Nobody Knows Hollywood

Broad strokes -- that's the way artists in silent films often portrayed emotion and story. Because of the lack of dialogue, they were forced to find another way to get their message across. They did so with bold facial expressions, demonstrative gestures and animated reactions to people and situations. In its time, (pre-1929), the audience accepted what they were given as there was nothing else to compare it to. Film, as an art form, was still extremely young and novel. Today, these techniques are all too often, via broad strokes of judgment, written off as bad acting. I disagree -- and clearly, so do those involved with the making of the beautiful Oscar-Nominated, "The Artist". The quest for "reality" in films is displayed in two Oscar-Nominated films this year, this one and "Hugo". In both films, historical uses of techniques and period-correct artistry is put on display and, at the same time called into question. Both films are worthy of their nom...

Do dreams matter? To Martin Scorsese via Hugo, the answer is yes. Dreams, as we see them in our mind's sleeping eye, are one of the great mysteries of humanity. Are dreams our reality and vice versa (e.g. The Matrix)? Are we being spoken to by someone or something from beyond? Can we affect our dreams with our waking lives? In indirect form, all of these questions are in play in Hugo.  The familiar storyline of a boy losing his father and being left a secret message is a gentle in to a deeper storyline. In order to access all of it, the viewer may have to understand what it is to have dreamed, risked and, likely, lost at some point. That is the discovery of film pioneer George Melies that occurs early in the film for Hugo. They are similar in their passions and talent, but at opposite ends of the spectrum: Hugo is young and just discovering, Melies is old and bitter about what he has lost. In the middle of the journey is the idea of magic. Like dreams, magic is addressed lite...