Ever since Steve and I founded the Muriel Awards in 2006, we’ve always tried to focus on classic movies along with the new releases. With annual awards given to the greatest films of ten, twenty-five, and fifty years ago, our voters have been enthusiastic about honoring the great achievements in movie history, an enthusiasm that has also displayed itself in our annual special decade awards. Sadly, this compulsion to look back isn’t as common as one would hope among movie lovers. In a recent piece written for the A.V. Club, Muriel Award winner Mike D’Angelo (http://www.avclub.com/articles/old-cinema-can-still-feel-new-as-a-key-scene-from,99557/) bemoaned a certain tendency among moviegoers. In D’Angelo’s words:
“By far the most galling aspect… is seeing people condescend to movies made before they were born. Often, they’ll allow that some canonical masterpiece was hugely influential, or “good for its time,” but in the next breath confess that they just can’t take it seriously given the enormous advances that have been made in the decades since.”
Sadly, this is not a new phenomenon. In the past, I’ve despaired of the way most people view silent movies in particular, as quaint curiosities that for all their charms are somehow lesser than what’s out there now simply because they don’t contain spoken dialogue (this is one of my numerous reservations about 2011’s admittedly charming The Artist). Likewise, there’s an idea floating around that black and white movies are somehow missing something essential now that the majority of movies are filmed in color. What these ideas overlook is that the great artists, regardless of their medium, have always been able to use the limitations imposed upon them to their ultimate advantage. A great silent film or a great black and white film isn’t a masterpiece in spite of the fact that there’s no sound or color; these films are great because their makers were able to use black-and-white film and dialogue-free storytelling in ways that accentuated their respective strengths. In other words, when a great classic film is working, you don’t miss what isn’t there. Truly great films never feel old; they feel timeless.
It’s in this spirit that we’ve decided to introduce the Muriels Hall of Fame. Being the sort of person who can never quite leave well enough alone, I’m always looking for ways to keep the Muriels fresh for both our voters and the people who follow us, and following last year’s Muriels win by the hopelessly movie-drunk Holy Motors, the time felt right to me to get this thing started. I wasn’t sure how well it would go over, but although some people weren’t able to participate this year, the idea was nonetheless met with enthusiasm from most of the voters.
In a nutshell, here’s how it worked. I invited everyone who participated in the 2012 Muriels to nominate ten films of any length made in 1962 or before (setting aside movies that have already won the 50th Anniversary Muriel Award, which will be grandfathered into the Hall of Fame automatically). From this pool, I then took every movie that received at least two nominations, from which the voters would then choose their top ten. The ten movies that received the highest number of points are this year’s inductees.
Over the next 2 ½ weeks, I will be announcing this year’s inaugural Hall of Fame inductees right here on this blog, unveiling one each day beginning with the previous Anniversary Award winners. While some of this year’s winners will be the ones you would expect, but there will be a handful of surprises in the mix as well. And as always, I’ve invited some of the voters to write a few paragraphs about the winners. After all, the Muriel Awards are about more than choosing our favorites; we’re also about expressing our love for the best that cinema has to offer.
Thanks once again for your continued support of the Muriel Awards. We hope you’ll continue following us over the following weeks and years.
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