हूगो

Like many, I suspect, I went into this film ready to be dazzled by the cinematography and a rare, nice clean story by Director Martin Scorcese. I wasn't disappointed although I found the story lagging in a few brief spots. Cutting the film another 10 minutes might have solved that. Having said that, though, a month later I'm all ready to view it again!

To me, the most interesting and amazing scenes were not involving the two young main characters and the railroad station, but the ones in the last 30-or-so minutes which dealt with very early films and how they made them. It was incredibly colorful and an education to film buffs everywhere. Anyone who loves movies and appreciates the history of the art should love the last part of this story.

Meanwhile, the bulk of the story still offers many great sights and sounds and I have no quibbles with any of the actors. Youngsters Asa Butterfield ("Hugo") and Cholë Grace Moretz ("Isabelle") were both about 13 when they made this and seem to have good careers ahead of them. I didn't recognize Sacha Baron Cohen as the station inspector. He was great in that role. As for Ben Kingsley, when is he ever bland?

This is one of those "family films" that can be enjoyed just as much - and probably more - by adults. I wish Scorcese would make more of this kind of material.

What Martin Scorcese has managed to do is add story dimensionality to a family film that has 3D technology. Some of the dimensions he's included which don't always make into Hollywood blockbusters are an imaginative and original concept, thematic unity and resonance and deft homage to film itself, in the story of Georges Méliès, French film pioneer.

Saw the film in an advance screening and we were among the many there who were obviously not standard family film consumers. This being a Scorcese film is likely to bring lots of adults to Hugo and I would think many of them, like me, will feel the film stands up as entertainment for all age groups.

I especially enjoyed the resonance and intricacy of the theme of clocks, clockworks, animatronics and "the ghost in the machine"--our fear, in the post industrial age that perhaps we are just a rather complex machine, rather than a divine creation. This is all beautifully rendered cinematically. I doubt the little ones will be bewildered while older viewers can pick out levels and layers in the film.

Good fun and visually interesting throughout. The 3D is used in service of the story. I hope Hollywood is watching and notices that special effects are only special when they get the heart of the machine working, like Hugo's little man.

Saw it today in a sneak preview today at the Director's Guild in LA. James Cameron who was there professed it's a masterpiece and the best 3D to date. And he's right on both fronts. The film is exquisitely crafted. The cinematography and set design is likely going to take home a couple gold guys. It's a film lover's dream movie. As with many of Scorsese's films, it's an inspired film history lesson along side of being a dreamlike children's fable. A really unique combination that will work for the film enthusiasts and discerning family's with kids. Maybe a bit long for broad audiences with very little kids, but the images are so enchanting, it should win over most everybody. Sasha Baron Cohen is a brilliant and hilarious standout as the twitchy constable. It should be very well received just on the 3D alone.

There must be something unifying in our globes collective consciousness, as 2011 saw two films that looked back at the cinematic past. Strangely, it took a French film maker, Michel Hazanavicius, to release a movie that pays homage to early, silent American cinema (The Artist). Conversely, Martin Scorsese, a well-known cinephile, delights with his love of early European silent cinema, in his often beautiful 'children's' film, Hugo.

Set in 1930's Paris, the main focus of this cinematic love is the work of the first movie magician, Georges Melies. We are introduced to Hugo (Asa Butterfield), a young man whose father left him a automaton after his death. It was a project that they worked on together, but never finished it. Hugo's main mission is to get the object working. As an orphan, Hugo hides in the rafters of a train station, maintaining the clocks that his drunken uncle used to do. After befriending a young girl, Isabelle (Chloe Moretz), he finally gets the automaton working, and it opens up a mystery that leads to the forgotten cinema of Melies (Ben Kingsley), now working on a store in the station.

The film shows love for silent cinema, and particularly the magic of Melies. Sacha Baron Cohen's station inspector is occasionally funny, and his character seems to be filtered through both Peter Sellers' Inspector Clouseau, and Jacques Tati's Monsieur Hulot, but he just doesn't seem to really progress at all, and feels almost like a filler character. Scorsese, like Robert Zemekis and Bob Gale before, reference that iconic Harold Lloyd moment in Safety Last! (1923), as Hugo hangs from a clock face.

Like so many others who speculate about the choices of Oscar nominations, Hugo, I feel, is not a contender for the best picture Oscar. There were some far better films produced in 2011. That said, the film is beautiful, accomplished , and often fun. Also, the resurgence of interest in a forgotten father of cinema, is completely touching, and leaves a warm feeling in the heart. Unfortunately, I did not see this in 3D; as far as I am aware, Scorsese uses it to brilliant degrees, so perhaps this would have made the experience perfect (despite the fact that I care not for the dimensions of 3.

www.the-wrath-of-blog.blogspot.com

I watched this movie without any expectations and with an open mind. I thought it started off kind of slow but once you realise what the story is about, you really enjoy it. Having been a film student, I particularly liked where the story was going. I watched a great number of Georges Méliès movies during my studies.

Hugo has great cinematography and I loved the themes of insecurity and doubt and the idea that creative people sometimes need a push in the back from someone else in order to realise what they're worth. Hugo is a very original story, although it does not always feel very coherent. I remember being left with a feeling that some questions were left unanswered and some details didn't quite add up if you really thought about them.

Hugo had a Frenglish steam-punk feel to it that generally doesn't really appeal to me but that often surprises me in a good way (a bit like the professor Layton games). I would certainly recommend this movie.