Oscar nominees take a look back with ‘New Nostalgia’

It’s hard to watch this year’s batch of best picture Oscar nominees without presuming that filmmakers would rather be anywhere but now.

They’d rather be in Paris with a visionary Georges Melies at the dawn of filmmaking (“Hugo”). Or in Los Angeles in the late 1920s, as Hollywood made the transition from silent film to talkies (“The Artist”). Or in the ’50s, when 70 mm prestige pictures were unabashedly bighearted and pretty (“War Horse”). Or in the ’60s, when well-meaning message movies could be uncomplicated and unsubtle (“The Help”). They’d even rather be in 2011 Paris, wondering whether being in 1920s Paris would be as satisfying as it is romantic (“Midnight in Paris”). They’d rather be anywhere else — assuming that a little movie history is involved.

But let’s call it the New Nostalgia.

Because unlike the Old Nostalgia (gauzy, soft-headed), and despite notable exceptions (“The Help,” “My Week With Marilyn”), the New Nostalgia is not cheap or content to be dew-eyed and sentimental. It’s not about mere homage to fading sensibilities or needless remakes or period epics. It’s not about a cultural malaise and filmmakers with nothing new to say. The New Nostalgia is about dipping into movie history to rediscover the joy of moviegoing itself.

Indeed, what’s newest about the New Nostalgia is that even the swoon — in “The Muppets,” for instance, a film entirely about returning to the joys of a simpler era — is delivered with a wise heart and a melancholy, an underlying sense that encouraging love and appreciation in new audiences may already be too late.

On the other hand, coincidence and subconscious desire can seem like two sides of the same coin, and what’s going on in these films — in the velvety John Ford-inspired vistas of “War Horse,” in the shimmery ’80s synth soundtrack of “Drive,” even in those pensive, Robert-Redford-circa-1972 shots of Brad Pitt in “Moneyball” — is a hope that our filmmaking past can inspire a meaningful future.

“I think these films share optimism,” said Rick Carter, the Oscar-nominated production designer of “War Horse.” “But it’s a complex, wary optimism. Not a fresh-to-the-world optimism. In fact, that word, ‘nostalgia,’ your word, suggests something shallow, and the films we’re talking about look to the past not only for literal context but what’s back there, in filmmaking, that can resonate in the stories we tell now, using technology we barely harness.”

What he means is, as with so many aspects of early 21st century life, this sudden longing is partly spurred by a concern that a cold, alienating digital future will replace the warm, recognizable pleasures of the past.

Those shots of Pitt may be largely quiet, but you can picture the director, Bennett Miller, behind the camera shouting: “That’s what a movie star should be.” “War Horse” wears its broad heart on its sleeve, but director Steven Spielberg is clearly reminding us: “This is what heart looked like.”

Bruce Sheridan, chair of the film program at Columbia College, said: “I’ve tried to figure why this happening, why no one is blazing trails, only going back. I think they’re working in older sensibilities because their options, ironically, have exploded with digital (filmmaking), so every reference, every era, is available, ready for mimicking. And rooting yourself in the past takes away the uncertainty you feel when blazing trails.”

Watching “The Artist” with an audience is not unlike being Owen Wilson in “Midnight In Paris,” so certain at first that he was meant to live in ’20s Paris, then later, fine with 2011. The silence of “The Artist” throws you headfirst into a silent film experience; it also reminds you what’s nice about sound. Both movies allow dueling ideas to sit simultaneously in your head. Michael Sheen’s blowhard in “Midnight” tells us nostalgia is “a flaw in the romantic imagination of those people who find it difficult to cope with the present.” And later, Wilson decides that yes, the present is, indeed, unsatisfying, “because life is unsatisfying.”

The New Nostalgia is like this — eager for you to enjoy the past, not convinced you should soak in it.