences so much richer. I learned a considerable amount about the history and art of early filmmaking, and it has helped me to understand contemporary film a good deal more.

The early years of moviemaking have appeared in two movies this season, and they also happen to me the two most nominated films for this year's Academy Awards: Martin Scorsese's 3D drama Hugo, and Michel Hazanavicious's comedy-tribute to the silent film era The Artist. Both films possessed very different storylines, but they extracted the same response from me: they are two movies about movies that remind you why you love to go to the movies.

Hugo uses film history more in its narrative, whereas The Artist doesn't use history as much as delightfully showcases a particular era in film.

In Scorsese's film, which is based on the 2007 children's novel The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick, the director brings the story of an orphan living in a Parisian train station, and makes his first children's film into one that can bring in the a new audience; but also, his usual fans that have seen his harder films, such as Goodfellas and The Departed.

Anyone can see that although Scorsese has made numerous acclaimed hits, Hugo can be considered his labor of love. The film and book use pioneer filmmaker Georges Melies as one of its main characters, portrayed in the movie by Ben Kingsley. Through several flashbacks, Scorsese treats his audience to scenes depicting Melies meeting the Lumiere brothers and wanting to make films himself; and then, we see him following in the footsteps of the two brothers, and making his own films.

It was when I saw Melies filming, A Trip to the Moon, that the joy I had out of watching Hugo became one of my favorite experiences at the movies in 2011. Being able to apply what I learned in Language of Film Analysis made the viewing refreshingly different from other film viewings. The love for cinema that defines Scorsese was captured in every frame of Hugo.

Michel Hazanavicious's The Artist is a black-and-white silent film that acts as an homage to the 1920s period of Hollywood. It tells the story of fictional movie-star George Valentin (Jean Dujardin) who has a chance encounter with a starlet-to-be Peppy Miller (Berenice Bejo). He helps her get a role in one of his films, and she soon becomes the industry's next big thing. As talkies start becoming popular, George doesn't want anything to do with them, and remains in silent films until they can't financially benefit him anymore. In the meantime, Peppy continues to star in many new talkies.

Although some people dismiss The Artist as just a gimmick, I see it as a way to bring audiences back to a place in film history that is massively different from today's moviegoing experience. With this film slowly expanding into more theaters each weekend due to its Oscar buzz, this shows that there is still an audience out there that wants to watch a silent film. It doesn't just have to be a novelty from the 1920s. It can still tell as much of a story as any film today, and still generate interest amongst cinephiles.