The midst of the annual awards season has given cinephiles two tremendous treats in Martin Scorsese's Hugo (2011) and Michel Hazanavicius's The Artist (2011). While Hugo attempts to redeem the overlooked - outside of introduction to film courses at least - career of film pioneer Georges Méliès, The Artist takes willing viewers back to late 1920s Hollywood as the industry was transitioning from silent film production to early talkies. Hugo is one of the best films of the year thanks to Scorsese's potent mixture of heartfelt redemption, film history lecture, adventurous dissection of three dimensional space, and support of film preservation. The Artist, a heartwarming and nostalgic dollop of cinematic whipping cream, never goes beyond the superficial.
